Silver Falls Challenge 5k Trail Run

I woke up extra early this morning to drive up to Silver Creek Falls State Park for my first official 5k race. It was a beautiful morning, warm, and blissfully green outside. I had decided there was no better place to run my first real race than in one of my all time favorite Oregon places. I warmed up nervously and then shortly before the race kicked off I struck up a conversation with the director of the event, a middle aged man with a sweet bushy white mustache. He asked me how I felt about hills, and I replied that I'm not a big fan, which is true. He simply laughed and walked away. It turns out that the name of the race (Silver Falls Challenge 5k Trail Run) roughly translates to "Silver Falls Masochistic/Suicidal 5k Mountain Climbing Experience". About 500 meters into the course the route dives wildly off the pre-established park trails and straight and I mean straight up the side of a mountain, which he'd had to trample down the grass and clear out of the purpose of the race. Pretty much everyone had to walk the hill, and I decided that it was a good idea to do the same, as I could walk faster at this point than jog. At the top of the hill (aka. Mt. Everest), which even wonderfully had a switchback in it, I wisely decided to add two minutes to my goal time. However, the rest of the course was manageable and I even pulled out a bit of a kick for the finish, zooming past the woman I'd been following for the past mile. Halfway through the race though I had decided to never go running again, let alone race and then, shortly after I finished my bagel at the finish line, I had already decided to sign up for the fun run 5k in Eugene next weekend. So it goes, I guess... Ironically though, due to the limited number of participants in the event I managed to somehow drive home with the first place trophy in my age group and fifth in the overall competition.