To close out racing season, I had the choice of doing this 5 Peaks Race, or maybe another SwimRun at Lake Sassamat. The latter was tempting from a multisport adventure point of view, but we have a lot of loyalty and history with 5 Peaks as a family, so we opted for the former.
I found they had added a hiker’s division, which let’s people enjoy the marked, marshalled course without regard to timing or competition. So for the first time, my wife would be participating in the event, instead of just cheerleading – I desperately wanted her to be able to enjoy herself, so I went out and bought some poles from Mountain Equipment Co-op. I was also running in a brand new pair of Salomon SpeedCross that I was excited about.
The Lightning Kid would be running the 3 km timed kids run.
The race was sponsored by RunGo, a Canadian developed runners’ app. My wife and I downloaded it and used it to see each other’s progress. The race courses were also pre-loaded so that you could get turn-by-turn directions. Unfortunately, when installing I denied it the recommended permissions because I’m cautious about these kinds of things, and that ruined its ability to track my progress during the race. I’ll be doing a full post about RunGo in the near future.
My race started (even with me seeding myself in the 3rd wave) before either of them made it back, but I did see them during my first few hundred metres. It started with going up some of the ski slopes, but quickly turned into very narrow forest trails that demanded a walking pace at best. While I started at the back, during the initial climb my ‘slow but steady wins the race’ approach allowed me to pass a few people for a while.
Once I got into the middle parts of the course, I was delighted by finding little ponds and lakes – I had to stop for selfies, and I wasn’t the only one.
There were times I had to slow down to yield to hikers that were there for the day; the race course was not closed to the public. The volunteers were always super friendly and cheerful, which makes for a nice day out even when you start to get tired.
When I got directed onto the road, I knew I was nearly done. I figured I’d just follow it into the parking lot and descend to the finish line – Nope! There was another bushwhacky climb before I was able to see the Lightning Kid who loves to accompany me across the finish line.
So my first Enduro course was a success; I noted there was a ‘Grit’ 14 km distance – maybe that’ll be my goal for next year.