Montalto Challenge

Well I went through with the crazy challenge, and this morning I ran a 5k up a mountain. Josh ran up, too. The race is put on by Monticello here in Charlottesville and starts at the bottom of the Saunders-Monticello trail and continues all the way up Montalto. They say we rose in elevation by almost 900 feet, and when we reached the top we looked out over Charlottesville and the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was beautiful, and definitely challenging. I've run up the Saunders-Monticello trail a few times before and this time I did it in a minute less than I'd ever done it before. But after the trail came the really steep and winding road up Montalto, and unfortunately I had to take several breaks and walk up the extra steep parts. But just about everybody around me was also taking walking breaks. It was intense. I didn't quite make my time goal, but I think my goal was unrealistic. I came in 65th out of 122, but get this...

I came in second in my age group!!! They called my name in the awards ceremony and I got a prize and everything! So that is very exciting.

You know what is decidedly not exciting? The fact that I came home and proceeded to delete all the wonderful photos we'd taken. I thought there were duplicates so I deleted the second ones, but turns out there weren't really duplicates and I deleted all but two. Here they are:





Photos you do not get to see, because they no longer exist, include before and after photos with two co-workers who also ran, a shot up at Montalto to show you how high it is, a shot looking over and down at Monticello, Josh and me extra sweaty at the top, the bagpipe players who provided entertainment atop the mountain, and my Thomas Jefferson temporary tattoo that was bleeding ink down my sweaty arm by the end. Hopefully I can get some of the photos my co-workers took, but in the meantime I suggest you check out the photos from last year's race so you can get an idea about what it was like. And if I run next year you can be sure I'll be extra careful with the pictures I take.

Update: The pictures were recovered and you can see them in this post. You can also read my post about the 2011 challenge here, 2012 here, 2013 (my PR!) here, and 2014 here.