The Portland Terrain Race was my first experience with the Terrain Race and I was super excited to finally be able to do a race with unlimited laps! I signed up for the competitive 10k, for the early start time to maximize the time on course.

The welcome to terrain race starting bath was an interesting way to start the race. Waist high water before you even start was pretty funny.

Once the race started everything was going good. Until I hit the first wall, I think it was 6 feet tall.  I got ever it good and well, but I stuck the landing and my left heel felt that all too familiar pain and I knew right there that I would only be doing the 10k. No unlimited laps, no fun. This mentally broke me down for the next 4 miles as I had really looked forward to doing at least 20k if not 30k (6 laps). Every step I took I was feeling my heel. Striking with the front of my foot made my heel feel better, but that took a lot out of my calf because now I’m running on trails using a new muscle group. I lost my competitive wristband at the multi-rig. My grip strength and upper body strength is still pretty bad. I tried three passes at the multi-rig before I ditched my wristband.

The rest of the race was a self imposed pity party until I finally told myself to get over it, enjoy that I was outside and getting muddy (a little bit). Sliding down the fireman’s pole at the finish I added insult and another injury by banging my right kneecap on the metal bar. Limping to the finish line, this is was you would see from me:

I’ll be back for this race next year, stronger and hopefully I will have learned how to properly fall from a wall so I can actually run a good race.