The Big Hill Challenge

I need a picture. I'll take one and post it later, but this winter I plan to summit that thing five times. That's right, five times.

I guess "summit" is too strong of a word. But you have to remember I live in the Mississippi Delta, a pancake flat piece of real estate God created to make every other place on earth look beautiful. Our "little postage stamp of land," or something like that, as William Faulkner described his, lies 130 feet above sea level and the only things remotely resembling hills are a few bridges that contain a slight elevation change.

After fifty-nine years of living here, I am still amazed at the uniqueness of this place that one contemporary writer called "The Most Southern Place on Earth." That uniqueness is geographical, cultural, racial, economic, educational, intellectual, and if I thought a bit I'm sure I could come up with some more -als. As Dorothy said, there really is no place like home here, good and bad.

But I'm thinking now not as a social commentator, because I don't do social commentary, but as an athlete, more specifically a runner. Not far from here the loess bluffs tower over our delta not many miles east and south of the little hamlet of Greenwood where my wife and I and animals live. My family owns land in those hills and often I make a day trip to them to run or ride or fish or hunt. On Humphrey Highway, also known as 430, the hill into the hills is the largest thing I have found in this state. Maybe it would be no big deal somewhere else, but I'm not somewhere else, and here that hill is a virtual mountain.

OK, I'll give you the facts as I know them. According to my Garmin, it rises 264 feet in seven tenths of a mile. I don't know what percent grade that is, but for me it is long and steep and running up it, heck, walking up it, is no easy task. I go up that thing on foot a few times a year. Tuesday-- drum roll-- wait for it-- I went up twice. If you go to the real top which includes a three tenths of a mile incline that seems flat if you are in a car but is far from flat if you are on foot, the hill is a solid and exact mile long and a few more feet above the 264 of the visible hill.

Yes, Tuesday I lapped my watch on the Big Hill Mile as I refer to it. Mile one was done it 11:37 and my watch recorded mile two in 11:52. Somewhere in my journals I have more times for my summits, but for now that's all I can document. Way back in the day, when I wore a young man's clothes, as Billy Joel sang, I ran that thing four times in one session. I don't know what my times were but I am sure all the miles were at least two minutes faster. Well the thing is, I hatched this plot, this goal to run up that thing five times in one day.

I'll do it this fall or winter when the weather cools some. It was unmercifully hot Tuesday adding to the toughness of the climbs. I'll also do it after some specific training to prepare myself for the climbing. As a deltonian, any elevation change is challenging for me. But I have a plan.

I plan on committing to the weights, lower body, which is one thing that has long been absent from my training. This will add needed leg strength as well prepare my muscles to burn some lactic acid (lactic acid is a fuel, not a poison). In addition, I plan some treadmill sessions because that is one way I can get some incline in. I even plan this very day to cut a three quarter inch piece of plywood to go under the front of my treadmill to increase the incline. Also, I plan on dropping a few pounds, which will change my power to weight ratio as well as raise my V02 max. And I aim to put in some big mile weeks to further elevate that V02 max and to increase endurance. 

In short, I plan on getting as fit as possible because I have a goal, a plan, a dream. Those are the things that make me tick, as they say. And if I can pull that off, maybe my rematch with the Great Noxapater Journey Run will come off this year. 

Oh my.