Crystal Bridges Hill Repeats

Friday night after work I met up with a couple Rush Running teammates to tackle some hill repeats.  I need to do hill repeats more often so I told one of the guys to remind me to get my butt there on Friday.  They had picked Crystal Bridges hill...this is my upcoming half marathon's version of Heartbreak Hill.  It is about 1/4 to 1/3 mile long and occurs around mile 12 of the half marathon.  It continues on an incline for the rest of that mile up to the finish.  Let me just say it sucks!

Here's my photo recap of our hill repeat session.  I did 4 repeats of varying lengths...two the full length of the hill and two that were just a little shorter. 

Looking down towards the start of the hill. 

First one done!

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art...world-class art museum hidden in beautiful natural setting.

Number two, done!

Matt powering up the hill.

Oh yeah, three done.  Definitely feeling the hurt now!

Robert heading up the hill.

Number four, I'm done!

I waited for Robert and Matt to finish and then we did a cooldown.  The cooldown for me was at a fast tempo pace for me...those two are strong runners! We ran up to one of the art installations on the trail called Skyspace by James Turrell.  It is a small stone building that features a lighting show that enhances the evening sky.  We had hoped to peek inside but we found out from a very nice volunteer that you need reservations.  As he put it, "there wasn't room for any more fannies!"  We headed back to the parking lot and I was glad to be done! I'm so thankful to have such a beautiful trail that has wonderful art pieces and a beautiful museum to look at...it makes the hard work of hill repeats somewhat more enjoyable!

Skyspace...I still can't wait to experience it.