Blog Post

Have to share my new favorite place to run. It sucks actually...in a really awesome way! I've posted a few pics in the past. It's the World's Highest Hill, Poteau Oklahoma. I have a good friend who lives at the base of Cavanall hill. He has etched trails all over the hill.

Some are brutally steep and technical. I usually start in Josh's back yard. There is also a paved road that climbs 5 miles from the base to the top. Yesterday I took the lateral trails, rolling trails that run back and forth near the base for about 45 minutes before taking the very steep and very technical 1 mile trail climb, with a whopping 1 switchback to the road. This one mile climb, it is sorta...kinda..not really runnable?! Josh can run it, I can run it...very slowly and with high heart rate with a huge hand-on-knees recovery as soon as I hit the pavement.

Then the next 2-3 ish miles are up the paved road to the top.  It's hard to look up when running this section as it is kinda defeating to see what lies ahead at times. with about 1/2-1mile left to go you see this...Josh's contribution...there should be another painted phrase just up from that that says, "dig deeper!"

It is so steep right here and after 4 miles of climbing one of the toughest spots.  You top out and the wind is usually pretty wild.  Here is where I usually take a breather and eat some pocket fuel...here is where I feel like I can actually eat solid food, and it's a nice treat for the effort. Next I like to hit the powerline instead of going back down the road. There's more trails off the powerline that I can access. It is a wicked little powerline though...very steep, sandy, rutted out, slickery fun in a scary sorta way. I typically move very slowly down this sucker. About a half mile down I cut over onto more rolling trail to recover and hit another really wicked..no switchback, technical straight up trail back to the top.

Then it's 3 miles down the pavement back to ole Joshes etched out 1 mile technical descent to his back yard....which has a swimming pool I hope will be opening soon!! Sunday's run was to be easier effort and it was nice to slow down and grab some awesome pics, spring has sprung in Oklahoma!