Cavanal Killer

Just on a whim last Saturday I ran the Cavanal Killer 8K. I was cutting it real close getting there on time, and followed my GPS to the address listed on Facebook. No runners at the Poteau Chamber of Commerce?!?!? So I made a phone call top a friend who told me which elementary school it started from, and made it to the starting line 5 minutes after the race started. 

They were packing things up, but they found me a number and sent me on the way. I stopped to take a picture just after crossing the start line. This was the hill--the World's Tallest Hill, or so they say. It supposedly is 1999 feet from the bottom to the top, but my Strava disagreed. Still, a lot of climbing was in store.

I ran a decent pace of and on. I did intervals run 200 walk 100 until I started catching people. Then I ran by feel--walking briskly on the steep stuff and a steady shuffle on the less steep stuff.

About 1.5 miles into the race I caught up with Lisa, Alicia, and Carrie. We hung out for about a mile, and I must have kept shuffling while they stopped to pee or something. I ran alone for the remainder of the race.

Pictures of the uphills were not impressive. A camera just cannot capture how steep this road really is. Looking back down at where you've been seemed a little more realistic.

Just over 4 miles, I saw a gravel road turning to the right. AHA! Maybe a trail I thought. I followed fully accepting I'd get some bonus miles, but less than 100 yards in the road became overgrown with weeds (and probably ticks and chiggers) so after a pee break, I turned back. I took this picture just as I neared the paved road. Someone will see this and think I was in a trail race. :-)

I finished in 1:32:06--basically in the middle of the pack. Had I got there on time I might have been in the top 100. It was cold on top, so I took a couple of quick pictures, grabbed a hot dog, and ran back down the hill. There were buses transporting runners down, but I looked forward to letting gravity pay me back for all the hard work I'd done. Some people warned me I would trash my quads running down the steep inclines, but I took it easy on the steeper sections, and let it loose on the more gradual descents. Needles to say, I ran a negative split!!

Next time, I want to do some exploring on top. I have heard there are trailz somewhere in the area, and I want to find them!