Straight Street Climb Recap

The Straight Street Climb is the last race in the Cincinnati Hill Climb Series. The Cincinnati Hill Climb Series is a group of races where you sprint up some of Cincinnati's steepest inclines ranging from a quarter to half a mile. About 20 of us decided to partake in this particular form of torture on a cold clear Sunday morning of November 23.
Climbing a hill as part of a 3 mile or a 5 mile run is quite easy if you are from Cincinnati since on most routes you run into nothing but hills. In a long run, you just keep a steady pace up the hill without doing a full out sprint. Also, I had done some hill work on Straight Street from the Clifton Group Run but generally only the top half to get ready for a strong finish. Trying it from a cold stop to a sprint was something for which I was unaccustomed and I had not really trained to do. Since this was my first time, a couple of experienced Hill Climbers said if you feel good after the first 20 yards watch out for the crash in the next 100 yards. They also mentioned that the cold weather could also make this interesting. They were right. I started out feeling quite good the first 20 yards which meant that I went out a little too fast and then the next 100 I was not feeling quite good as my heart was trying to detach itself from my body by going up my esophagus and out my mouth(at least that what it felt like in the next 100 yards). Needless to say rather than risking my heart leaving my body and even though Deaconness Hospital was at the top of Straight Street, I walked some of the distance until I got to the top half for which I trained and resumed running. It did not seem as steep as the lower half and ran in for a relatively strong finish of about four and half minutes. There was not much food post race but I did not feel like eating but they had copious amounts of liquid from Tradewwinds Tea to Hudy Delite Beer.
Overall winners of the race were Greg McCormick, race director for the upcoming Egg Nog Jog in Mount Adams and other races in Cincinnati for the men, and Leisbet Michaels for the women.(Go to the Hill Climb website for complete results.) I may have to ask how he trains for this particular form of torture so I am ready for next years.