Over The Crest

by Michael DeLong
(Portland, OR)

I ran cross country and track in high school, and at the beginning of every season our coach would pose us a challenge. Several minutes up the road from our school was a massive, incredibly steep hill that rose hundreds of feet into the air. In order to get on the varsity squad, he challenged us, you have to run to the top of that hill without stopping to walk. Don't sprint recklessly and you don't have to run up it super fast, but you should keep a steady pace and good form and make it.

Every single runner, myself included, promptly then ran out and attempted to make it up the hill. Only a very few succeeded. I failed to make it up without walking six times, but during my last summer before senior year I trained every day, running at least a half hour.

I then tried the hill one last time, but on that day I happened to catch a cold. Right away I felt utterly exhausted and I hadn't even reached the real steep part of the hill, and I'd almost resigned myself to defeat. But then I realized I wasn't feeling quite as tired as I thought I would, and decided, well I'll run as far up the hill as I can to the absolute limit of my strength, and then call it a day.

It turned out to be the top. As I was coming up over the crest, the sun was just setting, so I was temporarily dazzled by the rays. I was so pumped that I not only reached the top of the hill but then ran for four more miles before stopping. I didn't even feel the length until the next day because I was so focused on that one moment where despite feeling incredibly tired, I realized that the ground was now sloping downhill.