The Foothills Trails Challenge is a series of 3 races run in 4 weeks that all have a couple of things in common. One is that they all involve at least a little trail running and Two they all involve a lot of uphill running. My running buddy Andrew and I signed up for all 3, challenge accepted!
Race 1, Verdugo Mountains 10K, 5/6/2018
Time: 1:18:10, Place: 283/802, Garmin Map
This race is at Brand Park in Glendale and is quite simple. You run up a steep fire road for 3.1 miles, turn around and run down the same steep fire road to the finish. This is one of the largest trail races if not the largest that I have ever done as there were around 800 runners/hikers! The fire road was brutal as there were almost no flat sections on the way up until the top.
Race 2, Fountain to the Falls, 5/12/2018
Time: 1:12:25, Place: 77/189, Garmin Map
This race starts in downtown Monrovia and goes up to Monrovia Canyon Park. We run all the way to the waterfall where we turn around and head back to town. We met up with another running buddy for this one Brian and his wife Sonia. It was a rainy day which made for a nice run. The distance for this one was just over 10K. The rain must have scared a lot of folks away as there were only a couple of hundred runners at this one. This race was much easier than last weeks but still was a challenge.
Race 3, Mt. Wilson Trail Race, 5/26/2018
Time: 2:01:54, Place: 227/283, Garmin Map
This race starts in downtown Sierra Madre, goes up to the Mt. Wilson Trail and then goes a few miles to the turnaround point at Orchard Camp. This one is about as steep as the Verdugo Mountains 10k but what makes this one much more challenging is that the Mt. Wilson Trail is a rocky single track with steep drop-offs. They actually have the search and rescue team stationed out at various locations in case someone has a hard fall. It is very hard to pass folks also so I just stayed in the conga line on the way up but was able to break free on the way down, that could be because I was toward the back of the pack for this one!
There you have it, I did not train for any of these so each one was very hard but it was a fun little challenge. Be aware that these are low key races, only the Fountain to Falls gave out finisher medals and after we completed the Mt Wilson Trail race we had to wait until they gave out all of the awards (which took an hour!) before getting our Foothills Trail Challenge T-shirt.