Race to Robie Creek 2008

(Brandon at the beginning of the race - because he is still smiling. He hasn't seen the summit yet!)


Back in August, my best friend, mentor, and coach Steve Kenyon asked me for the hundredth time if I would be up for running "Robie!" Robie aka "Race to Robie Creek - The toughest half-marathon in in the Northwest" is the most famous race in Idaho. Though I would debate anyone to say it has to be one of the toughest in the whole country in my own opinion. It is 8.7 miles up hill (you climb 2,500 feet in elevation) and then 4.4 miles down the back side.

Not only is it a challenge to run the race, it is just as difficult to get registered for the race. Registration begins on President's Day each February and the race takes place the third Saturday of April. Because the finish line is at the Robie Creek camp ground, there is a limited amount of participants who can run the race. There is not enough parking for anyone to park at the finish, so everyone is bused down off the mountain. So...only 2,431 runners/walkers may register. Registration is online and fills in only a matter of hours. This year the servers crashed again just like last year because of the intense rush to sign up for the race. The registration begins at 8am and it is a mad dash to sign up. I had six browser sessions open and tried for an hour after clicking refresh on all six sessions. Still no luck. I thought this might be my way out of the race and I could tell my coach Steve that I just didn't make it in and wouldn't be able to run it. Well...as time went on in the morning as Janalee and I were shopping for a new set of washer and dryer at Lowes, I signed on with my smartphone and was able to register for the race. I was one of the very last people to get on. Jana wanted to get in as well so I immediately tried to get in again, but in just the two or three minutes it took me to get back on the registration was closed because the race had filled up.

I was pumped, yet, I was so nervous to run 13.1 miles up and down Adalpe Summit. Training began back in August, but Steve and I would hit many lunch time runs in the Boise foothills. The foothill trails are awesome to run and explore. The week before the race, Steve and I took a practice run up the front side. We took his truck about a mile and half from the top and then drove my car back to the bottom and started running from there. It was great to see the race course, at least the front side and know what to expect. There was quite a bit of snow on top and we used the snow on to hydrate us up on top after throwing a few snowballs.

Race day was April 19th. It was a busy Saturday with Brittney's track meet, soccer picture day and games for Justin and Bailey, a recital for one of Janalee's laurels, and stake conference. It was also great to have Margett and Abbey visiting from North Carolina, and Tony and Grandma Woolf. Tony came up to help cheer me on from Start to Finish. It was great to have his support and to see a familiar face at the end of the race.

Each year the race has a eccentric theme. This year's theme was "Run your kilt off!" The race started at high noon after the "braveheart" lady on horseback cutoff the dummy's head with the bagpipers piping.
It was great to run through all of the cheering fans in the foothill homes and to grab water cups just like Kramer handed out in the marathon. But unlike Kramer, these cups were full of nice cold water! After hitting the summit, I was on an adrenaline high and really took off down the backside.

(The snow up at the top of Adalpe Summit.)

I really hit the wall when I got to mile marker 12 and just about stopped to walk the last mile, but I saw the home on the hill Steve told me to look for. Steve said this home would be very close to the finish line. After seeing the home on the hill, my confidence was restored and I was able to successfully jog all the way through.



The best part of running this race was being able to set a tough challenging goal and working hard to accomplishing it. The other part is now you can wear the badge of honor and say you ran Robie!