Are hills your foe or your friend?

We runners and bikers like to crab about hills - too hard, wear us out, why not a flat course? But, really, hills make us better runners and bikers. They challenge us mentally and physically.

Courses with challenging hills are renowned. In my racing experience these would include the Newton Hills in the Boston Marathon (with Heartbreak Hill being by far the best known), Chalk Hill on the Vineman course in California's Alexander Valley, and Richter Pass and Yellow Lake Pass on the old Penticton Ironman Canada course. The climbs and descents in the Tour de France make the race the epic that it is, and runners aspire to run the Big Sur Marathon not because of the scenery on the course on California's Central Coast - which, indeed, is stunning - but because Big Sur's hills represent such a great challenge. Then there's Pike's Peak. Have you been up it in a car? The drive is challenge enough. So what is it that draws running crazies such as my friend Steve to do the ascent - a half marathon that crests above 14,000 feet altitude, and other even crazier folks to keep on going the other direction for a full marathon?

I'm thinking a lot about hills these days. In my long-time home state of flatland Illinois, steep and repetitive and long hills are as hard to find as a logical and consistent message out of Donald Trump's mouth. Now living on Chesapeake Bay in my new state of Maryland, I might have expected coastal flatlands. "You'd think here on the water we wouldn't have these hills," a fellow runner complained this morning as we were grinding up Prince George Street away from City Dock in Annapolis. Yep, just what I was thinking, lady.

The tilt of Prince George Street is really not that bad, nor for less than half a mile is it exceptionally long. But for our Annapolis 10 Mile race training group, it's the opening act for the star of the show - the U.S. Naval Academy Bridge across the Severn River near the mouth. Even this span is not a ridiculous challenge - not a Pike's Peak - but, especially in the heat and humidity of August, the long, arcing, hot run to the crest is taxing, especially as I tried to run it today, up-tempo, something close to marathon pace. The reward for the work is a spectacular view of the Severn, the Bay and the Naval Academy, and, of course, the downhill run to the other shore. But more hills followed, a series of fairly steep and winding road hills, thankfully in shady residential neighborhoods. Then the course led back the bridge, so I repeated the charge to the crest, but this time at a slower pace, and again enjoyed striding out on the descent.

The Annapolis 10 Mile race for me is just a short prelude to the Baltimore Marathon in mid October, offering a course that is flat in the first half and has challenging hills in the second half. I suspect in the end, with all my recent running on Annapolis' hills and my multiple traverses of Boston's Newton Hills, which I found not as hard as billed, that I will find Baltimore's hills something I can handle. Certainly I will not be as trashed when I come to the hills as I often found myself when I had to tackle the rolling hills on the Ironman Canada run course after swimming 2.4 miles and hammering the 112 mile bike course with plenty of hills and its famed mountain passes.

Years ago I realized that hills were part of the fabric of competitive running and that I would need to reconcile with them. This was after aborted attempts to run up the very steep ski run (in summer, not winter) at the Marquette Mountain ski area near the U.S. Olympic Speed Skating Camp in Marquette, Michigan.

My mantra now is "hills are my friend" and I make a special effort to lift my knees, lean in and up my turnover going uphill. This often takes me past other runners who may be more talented but have not changed their hills mindset. Likewise, this mindset on the bike showed that my greatest strength was climbing, and when the grade on long climbs neared 10% I found myself passing others whose flatland speed might be greater.

Think it, envision it, do it. Hills are your friend - and make you a better runner and biker.