It wasn’t on the first hill. Or surely, the second.
But somewhere down the road, Kyle Hett realized somebody on Whidbey had a wicked sense of humor.
Hett, 19, jumped on a flight to Seattle on Friday to visit his dad, Glen, who has been working at Boeing on the 787 line in Everett.
The Topeka resident recalled how he looked online before he left home for a race to run during his visit to Puget Sound, and discovered the half-marathon at Choochokam.
“It said gently rolling hills and I was enticed,” Hett said.
“Dirty rotten trick.”
Ah, yes, those hills. It was the topic of choice — between gasps for breath — for nearly every runner in Sunday’s 13.1-mile race.
“Every corner I turned around, there was another hill,” Hett said.
The signs along the route — the ones proclaiming “gently rolling hills” — didn’t help.
Hett sure wasn’t in Kansas anymore.
“It’s pretty flat. I train on some hills, but it’s nothing like this,” Hett said.
“After about two miles, I was like, this is a trick, isn’t it? This is a big joke. And there were signs on every hill, just taunting me.”
It was his first race longer than 5K. Hett finished 16th overall, and second in his age class with a time of 1:32:04.7.
“I’m glad there was some awesome scenery, otherwise I would have died at mile two. ‘OK, you got me, I’m checking out,’” Hett said with a laugh.
Ian Fraser, 36, of Port Townsend finished first with a time of 1:15:39.3.
“I ran better than expected, so that’s good,” Fraser said.
“I was just coming back from an achilles injury, so I didn’t know what kind of shape I was in.”
The course took a toll on Fraser, too, he admitted.
“The steep gravel hill at the turnaround was tough. That was hard. I had to walk part of that one,” he said.
Last year’s winner, Frank Jacques, 48, of Langley, finished fourth with a time of 1:24:06.6.
“It was really a race,” Jacques said.
“Some really fast off-island runners showed up, which was great for the race, and it’s fun for all of us. It just ups the ante,” Jacques added. “Ian Fraser, he’s the real deal.”
At one point, Jacques said, his race came down to a familiar match-up: running against Kurt Warwick, 21, of Clinton. Warwick finished fifth overall, with a time of 1:24:42.1.
“We couldn’t even see the first and second guy. And then the third guy, passed us with about two-and-a-half (miles) to go, and he went by us like he just hopped onto the course.”
That would have been Nate Shopay, 35, of Mercer Island, who finished in 1:23:30.9 behind second-place winner Ben Haber, 35, of Seattle (1:20:17.3).
“I went with him for a while and he continued to gap. And then he backed off, and I went, ‘I might get him. I might get him on these hills,’” Jacques recalled.
He didn’t, though, as Shopay pulled away and Jacques turned to finishing in front of Warwick.
“To get to the end of this one, you always feel worthy,” Jacques said. “I think I ran really well. We had a race.”
Susi Harvey won for the women in 1:27:41.4. She finished ninth overall.
Harvey ran the Choochokam half-marathon in its first year, and won it.
The hills back then were a surprise, she said.
“We thought, ‘Oh, it’s going to be an island, it will go around the coast. We were so naive.”
The hills weren’t the biggest challenge this time, however.
Instead, it was Erica Pitman of Woodinville, who finished second for the women in 1:28:30.9, and 10th overall.
“I was trying to keep up with her the whole way,” Harvey, 47, said of Pitman, 27.
“I didn’t get to pass her until, I don’t know, like mile eight or mile nine,” she said. “Then she passed me back.”
“I was trying to hit 1:30. Under 1:30 was good with me,” Pitman said.
This year’s race attracted roughly 300 runners, about a hundred more than last year.
Hett said if he ever comes back to race at Choochokam again, he’ll likely bring a friend.
“I’d love to bring somebody else from Kansas and just kind of laugh at them,” he said. “The trick’s on them next time.”
