Run for the Roses, and I got to meet a few fantastic people.

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, on the west side of the Cascades.  I like the rain.  I do everything in the rain.  It is a function of having grown up in the rain.  I firmly believe the State bird should be the SLUG, and the state flower is MOSS.  That or the razor fern.  I actually like ferns.  I move around, I have been in places that have two seasons, and in places with four, complete with snow and ice and such.  I, however, prefer to live here in the PNW, where we have four seasons, Spring (warming rain), Summer (warm rain), Fall (cooling rain) and Winter (cold rain).  Why would I want to live somewhere that averages three feet of rain a year?  Everything stays mostly green all year round.  I can run in January outside, and not worry about my water bottle freezing, and I can get out in July and August in the mornings and not fight with temps in the triple-digits.  What does this have to do with the race on Saturday?  Well, for the past few months, we have had temps that barely reached 60, Saturday was 60 at 7:00 am.  By the time the race was well under way it was hot to my moss and algae covered self.  But I still had a lot of fun.

I had promised any of the bloggers that might be running this race that if they told me they were coming, I would make a sign with their name on it.  I got two and a spouse.  So I ended up making 6 signs.  I gave two each to my oldest daughters to make, one each with a name, and one "funny but inspirational" sign.  My funny sign was for the little hill leading to mile 8.  It is steeper than it looks, and just kinda hurts, especially at the end of 7.5 miles.  My oldest wanted a "funny running word", so I gave her "fartlek" and let her run with it.  Number 2 wanted to recreate a sign from my first marathon, "Zip up yer man suit".  They made signs for Kim and S, Kim's hubs while I made Stacie's sign.

On Saturday morning I went out and put up the signs then walked to the high school to the start.  I ran into one of my running partners, and tried to shame him into running the half, but he was holding a free entry to the 10K.  Turns out he took third in his age group.  He thinks there were only three runners in it.  As I made my way across the track at my local high school, I realized I probably could have slept in a little, but, I wanted to give my "breakfast" a bit of time to settle in, and this was the coolest it was going to be all day.  So I was enjoying seeing people rushing about getting their exhibits put together.  I said "Hi." to the RD and the Chamber of Commerce people.  Gave the couple of Sheriff's Deputies who were going to be working one of the corners a bad time, and BS'd with them for a few.  They turned out to be pretty fun at their corner.  The older on "ran" with me and I saw him run with another runner later--it was that kind of event.

I left them to their conversations, and was starting to walk around a bit when I noticed a young lady taking pictures with her phone.  "Getting those all important Blog photos?" I asked.  It was Stacie from Impossible is Nothing.  She figured out that who I must be and said hi.  We waited a bit for Kim to get changed into the stylish shirt that she had brought her.  I lamented my choice to NOT wear my black CEP socks.  They took some pictures of the event, and got a couple of me as well.  I don't take too many pictures, so if you want to look at the race, feel free to jump to their outstanding blogs.  We chatted until it was time to walk to the start "line".  My running partner was there to watch the start, and with a "Go!" we were off.

I have always run my first mile or so slower than the rest, it just takes my legs a little time to get into things and this morning was no different.  The two lovely ladies took off ahead of me for a bit, but by the 1/2 mile mark I caught up and we were running together.  Then Kim left us with a high five to Stacie.  This was the last time I would see her.  Off she went.  Stacie was feeling her legs workout from the day before, so I decided I would just hang with her and chat for a bit.  She was concerned that she was holding me back from a good race, and really, I was just having fun "helping" another runner get through a rough race.  The first three miles are a loop through my neighborhood and then around old town then back to the start line.  We got there just as the 5K/10K folks were taking off so we had a stack of human pylons to get around.  There were a lot of walkers in that lot.

We wound our way back into my neighborhood, and towards the first long batch of rollers, and Stacie had told me that she doesn't like hills, so I decided to run with her through the first loop of them.  I don't know how much help I was, but I run those hills all the time, and I have a fair climbing model that seems to work, and I was trying to help her out.  Only she can say if it was valuable.  At the end of the first loop, she waved me off telling me that she didn't want to ruin my race too.  I told her that I would make sure that she finished, even if I had to send a bike after her.  I waved goodbye, after I gave her a drink from one of my gatoraid bottles.

As I rounded the corner to onto the main street the volunteers were having a hard time of it.  The 10K runners were to cross the street, and the Pikermi runners were to hang on the left side as we then took a left to do the loop again.  The problem was, they only had one aid station and it was on the right side of the road.  I will be recommending that they have one on either side of the road if we do this course again.  I knew what we were to do, so off I went.  Then to the nice little hill leading to mile 8 and then back through the loop again.  I started gaining and passing people as I went.  I was also telling all the corner workers to cheer Stacie on by name when she came by.  I described what she was wearing and they all said they would.  I'm hoping they did.  She was lagging in spirit when I left her.

The heat was killing me, and keeping me from really running the whole thing, but since I wasn't that concerned about speed, I wasn't killing myself.  I ran by the block of signs that my girls and I made and saw my girls and my wife.  I dropped off my water belt gave everyone hugs and then took off for the last two miles.  Up the last real incline for the whole of the race, and then onto the bike trail.  The nice thing about the bike trail is that it marks the mile mark to the finish rather well.  I knew I only had about 11 minutes left in the sun.  I wound my way through the trail, and onto the last street section.  A quick little trip around the back of the stands and then a 100 yard dash to the balloon arch that nearly took my head off.  I was handed my medal and water and started walking out my legs.

As I made my way to mid-field I was approached by my running partner, who had finished his race, gone home and returned as he had lost his key-fob to his truck.  Someone had found it and brought it to lost-and-found.  He happened to be there and saw me coming in.  He said it was a good finish as I had sprinted down the last bit.  I killed my water bottle and then walked to get a bagel with peanut butter and a couple of halves of banana.  It was warm and I started walking a bit more.  I headed back to the finish to find a second bottle of water.  As I walked back from there, I saw Stacie's hubs and pulled up to talk with him while I stretched.  We were both getting a little concerned and I flagged down the RD and asked if she had someone out on the course keeping track of the end runners.  She did, and she called to see if they had seen Stacie, they had and she was about 10 minutes away.

I got the cheerleaders, who were packing up, to stick around as there were more runners coming in, and when I saw her make her way onto the school grounds I hoofed over to run the last little bit with her.  When we got to the track I peeled off so I wouldn't ruin her pictures.  She made it, and I had fun.  We got a couple more pictures taken, and off we went.  I walked home, and they drove off towards the where they live.  And the part I think that is the most interesting, is that she calls home, the town I grew up in until I was 11.  I will hopefully run that race again next year, and I am hoping that they are able to get a better course.  If not, well, come on down and we can do a hills clinic sometime.  My final time was 2:23 and some change.  I could have run it faster, but then I wouldn't be able to ramble on about someone else.  I might also add some picts to this, but...I don't know.  Maybe.

Cheers!