New Year's Day!

First Call to Run 50K – January 1, 2009

I woke up several times during the night to the sound of pouring rain. By the time my alarm went off at 6am I was questioning my sanity in signing up for this race. (I had just wanted to run another 50K and I had wanted to do it soon.) I went through my regular pre-race routine – ate, dressed, drank some coffee. At 6:05am I drove to the local Y where I would meet Rick and Steve and we would drive Sully (my vehicle) to pick up Rob in his hometown and then on to Bothell. The rain stopped somewhere en-route but as we neared the start of the race, we saw lots of snow. The snow had nearly all melted in Puyallup so this was a bit of a surprise. Hmmmm. Trail shoes or regular? I was really hoping I could wear my regular shoes. After talking to one of the local runners (who insisted the snow ended after a hundred yards or so on the trail) I decided to wear my regular shoes.

This is a very small race and most of the faces were familiar. The race director explained the route to us (a double out-and-back) and started us on time. The snow was very slushy and it was slow going at first. Within a few hundred yards I was running with Linda from our run club, and she and I were both a bit concerned when the snow went on past the distance where we were told it would disappear. It ended up lasting for nearly a mile (which meant we’d be running in about 4 miles of snow in all with the double out-and-back scenario). Whatever. We’d just have to be careful of our footing in that section.

Nearly the entire race was run on the Sammamish River Trail which runs (amazingly) right next to the Sammamish River. It was beautiful and I loved seeing the waterfowl floating in the water. Linda and I ended up running the entire race together and I very much enjoyed spending that time with her. For me it was the perfect combination of companionship, talking, and just silently running side by side. We were each very clear on telling the other that if she wanted to run off ahead there would be no hurt feelings – it was a race after all. I never felt that need, and evidently neither did Linda. We crossed the line together. We came in at 5:48 and I was pleased with that. Fun!