January in March

Good timing with the knitting and 3 minutes of fame
I love my new sweater! Why? Because I finished it in time for the spring snow! It has been serving its purpose well in keeping me toasty warm while it snows outside. Here it is:

This has been a busy week and weird one, weather-wise. Wednesday I was on TV running back and forth for the camera as King5 did a Health Spot topic on Laura's new wellness center, 5Focus. Since one of their services offers ChiRunning and ChiWalking instruction, she got four of us instructors together for a taping about it. We had fun running by Lake Union while the camera rolled. Tim Robinson, the interviewer and local TV personality interviewed Laura and Mary Lindahl about the technique. At one point, he ran to us to tell us something - probably an eighth of a mile -and we all commented on how natural he looked! Then he started running all goofy just to show off. Ha ha! Anyway, it aired on Wednesday but I missed it!! Arghhh! Laura said they will send a file and if it's kosher, I'll post it.

Soaring Eagle snow and mud run
Fast forward to today - the NW Trail Run series had a five and ten mile run at Soaring Eagle park. I did this last year as a training run and it was pretty darn muddy. Plus about mile 6 of the ten miler, there's a pond that you go through calf deep in water. Last year, it was rainy and a little cold. This year, thanks to our weird weather system, it was snowy! In fact the last mile it started snowing again. But I get ahead. Tracy and I drove over there (the eastside); she walked the five miler with Ali since they are both on injured reserve right now. As we got further and further from Seattle, it got whiter and whiter. Going through Redmond looked like January:

It got weirder! As we turned up Sahalee way and started to climb the hill, there were all these cars abandoned alongside the road! I guess they got dumped on last night and people freaked out about climbing the hill. There is a neighborhood nearby; I suspect the owners lived there. Very odd. We got to the park, picked up our bibs and chatted with folks, all of us talking about the weather and snow. Here's the trail head for the race:

I started out in the middle of the pack and climbed up the very muddy road to the single track trail where the fun began. I ran with Lisa, Murray's wife (he's on the adventure team Mergeo that puts this together), and after a while, I slowed so I could down some gu. There was a pack of people behind us who we let go by - they were doing the five miler and having a fun time. Here's Lisa and me before all the fun began:
While I was running alone, I noticed my ankle more, though it was taped and braced. It was really challenging in all the mud and on the inclines trying to keep it quiet. It talked to me and said I should consider turning with the five milers at the aid station. When I got there, Lisa was finishing up a snack and asked how I was doing. I told her my ankle was a little sore and I was going slow, and she offered to run the rest of the ten miler with me! How could I refuse???

We carried along and had a really nice time getting to know each other. She is about my age and her two sons are just a couple years younger than mine. This was her first time on this course and she thought for sure we must have come to the "pond" but I kept saying nope, though inside, I had hoped it somehow had drained and we had already gone through it. But alas, as we ran along, I heard her shout OMIGOD! Yup, there it was - big as and maybe even bigger than it was before. Tracks in the snow showed that people had gone up into the woods to get around it, but we decided to try and go along side the "shore". I still managed to get my feet soaked and thought it was a good thing we only had four miles. After that obstacle, everything else seemed easy.

We got to the little loop around the lake and as we were heading back up the hill at the end of it, several people were coming down. It was somehow comforting to know we weren't DFL. I thought I had brought enough gu and tried to find it since I was starting to feel bonky. But I couldn't find it at all so I did without. (Later at home, I found it in a side pocket - I had thought it was trash - arghhh!) We finally got to a wide trail, which I thought was the road leading to the finish. Lisa didn't remember it (we had come up part of it in the start) but I was pretty sure. Fortunately, I was correct, and when I saw the sign the said 800 meters to go, I was so glad! I was really getting hungry! We came across the line together holding hands. It was so good to run with her - I even focused on her heels at one point to get me through the bonking. It was a minor bonk, but nonetheless, it was good to have someone pull me through it. And I bested my previous time by 10 minutes - in way worse conditions than last year. I think there were a lot of PRs - go figure cuz the course was no different from last year.

Ali and Tracy were waiting at the finish line and I got an incriminating photo of them (for their docs and PTs) as they showed off the mud on their shoes and legs:

After dropping Tracy off and a quick trip to the lab (where I got to show off the mud to HK) I headed home for food and icing, followed by a hot soak in the tub.

Now maybe spring will arrive - the sun is out as I type. Always a good sign!