Eat Drink Run Woman

I know, I know — I never call, I never write. But goshdarnitall, I’ve been busy! And yes, that includes marathon training.

After taking a week off after the Fremont 5k (much to the delight of my beleaguered hamstring) I joined a new blogger friend a week ago Sunday for a 15+ mile run along the Centennial Trail, which runs from Snohomish to Arlington (north of Seattle). I’ve been meaning to check it out, but since it’s a bit of drive to get to the trailhead (about 45 minutes), my darling and I typically wuss out and go for the closer runs. This time I decided to quit making excuses.

I awoke to a cloudy, drizzly day; not my favorite running weather, but at least I’d stay cool. However, I threw on a light rain jacket just in case. Jodie, meanwhile, was a bad-ass and ran in just a jog bra.

Although she has never done the run/walk program, she was eager to try it out. Our pace was much too fast in the beginning; I could barely talk without huffing and puffing. Fortunately it was too brisk for Jodie as well, so we slowed to about a 10 1/2 minute/mile pace. Although our goal was to take a walk break after every mile, we often would be chatting so much I forgot! (We were using my Garmin as a guide).

About halfway into the run the rain really started coming down. Okay, so this isn’t as fun. But we slogged through and eventually it cleared up again. My only regret about the cloud cover is the lack of a view; apparently you can get several glimpses of Mt. Rainier when the sun is out.

As we hit the 12-mile mark my conversation got progressively more sporadic. I’m normally not much of a talker anyway, but when I’m tired, it’s all I can do to grunt out single syllable responses. Jodie seemed like she could run and talk forever (then again, she’s run considerably more marathons than I have. Oh yeah, I haven’t even run one) 🙂

The end of the trail finally came into view and we both mustered up the strength to sprint to the finish. While my hamstring held up just fine, I knew I was going to be a bit creaky for the rest of the day.

Because I had no time commitments, I joined Jodie for a cup of tea at her favorite tea shop. Snohomish is a quaint historical town lined with antique stores and other small shops and surrounded by pastoral farms. The last time I was there was for our wedding in September 2000 at the now-defunct Swan’s Trail Chapel. As we walked down the main drag Jodie was saddened to see a “closed” sign in the window of a popular ice cream shop (she’s lived in Snohomish all her life). Then, as we were waiting for a table at the tea shop, I saw a letter posted from the owner saying they too would be closing due to rising rents. Unfortunately that’s an all-too-common occurrence in small towns these days; I just hope Snohomish doesn’t lose its small-town quirkiness by getting over-run by large national chains.

Okay, off my soapbox.

Because they were short-staffed we decided to make our orders easy: tea and scone for Jodie, tea and a bowl of soup for me. However, I was salivating over the incredible slice of Red Velvet cake that the gentleman next to us ordered (it was part of a tea service). Imagine my dismay when he signaled for the waitress to take it away — and not even get it boxed up! You would have thought he’d be considerate enough to offer it to us, especially since we commented on how yummy it looked, but NOOOOOO. Some people.

While the soup was delicious, it didn’t quite satiate the aprés-run beast within my belly. I’m ashamed to say I found myself steering toward Jack-in-the-Box where I picked up an order of fries and a burger (so much for my rant about large national chains). After an afternoon lounging on the couch I was as good as new.

This past Saturday was what I dub the “tourist run” as my darling and I ran by a variety of iconic Seattle landmarks during our 17-mile run. THIS should have been the run where I brought my camera, but as I found during my Greenlake jaunt, running takes a back seat to photography. So you’ll just have to settle for my darling’s photos (obviously taken several months ago) and links to the sights.

We started out around the north end of Greenlake, then left the trail at the south end to continue down Ravenna and Roosevelt. We headed over the University Bridge, peering down at the Montlake Cut where the UW crew races. We continued south along Fairview Avenue East, which provides terrific views of Lake Union and all sorts of houseboats (including the one Tom Hanks lived in in “Sleepless in Seattle”). We turned west at the south end of Lake Union, running by the departure spot for the “Ride the Ducks” tour. We then took a quick jaunt through the south end of Seattle Center, passing by the Experience Music Project, the Olympic Iliad sculpture, the Space Needle and the Pacific Science Center, catching a glimpse of the butterfly exhibit.

We continued west from the center along Broad Street to the Olympic Sculpture Park. My darling’s photo is from January, before the official opening of the park. Now that summer is here the slopes are awash in color — purple lupine, red and pink poppies and a plethora of other wild flowers. By now we were on the waterfront, so we headed north along Myrtle Edwards Park, which offers incredible views of Elliott Bay and the Olympics (unlike my country run, we were blessed with partly sunny skies).

We continued north along the train tracks by Pier 90, eventually making our way to Commodore Park at the east end of Magnolia. From there we ran over the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks and continued north along Shilshole to Golden Gardens. By now we had run about 14 miles, and I was not looking forward to the steep dirt trail leading up from Golden Gardens back into the neighborhood. Sure enough, it was a killer. I had auto-pause on my Garmin, and because I was moving so slowly it thought I had stopped. As a result my data recorded almost a full mile less than my darling’s.

We wound our way down to the Barking Dog Alehouse, but my darling made me run past it about a half block until his Garmin recorded a full 17 miles (mine stated 16.2). After a hearty fish ‘n chip (‘n beer ‘n Bloody Mary) lunch we walked an additional 2 1/2 miles through the Greenwood Classic Car & Hot Rod Show before staggering home and collapsing on the couch. Despite the distance, we both felt remarkably fresh the next day. Just proves going slow and steady does a body good!