Race Report

[Guest guest]

Okay, I know it's not like a marathon or anything, but we had a great

time so I'm going to write about it!

We signed up to run the St. Paddy's Day Dash today in Seattle. It's a

3.5 mile race from Seattle Center to Safeco Field. The bad thing was,

Roy has a horrible cold and yesterday I pulled a calf muscle during my

morning workout.

We decided not to drive to the race since there were about 12,000 people

scheduled to be there. We had rented a hotel room on the waterfont about

a mile from the Seattle Center so we walked there to warm up. Stopped by

Larry's Market and had a big bowl of oatmeal and tea. No coffee before a

race unless you like throwing up! I don't.

The race has three waves:

Green for those who want to race and compete for prizes; timed.

Red for those who want to run or jog. You can be timed or not. We ran in

that wave.

Yellow for walkers/joggers; untimed.

The first wave took off at 9:00 a.m. As we lined up there was Irish

music playing, announcers were keeping the crowd pumped. People were

dressed in all sorts of Irish and green garb. I had on my green shorts

and we had picked up our shirts so we had our race shirts on. Someone

was passing out Henry Wienhardt's foam lizard hats, so of course we had

to get those! There were people from all walks of life...young, old,

fat, thin, babies, people in wheelchairs. It was incredible!

After the first wave left (it takes nearly 5 minutes for all of them to

get across the start line), we lined up. We were running in the red

wave, timed. We stretched out and jumped up and down to keep warm. It

was freezing, but at least it wasn't raining. All around us people were

readying for the run in their own way...a gentleman in front of us was

apparently smoking is " race cigar " (uh thanks...just what I want before

I run, a lung full of your poison). A group of girls were sipping lattes

(only in Seattle). Lots of strollers (which I would, personally, like to

see relegated to the yellow wave since they get in the way of the

runners). Finally we moved up to the start line. We were probably half a

block behind the start line and were in about the middle. The " gun " went

off and we slowly made our way towards the start line.

Our first big race! Yeah, we ran in the Smelt Run a few weeks ago, but

there were only about 300 people. That was NOTHING compared to this!

Finally we hit the start line and started to put on some speed. My calf

was complaining. Roy's nose was running. Good times! We ran under the

Alaskan Way Viaduct and everyone was yelling and whooping to hear

themselves echo off the walls. After what felt like a very few minutes

we passed a " pot of gold " with a big number one on it on our left. Roy

and I exclaimed in surprise! We'd already run a mile? Wow! That was a

HUGE pump for both of us. He is not a runner and only does this for me.

I enjoy running, but not while I'm in pain. I had noticed, though, that

my calf was quieter and my knees weren't creaking any more. (It seems to

take about a mile before I can sort of fall into pace and feel good

about a run if I haven't been able to have a good warm up.)

At about mile two I went ahead and left Roy behind. We'd agreed that it

was okay for me to run at my own pace once I felt comfortable doing

that. Once my muscles were warm it was actually painful for me to run at

his pace. I have a much longer stride than he does and shortening it

bothers my hips. As I ran I listened to Bono serenading me...after all,

one must listen to an Irish Band on an Irish run!

I loved looking at the people running in front of me...and then passing

them. I'd set my sites on someone, say to myself, " You can beat Green

Braids! " and then I'd head towards her and pass her. Then I'd say " You

can totally beat Coos Bay " and whip past him. I did stop and run behind

a few women for awhile. They were wearing shirts that said " This race

dedicated to Lt. Buher, fighting in Iraq. " That really put some

perspective on things. I sent up a few prayers for and wanted so

much to say to those women, " Tell thank you from all of us! "

In what felt like just a few more minutes we passed a truck with HUGE

speakers blaring music and people yelling " One more mile! Just one more

mile! " Wow! Only a mile! At about that time we crested a hill and you

could suddenly see, in the short distance, Safeco field and a line of

white and green shirts stretching a mile! It was incredible! I wish I

had the camera! Fortunately Roy did and he said he took that picture

when HE crested the hill!

I started passing people right and left.. " Buh bye Helmet Head! See ya

Lepruchaun Boy! Eat my dust Fright Wig! " (I was " naming " people for the

costumes they were wearing...it wasn't a comment on bad hair days.)

About 1/4 mile out I was ready to move into my sprint when OW! My stupid

calf siezed up! I literally yelled " No! No! Not now! Just a little bit

more! STOP! " It didn't listen. Suddenly I had this excrutiating

pain...like your worst charley horse. Curse you stupid muscle! Curse

you! Curse your family! Curse!

I hopped towards the side and tried to adjust my stride so I could

continue to run. I found a much slower pace that didn't hurt too bad and

I was able to still " run " to the finish line. There were THOUSANDS of

people there! Music was playing! There were balloons! Lots of free

stuff! Water! WATER! Bagels, chips, twinkies (??). I grabbed water and

my cell phone and called Roy to leave a message telling him I was in.

Roy ran in just three minutes behind me, which is pretty darn good! He

called me and I made my way to the water table to grab him some water.

We finally found each other. I also found some other people from

sville, so that was fun. We grabbed a bagel and perused the free

tables. We were both in such a high mood that we just couldn't stop

talking about how awesome we felt! We decided to go grab the trolley

back to the hotel, but when it wasn't there we just decided to walk.

After all, we'd already walked a mile, ran 3.5 miles, what was 2-3 more

miles? We walked back holding hands and talking the whole way. At one

point a lady walked past me and said " Excuse me, but you have GREAT

legs! " Wow! That was nice to hear! Haha!

We made it back to the hotel about 40 minutes later and had just enough

time to throw on our suits and sit in the hot tub for a little while

before we had to check out.

I don't know my time yet since while I could see the clock, I didn't

start when the clock started...and I'm not sure if the clock started

with the green wave or the red wave. I think it started with the green.

They started ten minutes ahead of the red wave, I came in at 46:15 and

was about halfway back in the red wave so I probably didn't pass the

start line until 14-15 minutes after the green wave started, so if

that's the case I did pretty good all things considered! You can't

really get a good time with 12,000 other people in your way (those darn

strollers and walkers slowed me down).

Next year we're doing it again and this time we'll be in the green wave!

Our next race is the Tulip Run. Roy will do the two mile and I'll do the

five!

~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'

Tory Klementsen, MCP A+

Career and Technology Educator

www.teechur.com

www.msteechur.com

-The successful person will do the things that the unsuccessful person

will not.