St. Patrick's Day Dash

2008

March 16

25:04

6th in AG (50-55)

2007

24:13

3rd in AG (45-49)

2006

25:30

10th in AG (45-49)

2005

24:33

8th in AG (45-49)

2004

31:48

58th in AG (45-49)

There was room for improvement on that first St. Pat's Dash I did in 2004 and I have managed to whittle away several minutes in subsequent races. Some years, I'd add a minute or so back on to my time and slip in the AG placing and 2008 is one of those years. The finish line has been relocated at least 3 times in the 5 years that I've run this, making it hard to compare each race exactly. This was the 24th Annual of the Irish-themed race. It's pretty much a sea of green and costumes along the race course which starts on Mercer St., north of Seattle Center. The route takes us east, then south through the Battery St. tunnel (we run south on the closed northbound lanes). Emerging from the tunnel, the run goes along the upper deck of the Alaskan Way viaduct for the Big Views of Puget Sound, the downtown skyline and south to Mt. Rainier. We exit down the on-ramp near Qwest Field for a final 1/4 mile or so near Qwest or Safeco Field (or where ever the finish line happens to be that year).

That's 2006 ------->

I didn't expect too much of myself going into it this year since the running I've been doing has been easy to moderate level efforts, very little interval and no tempo workouts. But I needed some goal for the race. OK then, how about better than an 8:00 per mile pace? I figured that would be doable, a good place to start. Then I saw Judy F.

If you don't know who Judy F. is, then you must be some elite who never looks beyond the top 5 overall women finishers, someone who is so recreational you don't care to peruse race results or maybe you're a man. If Judy isn't a local legend yet, she will be. She's in her 60's, shows up at just about all the local running races from 5K to marathon distance, frequently does Saturday/Sunday back to back races (running and triathlons) and she's fast despite her age. Go ahead, check out her Athlinks list http://www.athlinks.com/myresults.aspx?rid=11754712 That's a lot of races! She is such a frequent and consistent racer that I quickly caught on to who she was early when I started these fun runs. And with her consistent 7:15 to 7:30ish paces, darn if she didn't pull away out of sight of me in all the races I did for the first few years. I aspired to get closer to her finish times. As I improved, I saw my times inching closer to hers. Though I didn't aim to overtake her exactly, she is a "benchmark" kind of racer and one who I can measure my own good or bad days by. As another running pal Ann once said, "it's a good day if you finish close to Judy". It was only in my most recent and best seasons and after plenty of hard work, that I was able to race at her pace or sometimes a bit faster.

Here's 2007 --------->

So rather than settling for merely bettering an 8 minute pace (and how was I to do that with my watch being repaired and inconsistent mile markers on this course?), when I saw Judy I knew what to do. Stay with her. If I could do that, it would be a good day for me, given my lack of training lately and probably assure me a pace in the mid-7's or faster. And perhaps more importantly, it would keep me from going out too fast and then dying in the later miles (like I did on the January 1st Resolution Run). Judy is a smart and experienced runner and when I can't rely on myself due to lack of training, why not rely on someone else? I needed a pacer, so I locked my gaze on her yellow jacket just ahead of me and decided to try and keep it in sight. I don't know why I don't show up in this picture with Judy, since I was usually within 1o or 15 feet behind her most of the race. Here is a new race goal of mine: SMILE for the camera. Look at her picture - she is having fun! Look at mine - I am in pain!

The race was a hard enough effort and I was challenged to keep pace with my rabbit. If I could just stay near her, I'd have a good race, without having to think or check my (non-existent) watch. And so I did. In the last 100 yards or so a new woman who looked like she might be somewhere near my age edged past me. So I figured it was time to throw in the extra effort. I finished just a few seconds ahead of Judy and the other woman who, according to the results, was probably Phyllis N., another consistent fast woman about a decade older than me. That extra effort nearly cost me a public barf in front of the finish-line spectators, but fortunately for them it was a false alarm of going through the heave-ho motions with no, ummm.... "results" being produced. I know, TMI (too much information).

< -----2008

(but I DID have a jog bra on)

Despite feeling satisfied with the race when it was over (and being relieved to not have tossed my cookies, or GoLean Crunch, as the case may be), I have to admit to being a little disappointed when the results were posted. The little Devil on the one shoulder whispered in my ear: "Have you peaked?"; "Is it all downhill from here?"; "You are almost 51, you've got to plateau and decline sooner or later, is this the season that will happen?"; "Do you really want to keep doing this anyway?". But the Angel on my other shoulder said: "You have no business beating your time from previous years right now, you just haven't put in the training"; "You've had a distracting, challenging year, be glad you still do this at all"; "For training so little, this is good! You keep going and you'll still have some PR's!". "You know, you are hauling an extra 6 pounds around; you get that off your butt and thighs and then we'll see". So I've eaten salad for dinners this week, went to a yoga class to find inner peace and some good stretches and have gotten a couple runs, a bike, a spin class, a swim in and a rest day since race day. And I think of women like Judy and Phyllis and think, "Why not me too?". Go Angel! Root for the Angel!

An"Age-Graded" system was used for results which placed Judy at 2nd overall! Way to go, Judy! Phyllis placed in the top 8, along with a 10 and 12 year old. Here is Phyllis in blue shorts. The Age-Graded formula converts my time to 21:55. Sweet! But not competitive.

Finally, this race is advertised as an "almost 3.5 mile race". So after crunching the numbers, my time of 25:04 would be a 7:10 pace for 3.5 miles or 7:22 for 3.4 miles or 7:35 pace for 3.3 miles. At least that gives me a ballpark - I'd say my pace was in the 7:20's and I'm happy with that!

AGE-GRADED TOP 8

Age/ Time / AgeGraded Time

1 Regina Joyce 51/ 20:33/ 17:45

2 Judy Fisher 64/ 25:12/ 18:12

3 Sarna Becker 31/ 19:06 / 19:05

4 Amy-Eloise Neale 12/ 21:03/ 19:08

5 Phyllis Nelson 60 / 25:12/ 19:18

6 Gail Hail 48 / 21:33/ 19:19

7 Patryce McWilliams 10/ 22:27/ 19:28

8 Liz Wilson 39/ 20:06/ 19:31

50-54 AGE GROUP TIME

1. Regina Joyce 20:30
2. Sue Grigsby 24:07
3. Kim Williams 24:40
4. Marci Kirsch 24:51
5. Joan Banker 24:55
6. Karen Buttram 25:04
7. Wendy Jones 25:50
8. Linda Rowe-Oneal 25:55

Ski Trip to Whitefish

Last October when I ran the Pumpkin Push 5K, along with the usual freebies given out by race sponsors were some discount coupons from Amtrak. That sparked an idea for a winter trip somewhere with Camille. One of the many breaks that Seattle Public School students have during the year is a week-long Mid-Winter Break in February. I wanted this to be a break from the usual kid-on-the-couch-in-front-of-the-TV-saying-she's-bored thing and me-feeling-housebound thing. Jetting off to Hawaii or some other warm place was most appealing, but I wanted to keep this affordable and see about avoiding an airport for a change.

Finding some snow to play in or ski on, seemed like a good idea, since Hawaii wasn't going to happen. And the idea of MONTANA seemed interesting. It's a place I've not spent much time in, and with it only being an overnight ride away, it seemed like the right choice. The train leaves Seattle daily at 4:45 p.m. A final plan evolved and we rode the rails to Whitefish, Montana on a fine, sunny February afternoon with our friends Patty, Carolyn and Nina. Carolyn is one of Camille's best friends since kindergarten, Nina is her little sister and their mom Patty is a pal who I've enjoyed walks, glasses of wine and video nights with.

It was a sunny, mild day and the views at sunset as we rode north along the waterfront to Everett were fantastic! Carolyn brought her camera and was nice enough to share some of her photos with me. The train was a novelty for the girls and it allowed them plenty of freedom to roam around, leaving Patty and me free to knock off a bottle of wine and nibble on some cheese and crackers we brought. I had my Leatherman Tool with me and thank god I did, otherwise how would I have sliced our cheese??? We speculated on whether Amtrak confiscates weapons (you know, like I've had nail clippers, children's blunt scissors and my miniature Swiss Army Knife taken away at airports). But though my Leatherman Tool is sharp and potentially dangerous, I guess the chances of hi-jacking a train are pretty slim and the porters ignored me slicing my cheese. The wine was taking effect and I imitated Edward Scissorhands with my Tool, giggling and brandishing it about and setting a very bad example for the children.

I thought the big recliners on the train would provide a fairly comfortable sleep, unlike the seats on a plane. WRONG! Even though I found 2 empty seats and some extra room to squirm around in, it was still an uncomfortable night of broken sleep. Looks like someone has a sense of humor and took pictures of their sleeping traveling companions.

As the sky got light, you could see a different landscape from what we last saw when leaving Western Washington the night before. The sun was not quite up as we rode the last few miles past Whitefish Lake into town. Brr. Yes, it was a little colder there, something in the 20's before sun up. The host at our bed and breakfast, Mr. Woody, um, Mr. Cox, (well, his name is Woody Cox and the girls got to referring to him as Mr. Woody) fetched us and our gear and brought us to the Good Medicine Lodge. I was quite pleased with the place. Nothing fancy nor too basic, it had all the comforts of home and then some. For $180.00/night the 5 of us had 2 bedrooms/2 baths, a hot tub, the usual amenities like a guest computer, fireplaces, game room, a full breakfast, the moms had complimentary beer or wine in the evening and there was the never-empty jar of homemade chocolate chip cookies. Carolyn and I are certified Cookie Monsters and we both declared these the top-5 cookies ever and the top-3 best things about this trip. But that was on the first day before we both ate way too many and couldn't look at them any more.

Well, here it was 7 a.m. or so and check in time wasn't until 3. So we dumped our bags and walked to town. It was a bright, blue-sky (or Big Sky, as they say in those parts) morning with snow all around to blind us with the reflection. We browsed, had lattes and breakfast goodies and walked some more. We had all morning to kill and nothing else to do and it was gorgeous out in this small town. But the girls had started complaining. Something about wanting to play in the snow (poor kids from Seattle, they ran to the grey, cruddy roadside crap and started making snowballs). So we pushed them along. At one point Camille broke down sobbing, saying something about this being the worst day of her life (it must have been 11 a.m. by then and all she had to do was walk about 1.5 miles and skip a few piles of grey snow). Patty and I were on a recon mission to see what this town had to offer and we weren't even shopping! After locating a pool/health club/indoor water slide to return to later, we decided against doing a forced march back that could lead to more meltdowns (I mean, 1.5 miles!?!). So we waited for the free Snow Bus that makes stops all through town. It was the first of many waits for that bus, which usually didn't run on schedule or tended to make stops in mystery places. No matter. While waiting, the girls finally had some clean white snow to play in and Patty and I enjoyed feeling the sun on our faces. That afternoon we returned to the pool via Snow Bus and the girls enjoyed the water slide, I got an hour lap swim in and Patty walked (having brought a black half-slip in place of her bathing suit bottom). The girls didn't mind the walk back this time; the view of a full moon rising over the peaks in nearby Glacier National Park was pretty and we found some Mexican food and then went home for a jacuzzi and bed.

Next a.m. we picked up our rented ski gear and took the bus to Big Mountain Ski Resort, only about 8 miles up the road. I hadn't downhill skied for years and was a little nervous. Camille really had never down-hilled. Anyway, after the first couple runs of her falling, she was staying on her feet and independent by the 3rd run. By afternoon I could ditch her for awhile while I went up on top for some Big Views of Big Mountain in the Big Sky state (I'll tell you more about Big in a sec.).

Anyway, the skiing was very fun, the weather was great and the snow-encased trees were weird and cool looking ("snow goblins" I was told by the local who rode the chair with me, though maybe that's just some local joke to make us tourists look silly; like "did you see all those snow goblins up there?"). But they did remind me of snowy versions of the hoodoos and goblins of the southwest. Go ahead, do an image Google search of "hoodoos" and you'll see what I mean. See? That's some hoodoos:

I Googled "snow goblins" and got a bunch of nothing. But I digress.

That evening in the jacuzzi, we chatted with some of the other guests. There was this Big guy, with a Big voice, with a Big attitude about anything that he considers to be true. You know the type, all opinions, all talk, no listen. Oh, and he was from Big Sky (the town), no joke. That night he and the Little Woman were on their way out to dinner in these full length fur coats. The kind made from god only know how many unfortunate Little fur-bearing animals or maybe some shot, poisoned or trapped coyotes. Regional oddity, I guess; some wild west attitudes including wanting to exterminate "varmints" but then you can wear their pelts for a night out on the town.

The next day, we wouldn't leave until near 9 p.m. so had all day to dink around. Being the Good Mothers we are, we took the kids to the ice skating rink. But at least 2 out of 3 girls were complaining right away about uncomfortable skates or some damn thing, so we got our money back and started a forced march around town again. Fortunately, I had a brilliant idea to walk a few blocks over to the lake. Which was frozen over and quite the novelty for us, I mean, the kids.

We managed to pass the day... The most interesting thing we saw was a truck full of sled dogs go by, with all these yapping dogs hanging their heads out of the windows in their kennels. Carolyn snapped a quick (hence, blurry) picture of the spectacle. ARF ARF

Camille on the look-out.

After slogging around in boots the last couple days, I had blisters on day 3 so wore my running shoes for the outing. And good thing, since I got the chance to run back to town at the end of the day. Camille had left a bag of souvenirs at the coffee and gift shop we had last visited. I pounded on the windows just after closing time and got in to retrieve the treasures. And thank goodness - just look at the souvenir we would have had to leave behind!

Pretty soon it was time for the "All Aboard!" back to Seattle.

Chilly Hilly

I've been aware of the Chilly Hilly, a 33 mile bike ride on Bainbridge Island for many years. "Chilly" (it's in February each year) and "hilly" (2,675 feet of elevation gain) didn't sound very appealing, especially when I could enjoy a balmy indoor masters swim workout on a winter Sunday morning, so I never did it before. But this year is different. I've been no stranger to riding in cold and/or wet weather this winter and my rides seem to - sometimes incidentally, often intentionally - include hills. The weather was nice and I had some friends doing it, so this seemed the year for me to ride it.

What a treat to ride rural roads, enjoy views across Puget Sound and breathe fresh air! Too often in Seattle, it's the stink of cars and the ugly, dangerous shoulders of city roads that are part of my rides. On Bainbridge Island, roads were fairly crowded with riders, but it was only a challenge on some of the steep uphills when some riders started to wobble, weave or finally walk their bikes without moving to the far right of the road.

A few of my biking friends and I await an a.m. ferry to Bainbridge. Several ferry loads take riders from Seattle throughout the morning. Around 5000 people do this ride making for some interesting knots of riders from time to time on the road.

I got some extra miles in by riding from my home plus a few out-and-backs during the ride. I'd pull ahead then re-join a friend riding a heavy tandem (with nothing but a useless bunny riding on the back and an turkey on his head - go figure). I totalled maybe 45 miles that day and felt good!

The bunny (with her lazy butt still on the tandem's back seat), the turkey on Saul's head (it didn't even flap to help out), Franklin and me.

I am probably spoiled now - future Chilly Hilly's will be compared to this bright, sunny, mild day of great riding.