Racing around town – tales from the road

It’s amazing how often you visit a town for a business trip and never see anything other than the hotel and whatever you manage to glimpse during the taxi ride between the airport and the hotel. I’ve always been a big believer in trying to get out of my hotel room from time to time. This week in Seattle, I got to enjoy sights and views that even the locals never get to see when I ran in the SeaFair Torchlight 8km race with my running partner Christopher Harrison.

Running races in different cities is fun to begin with, Fort Langley BC with a view of the coastal mountains, Atlanta with and endless up and down course around the zoo. This week Seattle. The start is by the Space Needle where all the participants for the Seafair parade were gathering and preparing. It was weird going for a warm up run and having to swerve to avoid Boeing workers, tuba players, and Mrs. “insert town name here”  wandering down the street nibbling on cotton candy. Between the 5km and 8km (which started together) there were nearly 4000 runners. Seafair has a pirate theme, so there were many runners in eyepatches, hats, or carrying cutlasses into the corrals. I settled for a pirate tattoo on my calf.

The news helicopter hovered overhead filming the start. We started on a steep downhill and turned a corner, about 500 meters into the course we entered the parade route. Almost 250,000 spectators watch the Torchlight parade, and they had nothing to do while waiting except cheer on the runners. Moms, dads in lawnchairs, or actual couches! lined the streets. Groups of kids came out and held out their hands to give the runners high fives. Downhill, lots of cheering, kids reaching out to give you high fives…let’s just say the pace for that first kilometer was impressive! In fact the whole first 3kms was nice and quick. Hmmmm….maybe we should have foreseen what was coming. At the 4km mark they had the first water stop.  We went around the corner and found ourselves running up an on-ramp to a raised highway that runs along the waterfront in Seattle. On-ramps seem wayyyyyy longer when you are running up them, than driving up them. I swear that was 500m non-stop of steep uphill. Once on the highway, the view was spectacular! An unobstructed view of the harbour and the Space Needle (our finish line) in the distance. I was feeling tired but okay at 6 km and had planned to pick up my pace for the last km. But another hill shortly after 6km drained my energy, then another hill, then another! we finally reached the second water stop at the 7 km mark but at that point finishing held more appeal than water. A short flat stretch gave me hope that I could pick up the pace a bit and then we turned the corner and discovered the last 400 M of the race was pretty much all uphill, and a steep climb! That was just cruel! I did manage a small burst of speed on the 30 m flat stretch at the very end but that was all I could manage. (it was enough to beat Christopher though, so for those of you who care the standings are: Susan 2, Christopher 1 and one tie, I savour every win because he is getting faster!)

At the finish line the parade was about to get underway so we got to watch bands lined up and ready to go, cheerleaders warming up and Chinese dragon dancers practicing their craft. Not my fastest race but certainly a fun one (well except for all those “insert expletive here” hills.) And a race shirt makes for a great souvenir. So if I am coming to a town near you let me know if there are any good races coming up

Cheers,

Susan