Seattle Rock 'N' Roll Marathon 2009

At the post race bag pick up station, a volunteer asked me if the race was fun. I wish I could say that I was polite and gracious, but instead I just blurted out 'No' I realized from the shocked look at his face that he had expected a somewhat different response. I looked at my friend Cheri and we started laughing. Seriously, who runs 26.2 miles for fun?

I first heard about the Rock 'n' Roll marathons years ago and when I heard Seattle would be hosting one I quickly signed up. It was great to have my friend Cheri sign up too.

Cheri and I and our two daughters left early Friday morning to hit the marathon expo and have a girls day in Seattle. The expo was in the Qwest Event Center and was first rate. There were tons of samples, everything from Bear Naked granola and yogurt (a shameless plug here) to peanut butter dog treats. There was a Brooks Running photo booth where we did crazy mother/daughter poses and a 'spa' bus complete with parafin wax hand treatments and makeovers. Leah loved getting eye shadow put on. Everything was free. More than two hours later we went for lunch and then headed to our hotel so the girls could go for a swim. I had booked a hotel in Kent near the marathon start and we were a little worried about what we would get for our $57. As we pulled up to the Kent Holiday Inn we were pleasantly surprised. The hotel is newer and clean and the outdoor pool was wonderful. Cheri and I didn't get to enjoy the complementary breakfast the next morning, but the kids and hubbies said it was really good. Waffles, omletes, fruit, etc.

The next morning Darin drove us to the race start and we roamed around a bit with the 25,000 other marathoners and half marathoners. Lots of port-a-potties, UPS trucks for the bag drop and slightly staggered start times made for a well organized race beginning and the weather was sunny, but not too hot. I felt a little silly having my iPod with me because this was the Rock 'n' Roll marathon and I really should be listening to the bands, right?

The first 12 miles of the race went through neighborhoods, wound around Lake Washington and went over the floating bridge on the Lake. It was fun to have residents cheering from their houses and playing tribute Micheal Jackson music. The Rock 'n' Roll aspect of the marathon was not at all what I expected. Obviously I had this unrealistic idea that I would be hearing music the entire race, but when bands are a one to two miles apart and you are running past, you really only hear the music for 2 - 3 minutes. Some of the bands were playing love ballads when what I really needed was a really good beat to keep me going.

It felt like the second half of the race was a lot of freeway and/or highway running. Lots of concrete and three tunnels (Note: please don't put a band in the tunnel, the acoustics really don't work) The race I wanted to run fell apart at mile 17, but after a change in attitude, I felt good as I finished. This is a fairly hilly course and there was a nasty little hill at mile 25 after a 2 mile industrial out and back section. The post race medical team was great - lots of ice wraps for sore knees and legs, but the food was very limited: bananas, oranges and a single volunteer handing out half bagels. We did manage to find a table with some bags of Fritos and other chips - score.

Then it was back to the hotel to shower and sit around the pool enjoying the sunshine. We topped off our trip with a stop for sushi on the way home.

Announcing Reason To Run: What's yours?

Trisha and I have been runners for several years. We enjoy training, running for fun and adventure as well as racing.

We also really enjoy helping people to discover that they have a passion for running. And pointing out new areas to explore on foot.

Trisha and I are excited to announce Reason To Run.
With Reason to Run we are runners who organize several races in the Tigard, Tualatin and Beaverton communities to give you the opportunity to run close to home or to explore and experience some new running locations.

Our first event is in the spring, specifically April 11, 2009.

We are planning three distances:

• Spring Rush 10 km
• Spring Burst 5 km
• kid's run.

All three will be in Cook Park, Tigard, Oregon where we took these pictures this past weekend. I am happy to report all of the trails are in great shape.

The Reason to Run web page is at http://reasontorun.com/

Reason To Run will be keeping a blog as well at http://blog.reasontorun.com/

Other ways to get to stay in touch with us can be found at http://reasontorun.com/contact.html

Races should not be the only reason that you run...but they do give you a target, a goal, a line in the sand. Or "just" an excuse to have fun with friends on a Saturday morning.

A race gives you another Reason to Run.
We look forward to you having fun, enjoying time with friends and, if you like, challenging yourself at one of our races.
Please don't hesitate to tell us what you would like to see at a race. Especially make sure to share your reason to run.

2008 Race for the Cure at Coffee Creek Correctional Center

For the past year Trisha has been volunteering and mentoring at Coffee Creek Correctional Center. This is her story of getting involved and how it lead to a new tradition of a 5km Race for the Cure event at the prison.

Prison for me all began with a dog named Chewy.

In September 2006, both my kids headed off to school and I was asking God what I should do with my newly discovered free time. Somewhere in the back of my mind, the idea of teaching a computer or business class in prison surfaced. I don’t know why God placed prison on my heart. My only previous experience with Department of Corrections had been when I took a wrong turn while going to Ibach Park. I accidentally ended up at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville thinking the lights and expansive parking lot must indicate that the kids and I had arrived at the park. NOT!

I shared to my friends a desire to get involved in some way with the prison and the female inmates. All too soon it was May and I still hadn’t made any effort to move forward. Marnie, a friend of mine kept prompting me to take action and contact the prison, but I brushed her off: I was too busy, not prepared, I’ll do it next month.

Turns out God was getting tired of my excuses too. In June, Darin was running a race on Father's Day in Tigard. While we were at the finish line waiting for him, the kids spotted a puppy, Chewy, and couldn’t resist petting and playing with him. I exchanged smiles with Chewy’s owner, a petite Korean woman, named Christina. We shared that usually we were both at church on Sunday mornings. Christina then began to tell me about her ministry with Oregon Women’s Prison Ministry (OWPM) and her calling to "love on" female inmates. I mentioned that during the past year I had been thinking about getting involved somehow at the prison.

This was more than enough of an opening for both God and Christina. Christina immediately told me I needed to come to prison with her, in fact she could arrange for me to go that very week. I was somewhat taken aback – I mean things aren’t supposed to happen this fast and of course I felt I still had to ponder and pray. Really it was just continued inaction on my part, but thankfully God is patient and persistent.

I met with Christina over the summer. When the kids were back in school again, I joined OWPM, volunteering with the female inmates every week during the Tuesday chapel services in the medium/maximum security facility at Coffee Creek.

This past spring, at the request of some of the inmates I met, I started a jogging group. We call it a jogging group since the term ‘running’ has other connotations in the prison environment :-) .

This group is not connected with OWPM. My dream for the jogging group was for us to meet and jog together out on the prison yard, but due to safety concerns about having a volunteer on yard with the general prison population, this was not an option.

So I meet with 12 inmates twice a month in a classroom setting. We’ve covered topics such as nutrition, speed work, hydration, and the Olympics. The women ask me questions about topics such as injuries, protein drinks, running shoes, that I then research for them.

The inmates record their mileage in jogging journals and I must say they are an inspiring group of ladies. They jog on the prison yard, which basically consists of a concrete ‘sidewalk’ around a patch of sand and some picnic tables – I so want to take them out on the trails, since their scenery consists of rows of chain link fences and razor wire. Ten laps around the yard equals a mile. And if an inmate is in lock down and can’t get out to jog, some of them do their jogging on the spot in their cells. The inmates have aptly named our group the Concrete Gazelles.

In August we were discussing upcoming races and the group mentioned Race for the Cure. I asked if they wanted to participate in the race and all of them were enthusiastic about it. Of course we would have to do the race on the prison exercise yard. I talked to the Coffee Creek program administration staff and they were extremely positive (big thank-you to Liz and Amanda) – we were even able to offer the inmates ice water (something that isn’t normally available). And since the yard would be only open to race participants, I would be allowed to jog with and support the women. Once again I was amazed at how fast everything came together – we only had approximately a month lead time to coordinate the event and everything went incredibly smoothly.

Next I talked to the Susan Komen Foundation (Race for the Cure organizers). They were extremely positive (a big thank-you to Caity McKean). Since the inmates have very limited funds, the Komen Foundation offered a reduced registration rate. I really didn’t want this to be a free event. The goal was for the inmates to take it seriously and have pride in giving back to the community.

We put the word out in the inmates’ newsletter and over 75 women signed up and they raised close to $400. It was a blast for me to go down to the Race for the Cure expo and pick up all those race numbers. Due to prison regulations the women weren’t permitted to have the race t-shirts or commemorative pins, but they were allowed to keep their bib numbers and the signs on which they could write who they were jogging in memory of/celebration of.

We were able to do the race the same day as the outside world, on Sunday September 21 at 1pm. Decked out in an orange safety vest and wielding a ‘Go Girls’ sign, I was honored to be out on the J/K yard to jog with and cheer on the women. I taped their numbers (no safety pins allowed) on their shirts and poured out cup after cup of ice water. The inmates did 31 laps to make the 3.1 mile race distance and it was very cool to see many of them work hard. And even more exciting, one of the inmates participating was a breast cancer survivor. It was a treat for me to jog with the inmates from the jogging group and talk to them about their running experiences. In the end we made a high five cheering line for the last of the women completing the race and some of the inmates asked even me to sign their bib numbers.
The positive attitudes and excitement demonstrated how such an event can bring people together, whether inside or outside prison walls.

Thank-you to all who were praying and supporting us and the event.
Please let me know if you have any ideas for running related topics that I can discuss with the group or good running related movies (Darin's note: running related movies link here).

McKenzie River 50 km: Trisha's Third Ultra

Guest blog from my amazing wife, Trisha who completed her third ultra-marathon McKenzie River Trail Run on Saturday:

I’m sitting here after a hot and slow run with my friend Chris and I’m wondering how I could have completed an ultra-marathon just five days ago and now I’m finding it tough to churn out a measly 5 miles. Then it dawns on me … I just ran 31 miles five days ago!! I guess I can cut myself some slack.

Out of the three ultras I’ve done this year, I must say I’ve fallen in love with the McKenzie River 50K. The beautiful run around the lake, the magnificent waterfalls, and yes, I did stop briefly to enjoy the scenery a few times, the fun ‘log’ bridges, and of course the running along side the river all combined to make this a relatively fast, fun ultra. Strangely enough I was feeling very calm going into this race. My running training was minimal, with the kids home for the summer and our trips to Canada and camping, I found it hard to get in long runs. In fact I used Hood to Coast as my long training run. Definitely not optimal. However, I have been doing a fitness boot camp with Mark Nichols of Sledge Athletic Solutions for the past four weeks and I’ve been working out and eating super healthy. In fact, with Mark I’ve lost over 4% body fat! Maybe my fitness workouts were giving me a false sense of preparedness, but hey I’ll take it.

Some of our wonderful friends took care of our kids overnight and shuttled them to soccer (thanks Lisa, Diane and Chris) so Darin and I could both run the race. As Darin mentioned, we camped at Dave and Lynn’s again this year and we were up early, early on Saturday morning. Mark recommended I eat two hours before the race and since I was doing the early start, 6:30am, I managed to eat by 5am. Race day was beautiful and the first 10 miles were amazing. I was in a near state of euphoria and my self-talk included such things as, “My body is a machine and look how it performs when I fuel it right – wow, I get to live in this machine and experience all these cool things.” Even having to run back and forth due to the lack of trail markers and running out too far due to a missing turn-around cone (we did manage to yell at a runner who was up ahead to come back), I was just in awe at being able to just run and experience God’s majestic world!

The lead runner passed me about two hours after I started and it was amazing to watch him bound over the lava rocks and disappear on the trail. Darin caught up to me after three hours and after I asked him where he’d been all this time, he said I was just going way too fast. Caroline was also hiking on the trail and I stopped for a quick hug and some encouragement. All in all, it would have been a great 20 mile race, but my lack of training and an unhappy knee, caught up with me on the last 10 miles.

I actually think it was the boot camp and the Mark’s nutrition plan (he had me eat turkey, olives, sweet potatoes and yams at mile 20) which keep me going. By mile 24 my self-talk was something like, “My machine is broken and in need of repair!” Needless to say cyclists and hikers on the trail were of no help when I asked how much further it was to the ranger station. The answers ranged from 5 miles (pretty accurate) to 2 miles to “uh…it’s a ways down the trail.” Seeing Darin at the finish line was such a relief.

I finished in 6:48 which is a PR for me and I did enjoy myself, even though it was hard work. Darin and I were able to grab a shower and hang out for a bit at the lunch, but we had to get back to Tigard and the kids. It was so great to have a little ‘vacation’ with Darin and a real treat to have hours of adult talk time in the car – we must do this more often. To top off an already wonderful day we went out for dinner out with the kids and headed to bed early.

Pictures kindly provided by Tom Riley and are all available here.

Chuckanut 50 km : Trisha's First Ultramarathon

Guest blog from my amazing wife, Trisha who completed her first ultra-marathon Chuckanut 50km on Saturday:

Whose idea was this anyway? I can’t even remember if it was a New Year’s resolution or if I just thought running 31 miles in the woods sounded fun. After this experience though, my admiration for ultra runners has increased tenfold. These races are hard work and I spent the better part of the last three months, running and running and running. Luckily I have had some great people to train with and it’s been fun.

The RACE: Darin, the kids and I headed up to Bellingham to meet Ronda, Kris, Steve and Micheal who were already at Kevin and Carla’s house. Kevin and Carla, friends of ours in Bellingham were enjoying a Hawaiian vacation, and graciously let us crash at their house for the weekend. After a restless night for me, nerves I think, we runners headed for Fairhaven Park, the race start and finish.

After bathroom breaks and package pickup, over 300 runners lined up for the start of the race. My number one goal was to finish and my second goal was to not be last. Darin pulled up just as we were starting and cheered us on.

The first 6 miles was a fairly flat trail with some great views of the ocean. I felt strong and managed to stay with the back pack. Darin, Leah, Cole, and Cole’s Gameboy, were waiting at the first aid station. It was great to see them and Leah announced in a perky voice that she had thrown up! What?? Apparently it all happened in the McDonald’s drive thru, but not to worry, she had managed to roll down the window and most of the barf was all over the outside of the car. As Darin and the kids jumped back into the Barfmobile, I headed onto the trail. The next five miles were switchbacks and fun rollers and my pace was consistent. It was the best part of the race for me. After aid station #2, I did a run/walk up three miles of gravel road with some serious elevation gain. Still feeling good, I refueled, talked a bit to Darin and headed out for the next 8 mile section. This is pretty much where the wheels came off! The first four miles on the ridge trail were fairly technical, so it was almost like hiking for me – avoiding rocks and roots, and a bit of scrambling up boulders. But the trail was beautiful and I’m guessing the view would have been amazing if the clouds had lifted. After an hour and a half, I figured I must be getting close to the aid station, I mean really, I couldn’t be going *that* slow. Well actually I could be going that slow, slow enough in fact to take almost three hours to get through 8 miles. Seriously! Some highlights of my time up on Chuckanut Mountain: I got to meet Robin and talk about kids, Canada and racing; a number of people offered me food and drink as they passed by (did I really look that bad?); and I got to labor up little Chinscaper and reminisce about climbing Mt St Helen’s.

After the final uphill push it was a very slow down hill to the last aid station. Darin met me on the hill and ran about ½ mile with me. I think he was worried about my pace, since the cut off time was 8 hours for the race and it didn’t look like I was going to make it. Luckily at that last aid station, 6 hours and 45 minutes into the race, I set my mind to finishing before the cut off time and kicked it into gear (relatively speaking). At 7 hours and 30 minutes, I saw a city sign that said 2 miles to Fairhaven Park. I literally yelled with joy. I can do this! Half mile later, sure enough the next city sign, 1.5 miles to Fairhaven Park, ok looking good. Another half mile, another city sign, 1.5 miles to Fairhaven Park. What the …. About this time, I started asking random people out walking their dogs and strolling with their kids, Where is Fairhaven Park? How much further to the park shelter? I’m not sure, but I think some people pulled their kids a little closer when the crazy lady started shouting out questions. Somehow I kept moving my legs and with a time of 7 hours and 55 minutes, I ran across the finish line and collapsed. Well ok, I didn’t collapse, I just walked around a little dazed, I ate a bit, talked to friends and spent some well earned time sitting on a bench in the sunshine. Oh, and I wasn’t last!

The next day we were planning to do a quick trip to Canada to see Grandma S who isn't doing well, but on the way to the border, Cole rolled down his window and christened the Barfmobile on the other side. And this adventure called Life continues …

Note: First picture is another great shot from Glenn Tachiyama