Cottontail 6-hour race

(Photo by Glenn Tachiyama)

 

I ran the Cottontail 6-hour trail race yesterday. The race is run on a 1.9 mile loop in a park in Seattle. Put on by the same folks, Endless Trails, that did the Carkeek 12-hour race last October. The only difference from the October race was that we ran clockwise instead of counter-clockwise. We were so fortunate to have nice weather! The sun was shining!! (It rained the next day, Easter Day.)

 

I started out the morning with my friend, Van. We had been planning for this race for weeks, and prepared some Easter bunny costumes to wear. Van ran more miles at this race than she'd ever run before. That is an amazing feat considering how hilly the course is!! I managed to run 12 laps, plus a short half-mile lap at the end, for a total of 23.7 miles. My Garmin says I did 4,300 feet of elevation gain. Did I mention it was hilly?

 

Me and Van before the start of the race.

Similar to the Carkeek 12-hour race, I enjoyed meeting new people on the trail. There were a lot of people out walking their dogs. I loved meeting each one (canines as well as their owners). I met Mandy, from Mandy's Running Blog. She is preparing for a 100 mile race in July.

 

A picture of Mandy taking a picture of me.

I'm so glad I participated in this race. I really enjoyed it!

 

(Photo by Glenn Tachiyama.)

 After I was finished running, I went hunting for a few letterboxes in the park. I found three of them! You can read more about letterboxes here.

 

So long folks! (Photo by Glenn Tachiyama)

 

Hot Chocolate 5K/15K

 

 It's that time of year again! This was my 4th running of the Hot Chocolate 5K and 15K. It has become a tradition with my daughter. (See 2015 here and 2014 here.) She absolutely loves the bowl of chocolate at the end of the race, and so do I!

 

In the starting chute at the crack of dawn.

The 5K race starts very early (6:45am) so we had to get out of bed a few hours earlier than our usual daily routine. When the starting horn went off, my girl started out easy and held her pace throughout the whole 3.1 miles.

 

Exiting the Battery Street tunnel. It is a long and humid tunnel. It felt good to be back out in the fresh air.

My husband and son were waiting at the finish line for us. I handed my girl off to the boys and got back in the starting chute with my friend, Tami, to run the 15K that started at 7:55am. We started out easy and enjoyed the morning with about 4,300 other runners.

 

There was no staying dry, even with a rain jacket.

The weather was a little indecisive which is not unusual for this time of year. It rained and that felt down-right cold. I put my rain jacket on, and then the sun came out. I heated up and wrestled my coat back off. This dressing/undressing game went on for 3 rounds. When we reached the finish line and picked up our medals and bowls of chocolate, the rain had returned. So, we headed back to the car to drive home.

 

Showing off our finisher's medals.

I am impressed with how well the Hot Chocolate races are run. They place runners in corrals and start a corral about every 3 minutes. The course includes an out-and-back section that I love because you can cheer on the first runners as they head to the finish line. There are plenty of aid stations along the route that are heavily manned by volunteer groups. This is a really good race for all types of runners from first time races to seasoned runners. I suspect my daughter will be asking to do the race again next year!

 

 

Green River Half Marathon

February 13th was the Green River Half Marathon. It was a flat out and back run on the Interurban trail. Hero joined me for the race. He is such a great running partner these days. He loves to get outdoors and he can just keep running for what seems like eternity.

 

Photo courtesy of Dave Edgeworth

The trail is paved and mostly follows the Green River. It's been raining a lot lately, and the river is running quite high! Not much to say about this morning except that my run went very smoothly.

 

 

The starting line.

 

The group was small, making it a pretty intimate race.

 

The one and only aid station. It was at about mile 6 and again at about 7.5.

 

Crossing over the Green River.

 

At the finish line!