Labor Day Half Marathon

I seem to be going for a bit of nostalgia and memory with some of my hike and run choices of late, as I've gone back to some oldies but goodies a number of times. Today I ran the Labor Day Half Marathon with Mike. This race is one of those annual traditions in the Seattle running community. I first ran this race in 1997, and got my personal best for the half on the course, which is flat and fast.

The course now starts in Redmond Town Center, which didn't exist back then, and after circling the Redmond area, basically goes out and back to where the wineries are in Woodinville. The course is as I said flat--it probably has an elevation gain of about 10 feet, plus or minus. The trail parallels the slough, which may have a more formal name these days.

I liked the idea of running this race again, because this is where I grew up. As I told Mike, I can remember biking down this trail as a teenager, to visit Redmond for auto parts and outdoor gear. In particular, I remember carrying a drive shaft to my car in one hand, as a I pedaled my 10 speed to B&B to have something machined. Another time, my cousin and I tried to raft the slough, which I guess they now call the "Samamish River". For me, it will always be "the slough". I think we made it from Marymoor to 60 Acres, before going to shore and begging someone to call a family member. No current. since I actually pulled out of a river earlier this year.

My run today was a little odd. I went in thinking I wouldn't run hard--I seem to do this a lot, despite the fact that the run is technically called a race. Mike and I ran the first two miles, which was pretty cool, since I knew Mike was going to run faster down the way.  I keep a pretty steady pace, but I seemed to be sweating way too much--one of those sweats where you think all the weird minerals are coming out the pores. Magnesium, chlorophyl, whatever. There was a bit of sun and UV, so that might've been it. I slowed down the slow bus a few times, but I was pretty steady. I finished in 2:22, which is actually faster than I've been running of late. Much room for improvement, but I'm running a bit more these days.

Mike and I saw some sort of big fish in the slough, making ripples, and then watched a heron go after it. This all went down in a matter of seconds, but was pretty cool.

One of the things I liked about the race was all the t-shirts, with runners representing all sorts of places. I saw Maui, the Big Island, Brooklyn, Club Northwest, Finn Hill, Poulsbo, and so on. This is an event for people racing, and the winning time was under 1:10. Picture of leader below.  They also had lots of eats at the end, a nice shirt and medal, all for a pretty good price.

Afterwards, I visited Mike's place, and then my cousin Paul's, before making the pilgrimage up I-5 through the returning-home Labor Day traffic. Listened to Field Notes to a Catastrophe, by Elizabeth Kolbert, about global warming. Not a rosy picture.