Return of the Great Sedro-Woolley Footrace

 

The Fourth of July tradition around here is to run the Great Sedro-Woolley Footrace, aka Loggerodeo.  The run normally precedes a 4th of July parade, with people in lawn chairs lining the street on the last two turns of the run, watching guys like me huff it in.  The run is 5.17 miles long, with a 2 mile option, and the locals of Woolley, including the Rotary Club, and the running club stalwarts, have much to do with it coming off.

I've done this event a dozen times or so. Its low cost, comes with a t-shirt, and is basically a great way to kick of the holiday.  I ran into many friends this time around--great hellos and such.

I guess I'm burying the lead. This was the first race for many, many, in a long long time, due to the pandemic closures. I snuck in the Montana Marathon last fall, but for many this was the first timed, organized event in over a year. Lots of smiles, without masks.

It's been hot. We had record heat this past week, with temperatures rising above 110 in some places. I've struggled with it, as I don't do well with heat, and we don't have air conditioning. Thankfully the office has a/c, which helped for a few days. We took a couple of the grandkids to the local spray park one day--good times. Thank you Parks and Rec.

I ran well for me at the Footrace. 45:20 something, which is basically 9 minute miles, which shouldn't be a big deal, but that's the best I've done in several years. I also had a head cold, and so if not for that, I probably would've ran a 35 minutes or so. Probably not, but maybe a minute better. 

I continue to participate on my virtual team, circling the world and logging miles each day. Right now we're in Burma, having come up through Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.  I'm logging 40-50 miles a week, generally.  My miles aren't too much on trail, and there's not a lot of hill work, but I've been pretty consistent. This program will continue on for at least 6 months more, which is good for me, as the team concept holds me accountable to my teammates for my miles/kms. This is sometimes enough to get me out the door on a rainy day, but we probably won't get one of those until September. Summer, it turns me upside down.