The last summer trail race

Photo from NW Trail Runs

Summer is certainly winding down. It's been warm this week but since there is much less daylight with the noticeably shorter daylight hours, it doesn't seem quite so hot.  The last midweek trail race series of the summer was Tuesday. Of course I had to do it even though my legs are tired and I'm looking forward to tapering. 

I wanted to see this course in action because i was having a hard time wrapping my head around a 4 loop course for a 10k. Interlaken Trails which are directly adjacent to one of the most beautiful sections of the Seattle Marathon/Half course really appealed to me too. It did not disappoint and I think ended up being a harder course than either of the other 3 venues I raced at this summer.  

Of course, it may have felt harder because my legs are tired, it was hot (85 was the high for the day), I was stuck in traffic for an hour on my way to the race and thus did not get any sort of easy run warm up to loosen the tired legs which got stiff and sore sitting in traffic for an hour.  

I parked at 6:28 pm. The race was scheduled to start at 6:30 but I knew they'd be doing their pre-race briefing.  I'd parked in a super sneaky area less than a quarter mile from the start/finish because i knew a STAIRCASE that would take me right to the area. Ha! Easy parking because those stair runs are teaching me some sneaky tricks of my city.  I got there in time to grab my bib, swing my legs around a bit pretending to loosen up and was ready to go. The race started as usual about 10 minutes late.  

As a result of all the drama getting to the race and my tired legs, I really just wanted a good tempo workout as usual for this event. We started on E Interlaken Blvd which is a paved road which is closed to traffic. It's a main pathway for the Seattle Marathon/Half and a well loved access road for runners, cyclists and neighborhood walkers.  Gradually hilly with some nice turns it was a good way to warm up into the race. I tried to keep this at marathon pace as an easier warm up knowing the heat, training fatigue and trails would make me regret a too fast start. After the turn around and heading back down Interlaken we hopped onto some stairs and onto the trails. And oof! 

There was even a scramble steep and painful straight up. I would've been happier with a ladder it was so steep. I kept trying to grab onto the plants on either side of the trail for more leverage but ferns are not so sturdy.  Up and up we went until gradually we hit some more stairs and came to the high point of the course. Turn around and back down another set of stairs back to a nice gradual downhill and to the road for a short bit to the turnaround. Brutal.  This was a tough loop! Only 3 more to go.  

I just worked on settling into pace such as I could. I saw a friend out running and gave her smack for not doing a trail race that was in her own neighborhood. She claimed she didn't know about it. Too bad! Each loop was 1.55 miles and seemed to go pretty quickly. After 2, i started passing the slower 5k runners and after 3 i was lapping 10k runners. I knew from teh out and back on the road that I was 4th female overall as usual and I was feeling good. 

I made it a point not to get passed by the guy who was behind me and just worked on running strong all the way to the finish. I wasn't running fast that was sure but I was running strong. I had good form and was enjoying the effort.  

1:03:21 that was the slowest 10k I've done! 4th overall female and just 8 minutes off of the first female. Typically I've been around 55-57 minutes for these trail 10ks so yes this was a tough one! I ran pretty even splits too. I had one final hot dog to celebrate. I hope this series comes back next summer. It has been wonderful!

The best summer day

I'm signed up for the Beat the Blerch marathon which is a month away now. This race all takes place on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail. It's an old railroad line which has been converted to a miles long gravel trail. I used to do a lot of runs out on this trail but gradually realized that the gravel trail would bother my hip and I hated the flat trail.  Why did I sign up for this race again? 

It will be fun but i really wanted a long run out on that surface again. I needed to figure out which shoes would work on the gravel and decide if I need to carry water for the race.  Only 17.5 miles later and I figured out the trail shoes I have will work well enough and yes, i will need to carry water. Trail shoes? It's not what I'd consider a "real" trail but my normal road shoes are light and I can feel every rock through them.  My trail shoes are also lighter but they have a rock place which gives a bit of protection. I'd forgotten that the gravel could bother my hip and as I suspected, I've managed to settle that whole hip issue and I didn't have any trouble on the long run at a my long run pace. (knock on wood!)

It was a good run overall even if it got tough and I was happy to get it done. I'd had a really good 12 mile run with 7 (7!) at tempo pace on Thursday. I wasn't exactly expecting my legs to feel peppy and they did not. Still, it wasn't any trouble ticking off the miles at an easy pace. K and I ran together for about 5 miles which was fun and it was quite pretty as the fog in the valley was burning off. 

Since we were already out in the Snoqualmie Valley (about a 30 minute drive from Seattle), we thought we'd combine long run and summer blueberry picking. WE usually go once during the summer and this was a good weekend for it. 

First off, we had breakfast at a small place out in the valley. We don't go out to breakfast too often and this was a treat! And by about mile 14, I was getting really hungry. Why yes, corned beef hash with potatoes and eggs with coffee will hit the spot.  

We headed off toward the blueberry farm and found a a roadside peach stand. Oooh! I'd been debating getting a case of peaches at the local farmer's markets. This roadside stand was even more direct as Yakima area farmers just set up by the side of the road.  And one case was half the price as at the farmer's market. SCORE! 

Teh blueberry farm was busy as expected but it's a big area. We got our buckets and headed off into the field. I set a timer on my phone for 30 minutes and GO! Thirty minutes later, I was hot and my legs were tired and I'd eaten my fill of blueberries. We'd picked 7 pounds and were happy.  

Summer! 

The Birthday Present to Myself

That's right. I gave myself a day off and arranged to go trail running with a friend. Really, it doesn't have to be complicated. It was a gorgeous summer morning and we got an early start to avoid the rush hour traffic. LMA ran ahead as her dog runs better if she is first on trails. That meant I got an added birthday present as LMA cleared all the spider webs on the trail for me as first runner. Ha!  

We were running for time (2 hours) and keeping it very easy. I figured that would be around 9 miles and that's about what it was. I was scheduled for a 12 mile medium long midweek run. On roads that would take around 2 hours. This was definitely more tiring but we did keep it easy and I was happy that everything felt good. It's been a while since I've been on a longer trail run as I thought it was best to stay off a bit to keep the knee happy. We were surprised to see some serious trail work on one section of Shy Bear. The stairs were really nice and then led down to a new footbridge across a creek. Next year will probably be a summer of trails for various reasons (yes planning begins early!) and I also hope to get out for a trail work volunteer session next year. It's something I've always wanted to do. Next year will be a good year to do it. 

And this is it. I gave myself the goal of posting a photo a day for a year last year. This is photo 367. It's been an interesting thing to always have in the back of my head, what should today's photo be? A good exercise in focusing on simple things which deserve appreciation.

The Bright Idea

Do not do this at home.

My trail shoes currently are Solomon Sense Pro. I stopped running trails for a while because the steep uphills were bugging my knee. I was ready to start adding them in now as an easy run here and there. I've done a couple shorter trail races but those trails are such that I've just been using my lighter road shoes. The trails are dry at this time of year and those particular trails are not really rocky so I haven't needed the protection of a real trail shoe.

BUT, I'm going trail running tomorrow for longer (2 hours) on a trail system which tends to be rockier and I need trail shoes. the Solomon Sense Pro are a nice combo of protection and lighter shoe with a good tread. However there is a quick lace system on the shoe. I've tried it a few times and finally decided last time that I need to replace those laces with more traditional athletic shoe laces. The quick lace system gives even distribution of the laces over the entire lacing section of the shoe but I actually need the laces to be tighter closer to the toe. My feet have been slipping inside the shoe and I cannot get it tight enough with the existing system. 

So I snipped off the quick lace system and tried to relace the shoes with an extra pair of shoelaces from another pair of running shoes. A couple hours later, I cannot get anything but the shoe laces that came with the shoe back into the shoe. ARRGH! So annoying!

Actually I had to google the solomon quick lace to see how even to relace the shoe with the originial laces. Yes, it does involve fire. 

Major design flaw.