2007 Capital City Half Marathon.

Both times I've run the Capital City Half Marathon (2005, 2007) it has rained. The nice thing about the rain (in both cases) was that it only rained hard enough to provide a bit of cooling.

Melissa kicked me out of bed at 5:00 AM, and we drove from Seattle to Olympia. Parking and getting to the start was no problem. I'm also happy to report that this year's shirt was gray, long-sleeve, technical, and printed with an appealing logo design. Very nice! Worth keeping. I can toss another cotton race shirt.

There was only a moment to stay warm inside a Starbucks before our group was called to the start line. A cannon -- not a pistol or air horn -- signaled that the race was on. The quintessential Western Washington scenery of Puget Sound vistas and Douglas Fir trees lined the race course. The dome of the State Capital Building would appear and disappear in the trees as we made our way around the city. Melissa pulled ahead, and finished a full 15 minutes before me. She was grinning ear-to-ear when I saw her near the finish (where Chuck took the above photo of me) because she knew that they were handing out finisher metals -- something they didn't do in 2005, and something I'm still sore about.

We rewarded ourselves with a breakfast at McMenamin's Spar Cafe.