Fitness

Sunday, March 18th is the annual "Big Climb" benefiting The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. For those unfamiliar with the event, it involves running (hopefully) up the 69 flights of stairs in Seattle's Columbia Tower. I have no delusions about my performance in this event -- I'm planning to conservatively pace myself in the fantasy that I might actually finish all 1,311 steps. I'll be trying my hardest to keep up with Kevin Wagner.

You can help motivate me by donating a few dollars.

Ten of us (Melissa, Rachele, Leslie, Dan, Bethany, Dan, Roger, Schelley, Patrick, and me) got together this year to run the 23rd Annual Henry Weinhard's St. Patrick's Day Dash in downtown Seattle. The race starts at the Seattle Center every year, runs down the failing Viaduct, and finishes at Safeco Stadium in Seattle's SoDo. Despite the poor weather, more than 15,000 runners come out for the slightly longer than 5K run. That's a record number of participants, exceeding last year's number by almost 3,000. We finished the race and made a rainy dash to Kells Irish Pub for some mid-morning breakfast. The route map was recorded with my Garmin Forerunner 305.

Late February marks the very beginning of the cycling season in Seattle. The weather is usually far from optimal, but thousands of bicyclists thinking forward to the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic (STP for short), the Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party (RSVP for short), the Ride Around Washington (RAW for short), the Washington Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's Bike Tour (MS 150 for short), and any other tours they may have planned for the year get up early in the morning and trek by ferry to Bainbridge Island for a ride they will not soon forget.

Melissa and I were to meet a group of friends at pier 52 on Seattle's waterfront to take the ferry to Bainbridge Island early Sunday morning, so the rainy weather wasn't enough of an excuse to bag out. People were counting on us to share the misery that is Chilly Hilly. Little did we know that most of our "friends" are fair weather cyclists conspiring to leave us in the cold. Three of the ChuckIt running group members that are training for an upcoming Iron Man showed, but the majority stayed home in their warm beds. Being a fair weather runner myself, I can relate to opting for a warm bed over being out in cold, miserable weather, but it's not like they didn't know before hand. After all, it's called Chilly Hilly for a reason.

Sans the camaraderie we expected to enjoy, we boarded the ferry and commenced the 33 mile slog. The rain and wind were pleasant perks [said with sarcasm]. Hills were definitely not the challenges this year -- the challenges were 8 mile per hour average wind speeds and periods of downpour separated by trademark Northwest drizzle. It was also cold (44^oF), but that goes without saying.

Melissa was a real trooper. We were both pretty despondent, but abstained from taking the shortcut at mile 20 in favor of finishing the full 33 mile ride. If it weren't for our Arc'teryx waterproof shells, I would have called it quits.

A pop and cyclical hiss emanated from my front tire just four miles shy of the finish line. My decade-long luck ran out in that instant. There was a roofing nail stuck straight through my tire and tube. I had to tell my self that it could have been worse. At least it was my front tire. At least it wasn't during one of the periodic downpours. At least we were close to the finish.

A slight overhang of somebody's garage provided enough shelter for my impromptu bike maintenance. I change only the tube, knowing that I'd have to redo the repair later because of the inavoidable grit introduced by the wet weather. The sand and dirt acts like a little knifes between the tube, wheel and tire if allowed to remain. We were back on the road fifteen minutes later, no worse for the wear.

In finishing, Melissa declared that running a marathon was easier than what we'd just completed. I disagreed. Our pace was poor, and the ride felt more like a task than recreation, but it was all because of the rain. A 33 mile ride -- even with some hills -- is a piece of cake under less extreme conditions. We decided that a Bainbridge Island ride later in the year would be worth a try.

My Garmin Forerunner 305 delivered the route map and a Google Earth file for this year's Chilly Hilly. Also, the Cascade Bicycle Club deserves accolades for organizing and supporting the ride for the past 34 years.

Melissa -- now the proud owner of an 8GB iPod Nano (Product)^RED -- turned me on to the best workout mixes I've ever heard. DJ Steveboy mixes hour-long tracks of 130 to 180 beat-per-minute ear candy. It's the sort of music that makes you want to throw up your arms and dance while you run. Not even the music from Rocky touches the sort of nerve that PODRUNNER tracks tickle. Take a dose for your next run.

You can get it through iTunes:

Homecoming Week at the University of Washington is kicked-off with the Dawg Dash 5K and 10K races. This marked the 21st year of the Dawg Dash, and the third or forth time that I've run the race. It's difficult to recall how many times for certain since another race I run (Nordstrom's Beat the Bridge 8K) starts from the same location at Husky Stadium. Unlike Nordstrom's Beat the Bridge, the Dawg Dash 10K zigzags through the University's campus in a manner reminiscent of a Freshman's first day of classes, when they have no idea how to get from their English 101 to Stats 111 in the 10 minutes allotted by their class schedule. We ran through the Quad, around the Business School, behind Denny Hall, and next to Drumheller Fountain (twice). I could almost swear that the same route was required in one of my class schedules.

There were 1,200 runners in this year's 10K race, a number they announced just before the start. Blue skies and a temperature in the mid-50s greeted us. If it weren't for my lousy performance at this year's race, I'd say things were perfect. My legs were exceptionally heavy, and I finished at miserable 1:00:07. Let's hope that my ChuckIt training regimen gets me ready for the Seattle Half Marathon (November 26th).

In the beginning of October for the past four years, I've hopped on the Victoria Clipper at the Seattle waterfront, and headed to the island capital of British Columbia. For the past four years, I've lined up in the early morning of that October weekend with several thousand other runners to enjoy 13.1 miles of a thoroughly pleasant half marathon. The weekend has become a very special ritual, which includes a stay at the funky Ocean Island Hostel, a visit to The Wine Barrel for my annual stock of the extremely rare Ice Merlot, and melancholy memories of the good times running the race with my ex-girlfriend (before she was my ex). Unlike previous years, I wear this year's race shirt and bib as a badge of shame, because I am a fair-weather runner. Although Saturday was a beautiful Autumn day, perfect for running, Sunday was cold, rainy and miserable. As much as I really, really wanted to add that metal to my collection, I couldn't get motivated to do the race in the rain. Having run a full marathon in a torrential downpour, I can do without another experience involving bloody socks and chafing. I can respect the people that run races in the rain, but I don't envy them.

I'll return for next year's race with my fingers crossed in hopes of good weather.