Rains, trains, and headwinds, oh my!

While I was training for the Seattle Half Marathon, I mapped out a lot of potential runs, typically starting at work due to my aversion to Greenwood (all hills, all the time). The route above emerged from those efforts, but due to a slight bit of intimidation, I never attempted it. It contains a big hill! It goes by water, which will usually mean winds! It's 10.3 miles!

...wait. I just ran 13.1 miles just over 3 weeks ago, and that run included a HUGE hill! Seriously, Kristen, what the heck are you so scared of?

So, in a characteristically unfruitful attempt to acquire a running buddy, I posted my route and my plans on facebook. As soon as it cleared and decorated my wall, a terrible, loud sound came from the atrium at work. The dull roar happened to be yet another deluge in Seattle's recent bout of apocalyptic weather. A friend made a comment about seeing Noah's ark in Lake Union and I considered the possibility of staying as dry as a bus ride home would allow. But really...if I allowed rain and wind and early sunsets (4:18pm today!) and scary weather and flood warnings to keep me from running, I'd suffer 3 or 4 months of depression every year. And it wasn't even that cold! Resolved, I threw on my favorite pair of holiday socks, the pair of Nike running shorts that are a size or two too big but still manage to be my favorite, and my awesome-tastic Seattle Half Marathon long-sleeve shirt, set my iPod to tacky pop music (my current guilty pleasure), and set out into the dark, stormy night.

...and apart from some pacing issues and a 10-minute stop to wait for a train to pass, it was a lovely run! Yes, it was rainy. I was fully soaked and a little bit cold when I poured my tired self through the doors of my workplace, where the surprised and amused security guard greeted me in awe of my gumption. Yes, it was dark, but truthfully, it's kind of fun running down Myrtle-Edwards trail with the Seattle skyline in sight, especially at Christmastime, when the top of the space needle is illuminated with twinkle lights. Yes, it was windy. Wow, was it windy by the water, and it did a number on my stamina -- I had some trouble finishing my last two miles, and I gave myself enough of a break to walk up Broad Street (for those of you who don't know, it's quite steep). But, I ran, I finished it, and I feel that much better about myself today because of it. Bring it on, Seattle. Try as you might, you won't scare me with flash floods, wind, darkness, or even snow.

That said, I cannot wait to try this run in the spring/summer on a clear day. It will afford me views of the Sound, the Olympic Mountains (so lovely!), Mount Rainier, and enough daylight to take it all in. The only really negative points were waiting forever to cross Nickerson, running up 14th on West QA hill to get to a traffic-ridden Dravus, and waiting TEN MINUTES for a stupid train to pass before crossing from the Olympic Sculpture Park to Broad Street. I'd give it an 8 of 10.