Girls Morning Out

We pulled in to the Y parking lot at 4:40 am to find Sonya, Darcy and Jenny waiting. None of the lights were on in the lot, so it was pitch black. Brenda pulled up, and then Wendy. Everyone threw their bags into the back of our car, we said good-bye to Eric and took off. We expected to see Eric and Rob at mile seven, so we were quite surprised to find Eric cheering us on from the side of the road at less than a mile out! We headed down the big hill and into the valley, as we ran through town, we spotted Eric ahead again, this time with the camera.Downtown was closed down tight and there was little traffic. As we approached the train tracks the lights started flashing and alarm bells ringing. We had to wait for a freight to pass. Across the tracks, past the car lots, past the big store and over the river. We turned on to Levee Road and left Puyallup behind. There were no street lights here and in fact, no shoulder. We'd run in the lane of traffic until we'd see a car approach then drop into single file. We saw a few fishermen out on the river, and we saw Eric a couple times. He'd drive by us, hang the cowbell out the window and ring it at us, then park to see if we needed anything. Then we saw Rob drive by and knew they'd be waiting at mile seven as promised. The highlight of this stretch was probably the guy who slowed by, rolled his window down and said "you girls are hard core, man, hardcore". The only thing we could see of him was the lit end of his cigarette. This was a really long stretch of road, and eventually we could see a headlamp coming toward us - it was Rob and Eric, running out to meet us. They checked in, then turned around and ran ahead of us to the car. This turned out to be how all our aid stations would go - they'd drive ahead, park, run to us, then run back. We held to our pace and they'd be ready when we got there.We finally got to hand off our headlamps, and then the next time we saw them, our reflective gear. We were all feeling good, except Wendy - she has had a cramp on the side of her foot for two days. We were now just outside Fife. We took a pit stop at the little park just outside of town, then continued on. We were now on the stretch that I ran in the Rainier to Ruston Relay. This route takes us through the commercial area of town, then through to Tacoma the back way, through an industrial area. We came into Tacoma via an old bridge that goes over the river and a railroad yard, then up one of less attractive streets in Tacoma. Eric and Rob ran back toward us, and warned us that there was a homeless guy yelling up ahead, but not to worry, he seemed harmless. We never did see him. We finally made the turn onto Tacoma's main drag - very nice. Tree-lined, cobblestone and brick, in front of the history museum and the art museum. We turned the corner to head down to the working waterfront and saw the guys again for one last, long aid station. We changed shirts to something a little cooler as the sun was getting stronger, we refilled bottles and packs, grabbed a little something to eat and refilled gels and sharkies. Wendy left us here - at about 13.5 miles. She's signed up for Chicago, and isn't to the 20 miler on her training schedule yet.

Our route took us along the working waterfront, then up and over and dropped us down to another nice shady sidewalk. We were paralleling the waterfront at this point, but were four lanes and a median away. This sidewalk leads into Old Town Tacoma - and just ahead we spotted a few runners coming toward us. Patch (Sonya's husband), Rick, Barb and Lesa had parked down at the water, met up with Eric and Rob, then they all ran back to meet us. It was fun seeing everyone and having a chance to talk. Of course, it wasn't long before they all pulled away, taking Brenda with them, but leaving Barb with us. We ran through Old Town, then dropped back down to the waterfront. If the other part is the working waterfront, then this part is the playing waterfront. This is where you'll find restaurants, parks, skaters, bikers, walkers and runners. We had a chance to stop at the cars here, but didn't need it and kept moving. We had to run two miles out and two miles back to finish up. We all pressed forward, but we were much quieter than before because now it was starting to feel like work.

We kept moving forward (thank you Olga, I could hear you saying "just keep moving forward") and finally reached the end of the sidewalk - it ends in a concrete circle - 18 miles. I did a little dance in the center of the circle - after all, from here to the end, it was all new mileage and I thought that deserved celebration. For some reason at this point, Jenny and I actually got a second wind. Oh, I forgot to mention we picked Brenda back up along the way - the others were going too fast for her today. Brenda seemed fresh, Darcy and Sonya were both a little tired. Sonya was feeling a little sick to her stomach, but we talked about "moving forward" and she did. She kept going and going, till finally, we were done!20 miles in the bank! Our time was 4:26:40 - a little longer than I anticipated (I thought 4:15) but we had many stops, and a couple fairly long ones. I felt a little stiff so I laid down on the sidewalk for some stretching. Then Jenny and I walked about a block to a point where we could get down to the beach, pulled off our shoes and waded in to just over our knees. It was cold, but boy did it feel good. We had an attack of the giggles and had to hold hands to keep our balance - neither of us remembered to bring water shoes, so we were stepping gingerly over rocks and barnacles, trying to stay on our feet. We finally got out of the water, walked barefoot back to Sonya and Brenda, then walked up to coffee.

I had trouble staying awake in the car on the way home - Eric and Jenny were talking, and I kept drifting off. When we got home, I talked to Web for a minute on the phone, then stretched out in a sunspot on the living room rug and went to sleep. Life is good!

Finishing the week:
Thursday: am 4 miles, pm 3 miles
Friday: rest and Pilates
Saturday: 3 miles
Sunday: 20 miles, 4:26:40, avg hr: 140, high hr:161 (on one hill!)

Weekly total: 41 miles