An Impressive Feat

Well, I'm impressed. Impressed with my very own husband - he ran a 100K yesterday - that's 62 miles, plus he got a little bonus in to bring it to 63. And he did it after hanging out at a party on Friday. But that's not what impressed me, no that was the fact that he got home, showered and came up to the hat party. Pretty good after a run, but wait! There's more! Then he danced! Eric is not one of those shy guys that won't dance, I can always get him out on the floor if the music is good. But I really, really did not think it would happen last night. We probably danced through about six songs - normally at this party, we'll spend a couple hours dancing, but I'm not going to complain after the miles he put in. I was mighty impressed. We got home about 11:00 and to bed about 11:30. Then we were on the road at 5:30 am, heading to Olympia to see our friends off at the marathon. I'm even more impressed! I'm married to a trail-running stud.

We got to the marathon and found Rick. He rode up with Patch, who brought his bike to ride along the course and see everyone. It wasn't too long till Hippo walked up, and then the Maniac I ran with in Vancouver, Marilou, and a few others. Shortly after that, Cat came walking up with her family. Today would be Cat's first marathon, and Rick's second marathon in a week (and the first one he was running without me!) Jane and Ray, who are going after four stars, joined us just before the start. After a lecture from the race director about using ipods (not allowed according to the USTAF and therefore, not allowed in this marathon. Using one is reason for disqualification), the cannon went off.

Eric and I walked over to Starbucks (of course) and sat for a few minutes. After finishing our coffee and tea, we decided breakfast sounded good - Eric was starving after yesterday - so we walked down to a little restaurant we'd been to before, only to discover it was closed for another hour. Back to Starbucks for a breakfast sandwich. We followed that up with...a nap in the car. Our seats fold down, so we cranked the heat for a few minutes, turned it off and went to sleep to the sound of the rain hitting the roof. After a nice nap we made yet another trip to Starbucks and then headed a block or so up from the finish line to cheer in the runners.

After about a half hour we looked up to see Jenny and her kids crossing the street to join us. Our friends Margaret and Susan both finished the half and joined us as well, and a while after that Patch and Lesa came. We ended up with a good sized Y Run Club cheering section. We were ringing cowbells for every Maniac we saw and for all the others we knew in the race. We got to see Hippo come in, and Van (who ran 65 miles yesterday at the same race as Eric), TP, and lots of others. We saw Rick and Cat coming from blocks away (isn't it amazing how you can recognize a friend simply by their running style?). We cheered like wild and rushed to the finish to see them. Rick officially qualified to become a Maniac today! And he had a PR time of 4:42:05...quite an improvement from the 5:45+ times he's had running with me. I told you he was fast! We left before Jane and Ray got in - we were sorry to miss them. We had a great morning at the marathon - though we thought we'd get out on the course and chose to nap instead (the consequences of partying and dancing), we had a relaxing morning and a great group lunch on the way home.

I spent part of time this evening studying up on my crew duties for WS100. I checked out the crew instructions and studied the map of the aid stations. I was worrying a bit about the night driving, but it looks much easier than the driving of CCC100. I'm not sure I get to go to quite as many aid stations as I did for Rob - there don't seem to be as many that are accessible. Some of them require hiking in or taking a shuttle in or both. Though most of the ones at CCC were accessible, not all were recommended. I went to them all anyway. CCC was a big loop, WS is a point-to-point. The race booklet actually has instructions for the option of one crew or two crews. Eric will just have one - Steve and I - so there are a few early aid stations we'll miss. I'll figure more out as we get closer, but for now I feel a little more settled about what to expect.

Signing off from the rain shadow of the Cascades, where the 100K runners are light on their feet, the cowbells are a-ringing and the rest weekend is over.