19 Cent Half-Marathon

Have you ever had to beg for a quarter to run 13 miles? Ever had to flag down a car for the privilege of running? I never had to…until Sunday.

After separately climbing Mt Si on Saturday, Kim (who had not climbed) and I set out for a long run on Sunday from Marymoor Park. While her boyfriend Doug rested at my house with the other friends, we left at 0700 and conveniently left all of our money behind. After parking the car and noticing the $1.00 required parking fee, we began to look for funds for pay for parking.

I dug through my dirty change drawer in my car and came up with $0.81. Kim kept asking if I had more but that was it. I did not want to dig around the seats so we looked for someone to ask. There was a Volvo parked nearby and I went and talked to the guy. He was nice and a runner but he said that he only had a $20 and then we talked about different routes to take.

Meanwhile, he and Kim got to talking, and we ended up with the three of us planted in front of an SUV – STOP! we shouted and the guy looked kind of freaked out. She asked him for some money (to avoid towing or a ticket) and think he was shocked enought to give us a couple of quarters,

It was a weird experience to be in but I put my dollar in change in the machine and the guy we met (Greg) and us set out ….

My legs were dead from the day before and it took every effort to keep going. At about 4 miles I asked if we needed to turn around to make the time for the Sunday brunch in Seattle and unfortunately, not, we should keep going.

We agreed to go to 6.6m turn around on the trail and I started to seriously think of the cookies I had in my backpack! We talked a long time with Greg and he told us of lots of runs in Seattle while all I wanted to do was to get back.

Which we did eventually after 13.2 miles – though 10 minute miles are awfully slow. Moral of the story is to never commit to half marathons after 7500 feet of elevation up and down the day before (unless it is late February ) and he was a nice guy to run with us.

Oh and always bring plenty of money!!