Amy and I ran the 8k Beat the Bridge event last Saturday. It was the first running event I’ve ever participated in and it was a lot of fun!
Unfortunately, I wasn’t thinking clearly in the early AM when we were on our way to the event and I decided to take 520 into UW. The Montlake Bridge exit was so messed up that we didn’t make it into the parking lot from that direction in time. We ended up spending 1 hour and 45 minutes in traffic trying to get around the UW campus and into the parking lot from the north side. During our parking shenanigans an interesting thing happened.
At one point we were behind a Chevy Aveo. This particular blue Aveo had an “Army of One” or “Go Army” sticker on the back (I forget the phrase..) which was hap hazardly taped into the window. It made the sticker, and the car, look particularly sad. As I was pondering the phrase I often describe cheap cars with, “a five hundred dollar car”, a very large amount of smoke began to rise from the engine bay on the drivers side. The car caught on fire in the middle of heavy stopped traffic before the Montlake bridge. Without skipping a beat, some of the passers by on foot (going to the race) stepped out to help the girls’ Aveo off to the side of the road. Later that day when telling the story to our friend (also named Sean) at the event, he said, “…and GM is failing?” Terrible of me, but yes.. the whole situation made me laugh as soon as it happened. I’m glad it wasn’t more serious and nobody was hurt and I feel bad for whoever owned the car, but it is a statement in its own right that really resonated with my own thoughts and feelings about the US auto market.
Back to the event: It was wall to wall people all lined up and ready to go in waves of racers. You had the sub 7-minute mile “wave 1″, the sub 8 minute mile “wave 2″ and the “8 minute mile or greater” wave 3. Amy, Sean and I were in wave 3. I was sticking this out with Amy as we do things like this together.
The event was awesome. There was an energy about the crowd. The organized, uncouncious collective of the competitors was incredibly cool. Add to that the sheer joy of being able to run in major roads, two bridges, through a neighborhood in the streets… how often do you get to do that?
When it was all said and done, Amy and I ran an average of 12 minute miles. The sun and heat kicked our butts as well, so after we had a killer lunch at Rock Bottom in Bellevue, the day was essentially over.
Next up: A weekend recording music for Silver Standard, a vacation to the east coast (Virginia and D.C.), plans with friends for a fun June filled with BBQs and nights out, Sliptide music, and planning a wedding and honey moon. ^_^