6.57 Miles - Just For The Hill Of It!

There is an old phrase that came to mind while I was running in the beautiful metropolis of SeaTac today:

• There is no amount of planning that can replace dumb luck.

Well, that just wasn't the case for me today. I decided since I had a 9 1/2 hour trip to Seattle and it was still early I would get on the computer and map out a run that went from my hotel to the Puget Sound. I have wanted to plan a run there from the hotel for the past two years and today just seemed like the perfect opportunity. The sun was shining bright, the traffic was light since it is a holiday weekend, and my energy level was great.

So I mapped out a simple course from my doorstep to the shores of the sound on my handy dandy website I use from google. It is a mapping site that allows a person to map a route from point A to point B and gives the exact miles, contour of the route, and other helpful information us analytical runner types like to use. Here is the link to my path...

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1233062

Nice little 4.27 mile route from the hotel to the water and only about a 400' incline throughout the entire route. Sounds like a great plan to me... I figured I would run about a 8.5 minute pace and I should arrive at the water in about 35 - 40 minutes and then hang out at the beach, soak up some rays and watch the sunset. If you look at the map you can see my ending point... now go about 3 miles south... I ended up at Des Moines Beach Park... ooops! Not even close!

What a great plan eh... well there were a few holes in my brilliant plan that I didn't consider and my 8 1/2 mile round trip run turned into a half marathon. Here are some of the planning "mis-judgments" I encountered:

1. I have no printer so I couldn't print the route, I tried to look at it an remember it.
2. The 400' incline was from the water to the main road... I didn't take into account that the trail descended and ascended numerous times so I probably climbed a total of 1800-2000 vertical feet on the entire trip.
3. I forgot some turns so I ended up getting lost and ran 2.3 miles out of the way.
4. I forgot my water bottle. (ran into QFC and bought one at mile 7.8)
   
5. I haven't ran in a week.
6. I am too stubborn to turn around until I get to my destination.
   
7. Some streets are dead ends...
   

These little mishaps turned my leisurely run into a grueling half marathon. I did survive and I will probably run it again here pretty soon. As I was running I had two things stuck in my head. One was the quote I shared above and the other was a slogan I heard one time from a tv commercial. I can't remember who it is or what it was for but it goes something like this.

• He came for the views... but he stayed because his freakin legs cramped up.

Enjoy the photos:

Here is one of the hills I tackled early on:


This picture shows the dock I saw while running. If you click on it and look over the roof of the condos you can see the dock stretch out into the sound. I went all the way to the end of it. At the furthest point I was at the 6.57 mile mark:


Photos from the dock walkway:
















weapher