“A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive.” - Walt Disney

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Don't Worry, They Took Out the Big Hill

The R'n'R Seattle Half is just around the corner - literally - it's this weekend!  Emails are flying around with last-minute race instructions from the race director, and frantic group planning of dinners/meet-ups/etc is going on.

So...maybe it's finally time to really study the course, right?  Now, I will freely admit that I'm not "racing" this one - I'm just there to have fun, enjoy the scenery, and bask in the cooler temperatures of the pacific northwest.  And I'd had a few friends tell me "don't worry - they changed the course and took out the big hill," so that seemed encouraging.  And then I saw this:


And then the math nerd in me took over and needed to crunch some numbers... According to the elevation profile above, that hill just before mile 9 looks like this:

8.69mi = 57ft el.
8.82mi = 270ft el.
213ft el. gain in 0.13mi  = 31% grade

Wowsah!!!

Well, good thing I didn't have any big plans for the course, LOL!  And while that hill may be a bugger, I'm still really looking forward to this race.

As most of you know from reading previous posts, I've purposefully taken a more relaxed approach to racing this spring in order to "find the fun" again.  And I think it's working!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Oh You're Not a Runner?...You Are Now!

After discussing with her my slight fear that we're going to get eaten by bears while hiking at Glacier National park, a good friend of mine was kind enough to share the following item:



Too funny!  Hopefully BFF and I won't need to put our running skills to the test out on the trails - after completing a half marathon a couple days before, I'm not sure we'd get very far!