Salmon Run 5K race report

It will come as NO SURPRISE to readers of this blog that the running fell off. A combination of a couple of injuries (Damn that hip flexor! What's going on with that ankle?) and alternate areas of focus (Kilimanjaro! Fuji!) meant that I essentially switched from running shoes to hiking boots. But I miss running. I never ever thought I would say that, but I really do.

So I decided to set myself a part of my 2020 Vision challenge of running at least 5K at least 20 times. And, of course, that made me look at races, and well, I signed up for some. More on that later.

By SkagitRiverQueen at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47474503

I love the town of Concrete, and visiting their Eagle Festival had been high on my list for 2020. So when I saw the festival included a 5K run/walk, well, how could I resist?

We drove north from Seattle on a quiet Friday after work -- so great to have so little traffic because most people were still not back in their offices after the holidays! We had decided to treat ourselves by booking a cabin at Rasar State Park -- really lovely, and I would love to stay there again (perhaps in nicer weather...).

Saturday morning we got up and drove out to the Double O Ranch, which was hosting the race on their land. During the drive we had big splatting rain, drizzle, and sunshine -- including seeing a rainbow as we turned down the lane.

We went to sign in, picking up our cozy fleece neck gaiters, and looking at the course map. Yeah, I took a picture of it... though I will say they had good markers and people at the various turn / split points.

We could have waited till 10am for the official start... but given that we seemed to have a little break in the weather (and we weren't going to be running the whole thing, therefore not in contention for any award), we set out at 9:45, walking down the hill toward the river, breaking into a trot when it leveled out.

We turned right just before the river, following the edge of a field, on a bumpy, grassy track. We walked this, too -- I'm too blind and clumsy to run on a rutted path!

Then up into some foresty area, and on to the water stop. We admired the very handsome pug who was working as a mascot, exchanged chitchat with the volunteers, and moved on. We walked a bit, ran a bit -- but mostly walked. Eventually we turned back toward the water stop to complete the first, larger circuit, and noticed some runners on the other side.

Past the water stop again, through the forest on the small loop, and then we turned left (no third loop!) and headed back to the start. As we got pretty close, we noticed a runner coming up behind us, so moved well off to the side. We stopped a few yards short of the finish line to let a second runner cross, and then essentially just smiled at the people and went to the car. It was a *little* weird that they didn't acknowledge us in any way, but whatever. We weren't wearing our neck gaiters so maybe they thought we had just walked off the street? Eventually we made a point of telling them our names in case they worried later that we hadn't finished... but it was still weird.

Still, we got out, did a little running, and it was a little like the old days. And it was my first run of 2020!