We are back from a wonderful weekend in Seattle and Whidbey Island! We had a wonderful time, everyone ran a great race, everyone conquered the course and the hills which is a huge accomplishment! I will quickly break down each day for you.
Friday we took off without a hitch even though we had that bad storm during the night. I was so nervous and hardly sleptthe night before. I was sure the flight was going to be delayed for hours but it was uneventful actually! Once we arrived safely we drove into the city in our 2 rental minivans to explore! We went to Pike’s Place Market which was crowded, found a place to eat with all 14 of us (a bit stressful actually with 14 hungry women:) and then some of us went up in the Space Needle ($16!!!) since it was such a clear day. It was spectacular scenery! I forgot to tell you, the Dalhli Lama and Dave Matthews were in town so the city was packed. We did not know this but the place we had reservations for dinner was the location that they had been hours earlier! It was busy! Dinner was excellent! Center City Bistro and Bar treated us so well!! Please visit them if you are ever in Seattle! It was a great start to our first day in the city!
Saturday we got going around 9am which was hard for some of us. The Holiday Inn was sold out and loud! There were kids on the floor above us that loved jumping on beds until all hours of the night, fun!! Ugh! Anyway, we got going and at this point we have 3 cars because Kristin and Scott (Kristin is a member who moved out to go to Univ. of Washington for grad school and was the coach for Carrie’s group andScott is her boyfriendwho was allowed to hang out with us this weekend since he is our mascot, Potato Head (more explanation to come)) are following us in their car. Of course we get split up on the freeway but it all worked out! Starbucks was a must stop along the way! We had decided to tour the tulip and daffodil fields in the Skagit Valley, about an hour north of Seattle in Mount Vernon. Side note, Dawn made it known she was not excited about this side trip! She was outnumbered though! The violet tulips were out in the field we stopped at but many others were not. The daffodil fields were gorgeous, all yellow for as far as you could see andwith the mountains in the background, just gorgeous! We took a lot of group photos! They will be posted to the website hopefully soon. We were getting hungry so we were told to eat at a town called LaConnor. It was such an idylic day that everyone able to was out and about. LaConnor was busy andwe were hungry so we split up to findfood!! We met back only to find there was a parade through town and the fire department was throwing out beads! Oh, was that hit with our group! We ended up with lots of beads and kept our clothes on!!! We loaded up andheaded to the island and to the race expo. Right when we got to the expo there was a competetion for an IPod Suffle. The kicker was that you did not know what you were getting yourself into if you volunteered. Well, many of our group jumped at the chance and it ended up being a spelling bee! It came down to Carrie and Kristin and Carrie pulled it out! Suffice it to say, by the end of the spelling bee most people knew there were crazy women from MN running their race! It was a blast! Way to go Carrie! Some of us also drove the course which was good and bad for some (Tracy about had a heart attack in the van because of the hills). We stayed for the pasta dinner which was all organic so I really enjoyed it! Back to the hotels for a good night sleep!
Race day, Sunday! 8:30am start. It was a bit chillier today, 45-50 degrees andovercast with some wind. It was so hard to know what to wear. There were not many complaining since most of us felt this was nicer weather then we had been training in for months! There were nerves at the start but Kristin led us in some cheers which made some feel silly but that was the whole point, fun and crazy ladies from MN!!! We all had on our red race shirts with Twin Cities, MN on the back which was the smartest idea. Many strangers stopped us to talk because they have a relative or know someone who lives in MN. It was fun to meet lots of people! They definitely will remember our loud, crazy group!
Scott was called PotatoMan because he put that name on his registration form and they put all of our names on our race bibs! He had forgotten all about his funny joke! We had a really big laugh over it! I guess the story is he was sitting eating a potato when he was filling out the registration form and was trying to come up with a silly name. Imagine if he had been eating asparagus or something!
The gun went off about 10 minutes late and we were off up a hill right away, ugh!! The hills started right away and were throughout the entire course but with the ups came the downs which were so nice! There was one down that was a bit more extreme and our quads paid for it! The course was really nice but surely tough on all of us. I think I can speak for most that they are very glad they ran the race and if they can make it through this course they can make it through most other courses! I am so proud of each of them. The order we came in: Scott, Robin, Sonya, Dawn, Carrie, Sarah, Roxanne, Kristin, Alice, Ruth, Jess, Kim, Tracy, Sue, Vicki, Shelley. Sonya was 2nd in her age group!!! She pointed out today that if she had not had to make a pit stop she would have probably been first. She is first in all of our hearts! It was raining at the end so we went to Starbucks, big surprise, and went back to the rooms to rest most of the afternoon. We had to say goodbye to Sue Greenwaysince her work had decided to make her fly on the red eye Sunday night to NYC to be at a meeting at 8am Monday morning, we all felt so bad for her. The rest of us had decided to hop a ferry to Port Townsend for the evening and we had some cocktails and a great dinner at a Brewery and Ale House right on the water. So nice! We took the 8:30pm ferry back and you would think we would have been exhausted, well many were but not exhausted enough to by pass 31 flavors! Tracy had called to ask if they were open andwhen we found out that they were open until 10pm I think everyone’s heart lept! Great day full of accomplishments, celebrations, friendship, and fun!!!
Monday we packed up and left by 8:30am. We stopped at Deception Pass for pictures and continued on to REI, the original flagship store in Seattle. We were there for about an hour shopping and then headed to the airport. All was so uneventful so far and while we were sitting in an airport lounge eating lunch I said that very thing and also said I just hope nothing happens to our plane. I should have not said that! We got to the gate only to find out that the plane was delayed for 2.5 hours because it had been struck by lightning on the last flight and they had to check it thoroughly (thank you for doing that I say). Ugh, but it was really ok for most of us. I know some of us had to rearrange our morning schedules for Tuesday. We got in around 11pm or so, safe and sound.
It was a totally successful weekend by far, beyond my wildest dreams! We have an amazing group of women and I hope to experience these fantastic memories with each and everyone of you someday soon!
If you see any of these ladies tell them great job because they REALLY accomplished something big and memorable!!!
Coach Kim
