Reflections on "Sound to Narrows" 2010

Returning to your past is often a surreal experience.

My first impressions of the "Sound to Narrows" experience were formed out of my youth as we carpooled from Rochester High School with a few of my track teammates and our coach. We did this for two or three years. I remember one year snagging my sweatshirt on a mailbox as we ran warm ups. (I know, we thought we were so cool running a warm up before a 7.5 mile race.) I remember what seemed like a huge crowd. I remember some of the race(s). I remember the final hill. Oh, that final hill.

I remember anxiously waiting for the paper to publish the results a few days later. Dreaming that someday I would make the top 200 that get listed in a special section. Conveniently, I don't clearly remember my times. I could have finished in 56 minutes, I could have finished in 46 minutes. I don't clearly remember. My best guess is somewhere around :52 or :49.

So, upon arriving to my first "Sound to Narrows" race in about 21 years, I was struck by several factors. I was no longer comparing this experience to those events 21 years ago, I was comparing them to my experience running Bloomsday in Spokane 8 years ago. Bloomsday takes Spokane over. Most people in Tacoma had little to no idea the Sound to Narrows race was happening. Bloomsday registration takes a convention center. Sound to Narrows registration happens in REI. Starting areas for Bloomsday take up many city blocks. The starting area for Sound to Narrows took about one. Bloomsday brings in international racers offering prize money. Sound to Narrows has none.

My perspective had changed. What was once this big grand event in my mind, turned into a nice middle sized experience.

Pat, who started this latest running experience for me came down to run this as well. We met up at the starting area and I spent some time taking in the differences from this race to Bloomsday, that took a minute to get used to. We got our bib numbers on. The night before I realized I had forgotten the charger for my Garmin and I was disappointed not to have it. I wanted to have that record of the event. We had different race goals and although we tried to start together Pat graciously let me go when we got about a half mile in.

I stormed down the hill (remembering my regret from 21 years ago of not attacking that down hill more) it was great to pass a bunch of folks (part of the advantage of going in the second wave of runners.) It wasn't long though into mile 2 and 3 that I realized I was in for a chore of a race. There are NO flat areas on this course you are either going up hill or down hill. As the crowd thinned I also noticed that a few of us were basically keeping the same pace. Some slower up hills, some slower down hills.

Then there is the final hill. Phew, really I am pretty proud of myself for running up the whole thing. It didn't end. Finally we came up over the hill into the short final stretch. Time for the speed. I turned up the pace and looked at the clock 1:04, dang, I was momentarily disappointed until I realized that my start was 5 minutes AFTER the first wave! A final sprint to the finish and I was in just under one hour, Yippee.

I started walking up the course hoping to find a place to get a picture of Pat, but alas, he came to quickly and I wasn't able to get the picture.

Overall I was happy with the time, great to get some race experience and renewed in the realization that 26.2 miles is a LONG race. I need more work to be able to finish Portland well.