Yesterday was the Sound to Narrows race here in Tacoma, the results for which I have listed below. We were lucky to have absolutely perfect weather, with temperatures in the low 60s at the race start, getting up near 70 by its end. I am also quite pleased to say that running in a crowd had a excellent effect on my performance, as I pushed myself much harder than I had planned on, and managed to complete the race in under and hour. At the beginning of the race I even started to freak out a bit because I was pushing such a fast pace (due to the first mile and half being all downhill), I was a little worried that I wouldn't make it through the park. Fortunately, my hill training paid off, and I even managed to pass a few people on the uphill segments since I didn't have to reduce my speed too greatly.
Official Race Time
Monitored Race Time
To top it all off, there were a number of sponsors offering freebies at the end, one of which is my local favorite, Roman Meal, who happened to be handing out packets of their new hot cereal. I'm sure I've mentioned what high esteem I hold RM bread in, but I'll wax on it once more if no one minds. Whenever I come across a loaf at the store, I always incorporate it into my running diet (nothing quite like an almond butter sandwich before a run). Sadly, locating RM bread is getting to be a harder and harder endeavor. These days I only occasionally come across a loaf at Metro Market, and while I've been told that they sell their bread through other licenses such as Sara Lees, I simply won't accept it if it doesn't have the RM logo. They're about the only bread I'll buy that isn't organic, so forgive me if I'm a bit picky. Oh yes, Bear Naked Granola was also represented at StN, but I'm less pleased about their offering, so I'll say nothing about it.
Since my parents were nice enough to make the trip down from Enumclaw for the race, we all took the opportunity to go to the Farmer's Market down in Olympia afterwards. While there I came across several growers that were offering tomato starts, so I finally got my hands on the Brandywine that I have been talking about growing for a couple years now. Hopefully I'll actually turn out to have a green thumb at it, and can have a nice tomato supply in the fall. Actually, given the fact that my wife seems to abhor tomatoes, I'll probably have more than I can eat, so if anyone is interested in a few, check back with my in a few months.
While on the subject of growing and food, Kami and I watched the documentary Food, Inc. today, and while I was personally horrified by most of what I saw, most of that probably stems from my general aversion to meat. However, I would recommend this movie to anyone wanting to know more about where the food most of us eat comes from. I am definitely going to have to increase the amount of product that I get from local farmers markets though, meat or otherwise.
Finally, I have been reading through a great deal of that Step Beyond book, and I must say that it is a treasure trove of knowledge about running, ultra or otherwise. Many of the sections do only apply for running distances greater than about 25 miles, true, but much of the book has to do with general physiology, about proper diet and recovery techniques, or just fun stories to get you in the running mood. I look forwards to getting through the whole book, just so I can start back at the beginning again! Not often I come across a book like that.
Alright, this has been a very successful weekend. Hopefully the rest of the week will continue to be so as well!
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