.: ran the race :.

Yesterday my wife and I had the privledge of running in the St. Patrick's Day Dash in downtown Seattle. We were two of the 15,500 people that showed up for the event, all of which made for a beautiful "sea of green". The 5K (3.5+ miles) fun run began at the Seattle Center and stretched all the way to Safeco Field. It was a blast being able to run down streets that we normally would only be able to drive on. Our favorite parts of the race included the Battery Street tunnel (where a number of runners/walkers were scribbling their names into the dirty walls), as well as all along the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Despite my throbbing ankle, which had been aching for most of the week leading up, we finished the race in 46:20. We both can say that we ran for most of the race (at least 80%), outside of the hills that we used to catch our breath by walking. This run will stick with me for some time as an example of the need for encouragement at times in our lives. Kelly is the reason for why we finished the race as well as we did, at least from my perspective. Her promptings kept me going, even when my tendons were screaming and my feet had gone numb. But there is nothing like coming around that corner on Royal Brougham Way and seeing the finishline in the distance. My mind shifted from begging my body to stop running to suddenly shouting to keep moving as fast as I could. In fact, I seemed to move even faster once I saw all the freebies they were giving away just beyond the end. What a wonderful adventure for both Kelly and I to have taken part in! We are looking forward to doing more of these kinds of runs, as well as taking part in larger races in different parts of the Northwest.