For many years, friends of mine from where I used to live in the Great Pacific Northwest had been encouraging me to come back to Washington State to participate in their respective marathons. Bob and Lenore Dolphin – Co-directors of the Yakima River Canyon Marathon (YRCM) in Yakima WA and Brian Oster – Race Director of the Whidbey Island Marathon (WIM) in western Washington – are all experienced Event Directors so I knew their events were of the highest quality and afforded a lot of fun, but I had never taken the opportunity to go North to visit.
This year in addition to the standard challenges of traveling for any run, there was one more difficulty with doing either of these events – the YRCM was on Saturday, April 3rd and the WIM was on Sunday the 4th. I did not feel that I could make such a trip to do only one event while missing the other! To further complicate matters, my friend Tawni Gomes, covergirl of the current May 2004 Good Housekeeping magazine, had asked me to run the WIM with her which I definitely wanted to do.
As with most “difficulties” it became apparent that there was also a positive spin and only one solution – I could run both of my friends’ events while making only one trip back to Washington State!
My Seattle enabling friend Steve Barrick was instrumental in making it all happen. When I proposed this scheme to him, he was instantly on board and started making ground transportation plans. To this point, he had been uncertain as to which marathon, if either, he was going to run.
With my decision in his pocket, he too decided to participate in both the YRCM and the WIM, which I am sure made his wife and family happy. I truly am such a great influence!!
At 4:30am that Saturday, Steve, his running buddy Steve Hamling and I headed East for the three hour trip to Yakima. Upon our arrival we were greeted by Directors Bob and Lenore who were very excited to have us there. I felt like a celebrity as I made my way to packet pickup and people kept stopping us to have their photos taken. Martin Rudow, editor of the fine regional magazine Northwest Runner, and a local television news crew also took note of our being there. It took over a half hour for us to make our way through packet pickup with all of the attention! I do admit that it was nice to be back in the fold and to see many marathoners with whom I had shared a lot of experiences over the years. Several members of the “Marathon Maniacs” – a group of athletes who have completed various wacko marathoning feats - were there also. When they learned that I intended to do another 26.2 mile run the day after, co-originator Steve Yee encouraged me to join because I certainly qualified to be in their ranks!
It was then that I also realized many Steves run marathons!
The event itself was well organized and very runner friendly. Co-director Bob ran also and with his other 300+ marathon finishes, he and his wife Lenore certainly know how to put on an event!
Afterward we all headed back to the Seattle area where we went out to a 50th birthday party for our running friend Pete Grove then meandered sleepily back home to prep for the next day’s marathon.
With another 4:30am start, this time we drove north to the town of Oak Harbor near where the Whidbey Island Marathon was to start. Steve Barrick and I had even picked up another person to share in this two-day odyssey from the previous day. Jason, who had noted that it was not possible to register on the day for the WIM rode along and we were indeed able to get him registered for his back-to-back marathon experience. I am sure that he was thanking us later – like around mile 23!!
Indeed Marathon Maniac Steve Yee was there to finish his double and Tawni was on time to the start so I knew that there was no backing out now. Tawni was glad that I had actually shown up (I told her that I do not break promises like that!) because we had already made a pact to run together with her friend Natalie who was doing the half.
We were welcomed by RD Brian Oster and once again participated in a great and well-organized event. Our slower pace from the day before was very welcome as we ran through beautiful scenery and hilly terrain. As I had begun the marathon barefoot, my only problem all day was the extremely harsh (and newly paved!) chip-seal tarmac. After Natalie’s half, she and her mom Carol were kind enough to deliver some shoes to me at mile 21 to make the last 5 miles even more pleasant. Tawni and I finished up in fine style completing a challenging marathon for us both and the two-day marathon journey for me.
The entire PNW experience was fun and getting to meet up again with so many folks who were such a part of my fledgling marathoning career many years ago was very fulfilling. I can only hope that someday some of those same folks will come South to visit me. I even told them they do not have to run any marathons while they are here!