A year ago in the first week of April I had an interview with a company in Connecticut, and the 3 months afterwards were a series of interviews in multiple cities around the U.S. with the Great Wall half-marathon trip thrown into the mix. This was followed by a move from L.A. to Seattle, the purchase of my new employer by a larger pharmaceutical company, moves from one temporary housing to another, and the final decision to keep the scientists (of which I am one) in the company.
A year later, the dust is settling. I flew so much last year that I earned premier status with United Airlines. I moved so much that I got an e-mail about my 'Time Magazine' subscription... and I can't remember which address that subscription was sent to (I've had 5 addresses since July, 2010). And the workplace was such a roller-coaster that I didn't buy a sofa until last month-- after I had received a formal letter of continued employment.
Needless to say, I ran when I could, but didn't really train for any of the races that I did this year. The San Francisco Half wasn't too much of a stretch since it had only been about two months since the Great Wall race. For the Surf City Half in February, I specifically planned a few long runs in December and January to make sure I could make the cut-off time to get my 'California Dreaming' jacket and medal but didn't push myself too much. After that race, I started to slack on my running... a lot.
I was back to rock climbing, I had gotten tired of running in the cold rain or on treadmills, my allergies had kicked in and the medication made me sleepy, and I had just plain gotten lazy.
There was a yearning to feel normalcy when I signed up for the Whidbey Island Half Marathon the Tuesday before the race. They advertised the Whidbey Island Marathon as being on the Lonely Planet's top ten marathons to travel for list (it's #10). I figured that I hadn't done a local long-distance race (not counting the Seattle Turkey Trot) and this race would be worth checking-out.
The longest that I had run in March was 3 miles, so I was realistic enough to understand that I was not going to PR and this race was probably going to hurt a bit. This was a race where I depended on my experience rather than my physical conditioning.
I drove up to Whidbey Island (about 2 hours from Seattle) on Saturday for the race packet pick-up and stayed overnight at a place in Coupeville that was advertised as a B&B but which was actually a Bedroom without the Breakfast (or as my brother put it, a really expensive hostel). I walked to the Coupeville waterfront and looked in almost all of the shops-- which took about an hour, then went back to the B&B and got ready for the race the next morning.
The evening before the race, the wind was howling and I could hear the rain outside. I was worried that I had signed myself up for a miserable 13-mile run. But once I got to the race start, there was no rain. It was very windy and very cold, but it was not raining.
The Whidbey Island Marathon starts on the north part of the island and runs through the forests of Deception Pass before meeting up with the Half-Marathon which started at the Oak Harbor Junior High School. The drive through that area the day before was beautiful with the forests and views of Puget Sound-- though it was very hilly and not an easy marathon course. The Half-Marathon started in the middle of the town of Oak Harbor and ran through the neighborhoods before winding through forests and wetlands back towards town, then out again towards the pastoral farmlands to the turn-around at the painted-green house and mooing cheers from the resident Guernsey cows. It was very cold and very windy throughout the race. People (not just runners) were shivering at the finish line. My hands were red, the hands of the woman who sat next to me on the parking shuttle were blue.
If the sun had come out and the sky had cleared, the views on this course would have been beyond amazing. There were points where, on a clear day, a runner would have been able to see the Olympics on their right and the Cascades on their left with water and luscious green farmland in between. Unfortunately that wasn't the case this year.
One of my favorite parts of this race was how friendly and genuinely nice everybody was. The volunteers were nice, the community came out to cheer on the runners and were genuinely nice, and the runners themselves were friendly and nice. At the race start, the announcer had to ask people to please fill in the front because nobody wanted to proclaim themselves one of the faster runners. There was no elbowing or jockeying for position. And most amazingly, people actually threw their water cups and trash into the trash can along the course! I didn't have to worry about tripping or slipping on water cups or gel-wrappers. The runners didn't litter.
The real pay-off was the happy feeling I had when I was sitting in my car on the ferry back to Seattle. I had been missing the feeling of calm and accomplishment from running long distance.
Is the Whidbey Island Marathon worthy of being one of the top-ten travel races in the world? I'm not sure. It's a great race, and I plan on doing it again next year, but is it like running the Great Wall of China or through the Easter Island Moai?
As for me, this race officially brought me back. I'm now getting back to training. I'm planning for my next race to be the North Olympic Discovery Half-Marathon. It was recommended by a fellow runner during the Whidbey Island race, and by a co-worker. Then after that, I'll pick a fall marathon so I get at least one 26.2 mile race in the 2011 record books.
