Seafair is a crazy fun time around the Seattle area, and it all kicks off with the Torchlight the 5k and 8k Run, which is followed by the Torchlight Parade. On a fun note, the Torchlight Run was actually my first race exactly 5 years ago, and I did it with the same two people this time around (and these two Torchlight races are the only races we’ve ever done together). It’s amazing how much has changed since that first race! I was WAY into bodybuilding at that point, but am in WAY better shape now, thanks to CrossFit.
This whole day was pretty insane, so let me start from the beginning. I woke up, immediately took my Jack3d, and walked to the gym to do a workout that consisted of 20 minutes of non timed or recorded 10 overhead presses @50lb DB’s and 10 L position pull ups. After the workout, I ate my normal breakfast of eggs, spinach, string cheese, oatmeal, blueberries, and milled flax. From there I went with a good friend to test drive cars for a few hours, which was a blast! Then I had to figure out how to get both my CrossFit Endurance workout completed and the Torchlight Run. The CrossFit Endurance workout was 4 times 5k with 5-10 minutes rest between sets. I knew that the drive into downtown Seattle was going to be rough, so I decided to park 6.2 miles (or 10k) away from the race start and run into downtown Seattle; and that’s exactly what I did.
I parked in Greenwood, loaded up on water and electrolytes, and hit the road. I started out on Fremont Ave for a couple of miles and then hooked up with Aurora. This is a hilly part of Seattle and I was almost immediately having second thoughts about my idea of fun. Also, all of my fluids were swishing around in my stomach because I overloaded. Overloading always seems like a good idea until you do it! Just as I started huffing and puffing up the Aurora bridge my Garmin chimed that my first 5k was over. Talk about perfect timing! I was able to walk about half of the steep Aurora bridge before my 5 minutes were up and I started running my 2nd 5k up the bridge. By this time the fluids weren’t sloshing in my stomach as much, but my quads started going out from what I guesses was the overhead lunge workout that I had done the day before. When everything is hurting, you just gotta try to smile and enjoy the punishment! After the bridge, it was a pretty nice downhill for about a mile before cutting back uphill toward the Seattle Center and the start of the Torchlight 8k. Unfortunately I had my milage wrong and I needed another mile before I could roll into the race area, so I ran up another hill back toward the Queen Anne neighborhood and west toward Dick’s Burgers before heading back to the Seattle Center.
I had about an hour wait until the Torchlight Run started. I usually like to keep my training exactly as prescribed, but I figured varying it slightly wouldn’t hurt. My plan was to run the first 5k hard and then decide if I wanted to walk for a few and run the last 3k hard or run the whole thing as hard as possible. When the gun sounded, I started churning my heavy legs into the crowd of participants. I made the poor decision of starting near the back of the pack and it was impossible to get around the wall of runners for a few hundred yards. After the mob of runners spread out a bit I was able to weave through the crowd, running south along the parade route toward the stadiums. This third 5k was tough and my legs were screaming at me. After reaching the stadiums, there was a turn around point where we headed up the on ramp to the Alaska Way Viaduct. This is a pretty steep on ramp that half of the runners were walking. I checked my Garmin and saw that I was very close to finishing my third 5k, so powered up the hill. After hearing the Garmin chime I decided to keep on pushing. It was hot on the viaduct and I felt like I needed water even though, by my calculations, I had plenty of fluid in my system. Just then I saw some friends who were walking the race up ahead (they were walking the shorter course), so rather than flying by, I decided to take a short break and have some of their water. After a couple of minutes of walking, I charged ahead. The last few miles were pretty tough. I thought I was getting pretty close to the finish line and I could see the crowd of runners up ahead turning right around a large building. What I didn’t see is that around that building is a one block long, STEEP hill. Thinking that the finish was close, I sprinted up the hill, just to find that I STILL couldn’t see the finish, and that there was another killer hill up ahead. At that point I heard another runner say that the finish was at the top of the hill in the distance. Loving that news, I kicked it into high gear up the hill, saw the finish line, and sprinted the rest of the way.
From the finish line we were filed into the food line where the Torchlight staff provided water bottles, Nuun, bananas, and bagels. Being that it was my cheat day, I ate a little of everything and then found my friends to chat about their race experiences. After a short stretch and a few minutes of non movement, I realized that I was DONE and needed to figure out a better way back to my car than running. I bussed it!
After getting to my car, I immediately called the local Pagliacci Pizza and planned my route past Dick’s Burgers. It had been a long training day and an even longer training week, so I wasn’t going to mess around with loading up on lot of food! If you’ve never called to order a pizza at Pagliacci Pizza, it’s too bad because they have it down to a science. They know who you are, where you want your pizza, and what you usually order. I felt like getting 10 Dick’s Burgers, but only got 2. Once I got home, I was in pizza and cheeseburger heaven. This concluded a long day of fun.
Do you have a good race day story? Share it in the comments or give us a link to your blog.
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Now get outside and have fun by working hard! 🙂
