Trip to Seattle 18-25th February 2008

The view of the Cascades was spectacular once the morning fog cleared over Bellevue, Washington where my Mom lives. Suffering from jet lag meant I had no trouble fitting in early morning runs before meeting up with family for breakfast, but I really struggled to find places that were relatively flat. The best I found was a loop around Mercer Slough, which was beautiful as the sun just came up. I managed to run 37 miles the week I was there - back on track for the London Marathon! The FFT taping of my arch is really working great. I'm running pain-free and with a bit of icing after runs, I'm keeping the plantar fasciitis at bay.

The first day Mom and I drove down to Camas WA (near Portland, Oregon) so I could finally meet my brother's partner, Stormi. What a genuine, friendly and cool woman. My brother is very lucky to have found her! They have made a warm and happy home with their 5 kids from previous marriages. My sister Linnie and her son were already there, after flying in from LA, and I watched in amazement as the kids demonstrated their prowess at the "Rock Band" video game... amazing. And we watched the video clips from Linnie's Black Belt exam which she passed this year at age 50... truly awesome!

Back to Bellevue where my other sister, Missi, arrived from Idaho - a long 8 hr drive away. We began our marathon shopping expeditions - mostly for shoes, but I got in a visit to REI too. Shoe shopping is serious sister bonding, so we laughed at the stilettos that Linnie only narrowly escaped buying as we made our way through about 10 shoe stores. I escaped with only new Nike Pegasus trainers and loafers, but they were not so lucky....

My brother and Stormi brought Blake back at the end of the week and we had a celebration dinner for my Mom's birthday, then everyone but me headed home. Missi called back from home to say that I'd left my passport in the computer bag I'd given her ! ARG! and FedEx was not open on Sunday!!! So heroically, Missi offered to meet us half way. Mom and I had a lovely drive up through the Cascade mountains and finally got a chance to talk, but poor Missi had to spend a second 8 hr day driving with only her cute little dog for company! Missi, I'm forever in your debt!

I still managed to meet up with Tory (or msteechur on the Pdip board) and we ran 14 lovely flat miles along the Sammamish River park. Tory programmed a run .5mi/ walk .1mi alarm into her garmin which was my first experience with the Galloway run/walk method and it was great! (OK, I admit I do walk sometimes, but just when I'm exhausted.) I really did not feel all that tired after 14 miles - nothing like running a half marathon! I'm going to try a run/walk again! It was great to chat with Tory and ask her questions about the 9 marathons she's run. Many thanks to her noble husband Roy, who did all the driving and ran their dogs while we did our loop.

It was a great week to share with family and I wish I didn't live so far away!