Fort Steilacoom

We tried our best not to, but we ended up scheduling a 4am school bus departure for the Fort Steilacoom Cross Country Invitational in Lakewood, WA on Saturday. In the past, (pre-covid), we have done the Lakewood meet with that dread early wake up and it was such an exhausting day, we tried to find a workaround this year. Our original workaround plan for this year was to only send the varsity boys to the speedy super-competitive meet in Lakewood (4 hours away), and send the rest of the high school team and the middle school team to the closer, less intensely competitive Wenatchee Invitational (2.5 hours away). The varsity boys' race in Lakewood wasn't till the afternoon, so they wouldn't have to get up before dawn for it like they would if we brought the JV and middle school runners, whose races were much earlier in the day. Nobody would have to get up before 5am.

It was the perfect workaround (aside from the obvious discomfort of me coaching/crowd-controlling 25+ high schoolers in 4 races at a meet without Jeff). Then the wildfire smoke rolled in on Monday, and we started worrying if the Wenatchee meet would even happen at all. So we watched the AQI maps and checked the forecasts several times a day for two days. The decision had to be made by Tuesday at noon so we could change our school bus booking. By noon on Tuesday, the smoke was still at hazardous levels in Wenatchee, so we pulled out of that meet, registered our entire team plus the middle schoolers in the Fort Steilacoom Invitational, set our weekend alarm clocks for 3am, and resigned ourselves to an exhausting 18 hour Saturday.

We got up at 3am on Saturday, September 17th, and the school bus left at 4am. With one rest stop, we arrived at the meet at 8am. Jay and Rose ran the middle school 1.25 mile race at 9:05am, and Jeff and I ran the open community race at 9:20am. My sister Mel came and ran the open race too! She brought her puppy Pancha and Amber was in heaven. 

I watched the middle school race and cheered on Jay and Rose and their teammates. Jay had a strong run and raced his buddy Jordan all the way to the line, finishing 26th out of 97 boys. He ran the 1.25 mile race in 8:23, a tenth of a second behind Jordan. Rose ran a 9:13 and placed 22nd out of 65 girls. Not too shabby for a sixth grader! 

Once my kids had finished their race, I got my spikes on and sweats off. I put my hair in a tighter ponytail. All of a sudden out of nowhere I heard the starter's gun go off! I looked around in alarm. The race started without me! I had to go around a fence and through a big crowd to get to the start line! It was one of those slow-motion "noooooo!" moments, me working my way through the crowd while the race left me behind. 

Once I made it through the crowd to the line, I followed the course and ended up chasing the pack from 30-ish seconds behind. I passed a good number of people and got to say good job to Mel as I passed her. I went out way too hard for the first half mile while I was stressed about missing the start, and it killed my pacing. And for no reason I can think of, I started my watch before I got to the starting line, so my GPS recorded distance was longer than a 5k, which I spent dodging slowly through the crowd trying to get to the line. It was stressful and sad missing the start! There were seven women running within the pace range that I wanted to run, and I didn't get to run with them because I missed the start! 

Basically I lived one of my recurring nightmares: not being able to get to the starting line on time and missing the race. Thankfully there were no consequences beyond not having a good race, but still, it was frustrating. I salvaged the run as best I could, passed as many people as I could, and ended up finishing 11th out of 35 women with my 22:38 (3.17 miles). Since my first minute or so was spent clawing my way through a thick crowd in slow motion, I figure my true 5k time was closer to a 22:10. I should've waited till I reached the starting line before I started my watch. Blah. It was hard to think clearly at that moment though! My official time listed in the official results is 23:04. So I ran a 22:10 5k in 23:04, if that makes any sense at all! 

Jeff ran an 18:32 (his post-long-covid best) and finished 13th out of 75 men. 

Mel stayed almost all the way to the end of the meet! We had a long stretch in the middle of the day without any of our runners racing, so we sat in the grass and talked while playing with Pancha the puppy. Amber was so happy to see Pancha again! They wore each other out. We walked over to the nearby food trucks and got big donuts together. It was so fun spending time with her while waiting around at the meet.

Most of our runners got lifetime PRs, and all of them got season best times today! Wahoo!

We left the meet right on schedule a little after 4pm and stopped in Ellensburg for a mediocre (but free for coaches) McDonald's dinner (bless/curse you, McDo, for having bus parking and driver/coach free food perks). We got home to our house around 8:30pm. It was agony waiting for my turn in the shower! Times when sharing one bathroom with a whole family is the worst: when I'm exhausted and stinky and just want to go to bed. I was asleep by 10pm.

The beginning of the middle school race: Jay is in the middle there, wearing red and black. Rose is buried in the crowd.

Jay, battling Jordan to the finish!

Rosie, pushing it to the finish line!

The middle school team, plus Rose! (She's been running with them for two years, next year she'll be an official member of the team at last.)

Post race picture with Mel!! I love living close to her! I should've had Jeff jump in our post race picture with us, since he ran it too, but he took the picture for us instead.

Amber and Pancha: best friends.

Our team took spooning to the next level. They kept wedging more bodies in. Jeff told them to lie down while awaiting their races because sitting tightens muscles, so they all just snuggled up together. Many of them were actually asleep. It made me smile.

Amber and Pancha, taking a break from playing, with the tired team in the background.

Massive donuts from the food truck! I got some for the rest of my family, but they were scattered far and wide and did not get in our donut picture.

Tired coach, short cutting through some prickly grass to get back to watch my runners finish the race! I got all choked up at least five different times while watching our girls team run. They are not fast, but they are determined and it is the sweetest thing and I love their courage.

The course went past a tranquil lake.