MM#209 / JapanJoyful#803
I forgot what the fairie goddess is training for.
Whatever it is, I think she is going to win,
. = = =
20 miles at a surprisingly pleasant six-hour pace that got dampened by exposed sunshine on the Lake Washington floating bridges, I-90 and the soon-to-be-demolished Alaskan Way Viaduct after the cool shading during the morning circuit from the Seattle Center to the 5K perimeter of Seward Park Peninsula and back along Lake Washington Blvd. .Though most of my fellow back-of-the-packers were walking as the temperatures soared into the high seventies as the course opened up, I had just completed my vow to run up a half mile on Second Avenue and the Columbia Way Ramp to the Alaska Way Viaduct in time to see just-turned-80-in-April Marvelous Mel running back down the Viaduct the wrong way towards me. Turns out that, when Mel’s crossing of the floating bridge had been thwarted by a rare bridge opening for some commercial barges coming in from the ocean-lake locks on the way to Boeing at the south end, they took him and other runners back to the finish for the missing miles..Our encounter coincided with his turn-around point so got to accompany one of the local legends the last two miles to the finish. With a first timing mat about a half-block from the finish, the Rock’n’Roll announcer (famed John “The Penguin” Bingham) was able to call out “Welcome to 80-year old Mel and 70-year-old barefoot jon.” No wonder I love running so much...Short bike ride and dip in the lake afterwards for a tri-perfect day..ps enke: were you at the center of the seattle universe Fremont District for their famed Summer Solstice Parade today? However, I think the Solstice/Painted Cyclists who unofficially opened the annual Fremont Solstice Parade there today are painted, not not.http://www.seattleweekly.com/home/947100-129/solstice-migliaccio-naked-fremont-parade-cyclists/
"Enjoy yourself. Your younger days never come again." 100yo T. Igarashi to me in geta at top of Mt. Fuji (8/2/87)