Walla Walla Dirty Duathlon and Trilogy Run for Recovery Item 20 - Run 6 3 5K's

I'm counting these two races as two 5K's because the duathlon was more than 5 kilometers (5.4 miles, to be exact) and the R4R was only 4 kilometers. But I'll get to all of that in a moment.

This was the first year for the duathlon and I was drafted into it by my boss. Her son wanted to do the nike ride portion but couldn't run because of a leg injury, so he needed a substitute. My boss knows that I love to run and that I'm a soft touch. It seemed like a good idea.

It was not.

The race was set up so that the first lap was a trail run of 2.7 miles followed by 14.8 miles of biking and then finished with another 2.7 miles of running. Next to a lake. On a windy day with temperatures just above freezing. If you can see the problem with this you are more in tune than the organizers.

The problem of course isn't for anybody that does the whole thing themselves, the problem is for anybody that only does the running portion. 5.4 miles isn't a big run at all, but when you break it up and have an hour between halves and nothing to do, it causes problems. Your body doesn't like to do things like that.

Must keep moving, pretending like having fun, ignoring pronouns

The elation that I felt when I crossed the finish line wasn't the usual type I felt when running races: not the joy of having accomplished something, of pushing myself in a sport that I love. No, this was the happiness you feel when you are at a party that you hate and you realize that you get to go home.

Yes, that's horse shit, it's eastern Washington, of course there's horse shit

There's my car! See you later!

I'm sorry if I sound negative about this, but hopefully if the organizers do this again next year they will consider the participants that split out the duties when they break it up.

Ok, now that I got the bitching out of the way I'll talk about a race that I love. The Run for Recovery benefits a local addiction counselling center and is one of my favorite races in the Walla Walla valley. Not just because the race is in a beautiful area and along a lovely route, nor because it's for a good cause. I also love it because I adore irony.


Both from the swag bag

 Usually, this race is a four miler, but apparently this year someone forgot to switch the measuring device from kilometers to miles. You've never seen so many smiling faces as when a bunch of runners finish four miles in less than 20 minutes.

Yes, I basically always wear the same thing when running

In spite of that small hiccup it was still a really fantastic run. The organizers always make it fun and obviously enjoy doing it as much as those of us running it like participating.