It took me a while to decide on what event to do this month, but I'm very happy with the event I ended up with.
The Widdle Waddle is the half marathon cousin of the Wattle Waddle and the first event of the famed Seattle Quadzilla - what you've never heard of the Quadzilla?????
A quadzilla is pastime of marathon maniacs and half marathon fanatics - run 4 marathons (or halfs or some combination of half and full marathons) in 4 days. The local maniac community in Seattle has organized a quadzilla for the last two years. This year's event started with the Wattle Waddle, followed by the Wishbone trail run, the Ghost of Seattle and culminated with the Seattle marathon on November 27th. I think around 24 insane runners completed the quadzilla this year.
The Widdle Waddle was a wonderful run along the Burke-Gilman trail in Seattle. This trail is a paved running/walking/cycling trail that runs along a former rail bed. With its railroad history there are no major hills of any kind - in fact I could have sworn it was slightly downhill in both directions. The half course did an out and back, and considering the total registration was limited to 150 participants the on-course support was great - a self serve water and Gatorade station at the 4/9 mile mark, and a manned station at the turn around complete with a porta potty, and all the best snacks (chips, M and M's, lots of Gu's). Before crossing the finish line you had to make your way to the top of a small hill in Gasworks Park to read the secret message that was required to claim your medal - and yes they had medals (take note Whistler half). At the finish line there was a veritable feast: tomato and red pepper soup, yams with marshmallows (this was Thanksgiving), brownies, chips, gummy bears, what more could one want!
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| Pre-race |
I took this run easy, having not done much distance since Victoria and with December's run coming up fast I treated this like a training run and kept in zone 1 for the whole distance, so I am very happy with my 2:26 finish. My partner in crime, Bob Hansen, took off after about the 4 mile mark and completed in a very respectable 2:19 (I think). The weather was great for most of the race, while the winds blew at home it was fairly calm and dry for most the race. The rain started up with about half an hour to go. With the weather turning Bob and I scurried off after the race on a hunt for brunch - not an easy task on Thanksgiving day. Eventually we found a great little Mexican place with warm food and cold beer. A final Starbucks stop on the way home and our day was done. Thanks Bob for the company!
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| Self serve water station |
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| Post-race |
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| Nice medal |
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| Cerveza |
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| mmmm enchiladas |
Next up is Vegas in a few short days - can't wait to run the Vegas strip at night, it will be a different experience with all the lights!
