Today is Monday, January 27, 2025
National Chocolate Cake Day
Quote of the Week
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
– C.S. Lewis
Spotlight Photo
Happily Ever After
https://www.everafterphotographypnw.com/
Ever After Photography PNW is owned and operated by photographer extraordinaire, Mira Nachtigall. Mira specializes in birth, maternity, and newborn photography. She shares her art each week to help beautify the My Monday Memo. Mira and Rachel’s friendship spans back to 2007 in Las Vegas. They now reside very close in Washington.
Feline Tomfoolery
with Brady & Belichick
- Brady– Why is the human filtering our pictures? What is vivid cool anyway? We are cool enough without a filter.
- Belichick– The filter does give us an interesting look. Stop complaining.
- Brady– She’s also trying out new angles.
- Belichick– She heard us complaining and started wearing her readers to take pictures, too.
- Brady– Well, I am not sure about the filter. We look amazing without it.
- Belichick– That we do. What else does she have up her sleeve to get a good picture?
- Brady– That is a scary question. She better not invade out toilet time.
- Belichick– Dun, dun, dun….
Brady & Belichick are Rachel’s adorable felines. Brady is a short hair and very dominant and athletic, much like his namesake (Forever Patriots). Belichick, aka Beli, the long hair, was the runt of their litter and is much more passive, until provoked. These two cute boys turned one on May 4, 2024.
No Sun Fun Run 5k
The first official 5k event of 2025 is in the books. Pierce County Parks held its annual ‘No Sun Fun Run’ on Saturday, January 18th in Puyallup, Washington. The course was located at the Nathan Chapman Memorial Trail. Rachel has participated in two 5ks on this trail previously and knew it was a nice route. Here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest (PNW), runners are no stranger to cloudy run days, rainy run days, and windy run days. This 5k celebrates that runners here in the PNW will run no matter the weather.
Rachel learned of this run from her friend, Jennie. They knew they had a cold morning head when the forecast called for between 29 and 31 degrees as they would begin the race at 9:30 AM. Brrrr.
Jennie’s husband, Stephen, drove them to the event that morning. As they arrived at the park, the sun was just peeking through over Mount Rainier in the distance. What a beautiful view. It would appear the No Sun Fun Run would be a sunny fun run.
There would be a total of 175 participants at the event that day. Most attendees stayed put in their warm vehicles until about 15 minutes before the event started. Then it was warm up time. Jennie and Rachel took a short jog around the park to get their bodies warmed up and be sure they were feeling ready.
When it was time to head to the starting line, Rachel noted this wasn’t the same starting point as her two previous 5ks at this same park, also organized by the same group, Pierce County Parks. She didn’t think too much of it and figured there is always more than one way to reach a 5k in any given place. Stephen snapped a photo of the two of them as the race started. Can you find them? Jennie is in pink, and Rachel is grinning in black gloves.
Wow was it chilly. Rachel remembers her thumbs being particularly cold and left her gloves on the entire run. Jennie runs a bit warmer than Rachel and only made it one mile before stripping down to her tank top and removing her gloves. The area was as pretty as Rachel remembered it being in October when she ran there last.
They knew they were making decent time and looked forward to reaching the end. That would be a little bit farther than they thought. A 5k is 3.11 miles. Rachel and Jennie would end up running 3.41 miles when accidentally sent in the wrong direction by volunteers.
As Jennie and Rachel came out of the wooded trail (see Approx 2.5 miles on map below), the volunteers guiding runners directed them to the left instead of right. Jennie and Rachel followed those ahead of them that had also been sent the wrong direction. They ran back to the start and looped back around to the same spot they had been turned in the wrong direction. It was then Jennie and Rachel saw runners coming out of the wooded area and being sent right. Jennie quickly asked, “Did we go the wrong way?” “There seems to be a communication problem,” they responded. Yikes.
As they pushed on to finish the race, they passed runners that they had passed at the beginning of the run (slower runners that had not been sent the wrong way that were now ahead of them). As they neared the finish and rounded the corner, they kicked up the pace and finished strong with a sprint. You may be able to tell from the photo below and their open mouths that they were both breathing nice and heavy as they crossed the finish line. They both surprised themselves with the sprint, as they were both beat by then.
They were thrilled to cross that finish line. Even though they only ran .3 of a mile more than expected, that small of a distance can feel significant based on the pace you have run. They commiserated with other runners that had been sent the wrong direction and learned that other runners had taken another wrong turn and came to the finish line from the wrong direction having gone completely off course. What a cluster.
Rachel has been running events like this for years and has never heard of this happening before. She is sure the volunteers felt awful about the ‘miscommunication’ and is sure they will have a better plan in place next time. It’s a good thing this was a non-competitive fun run to benefits the Parks Department.
Rachel’s official finish time, according to the race clock, was 32.22. Jennie finished 47th and Rachel 48th out of 175 participants. In their age group, female 50-54, they finished 3rd and 4th, respectively. But did they? Rachel recognizes that she just pointed out this was a non-competitive fun run, but… she is competitive at heart and can’t help but wonder if the ladies that placed 1st and 2nd had bested them due to the extra .3 of a mile they had run. She will never know, and that is okay.
As you will see in the screenshot below, Rachel has shared the stats that her Garmin watch had recorded for the run. A 9:30/minute pace? Well… actually 9:45. There was a definite glitch with Rachel’s Garmin that cold morning. This was realized when she glanced down, and her watch stated they were currently running an 8:30/mile pace when they clearly weren’t. She kept an eye on it and compared it with Jennie’s Smart Watch, which is obviously much smarter than Rachel’s. She will now have to investigate the malfunction.
This would be Jennie’s second official 5k, and she crushed it. Prior to the race, Jennie had told Rachel that she would stick with whatever pace Rachel set. She also made a point to say “10-minute mile pace, right.” Rachel insists she did try to keep a 10-minute mile pace, but with her Garmin protesting the freezing temperatures and not providing accurate real-time pace information, it would be tough.
At the end of the day, despite the course mishap, Garmin watch malfunction, bright sun (she also forgot her sunglasses), and freezing temperatures… Rachel had a great time with a friend and nothing but good memories surrounding the event.
After the run, they headed for Waffle Stop to start a tradition of post-run waffles. If you read issue 239, you will know that Jennie also ran that 5k with Rachel and they enjoyed a post-run waffle at Waffle Stop with friends. Rachel liked the idea of going out after the run, and Stephen was a gem and drove them to Waffle Stop. Too bad it was a 45-minute wait, and being cold and wet, Rachel was not interested in waiting. They determined that next time, they will find a spot local to the run ahead of time and plan for a post-run breakfast together.
What is next in the 5k calendar? Jennie and Rachel are already signed up for the Pierce County Park Glow Run 5k and Dance. Dance? Oh boy. Sure, why not. Keep an eye out for the story on this event in late February or early March. Until next time, be well.
