I have had some memorable miles in my running career. There was the last mile of the Honolulu Marathon, hot and humid and raining where I was trying to run a personal best and when the 25 mile marker came along and I looked at my watch and I had two minutes until my goal time I got so excited because my marathon math brain took over and told me I could run a mile in 2 minutes. Or, there was the last mile of my first marathon, where I was a sobbing mess full of emotions. Or, the gorgeous mile across the Deception Pass bridge at dawn on my 2nd leg of the Ragnar race. Or, the last mile of the Paris Marathon, which was made even longer by the fact that I took the sip of wine offered at mile 25.
Of all those memorable miles, yesterday I had the longest (in time) mile of my life, it was approximately a 2.5 hour mile! So slow a Garmin did not even register movement. And, I know it was exactly a mile because I was pushing a measuring wheel the entire time.
For every race in Seattle that impacts streets there needs to be neighborhood notifications. It is simply not good enough to post posters along the route anymore and the City has really cracked down on this process because of all the complaints they have been receiving. I get that. But, there has got to be an easier way than going door to door!!
Good thing the Earth Day Run is only a 5K along Alki. Alki, as you probably know only has buildings on one side of the street. Thank god, or else my 5K time would have been 5 hours instead of 3 hours!
I walked out with my measuring wheel to the half way mark. That part, not so bad, its flat, its gorgeous, it was a gray day but with no wind or rain. I ran into a friend. Really quite pleasant actually.
Then I hit the turn around point and got myself across the street with my bag of tape and notification letters. I started in. Condos were the worst. How do you get a full building of condos with tight security to see your notice? I decided to simply tape the notice to the front door. Something I am sure these buildings with their manicured lawns and fountains did not appreciate.
Houses were easy, simply stuck them in the mail boxes.
The problem was, every time another building came along I had to stop the wheel, kick stand it, go do my notifications, un-kick stand it and push it to the next building. Doesn't sound so bad, but when there is a mailbox every 10 feet you have to do that over and over and over and over again.
All in all, every single condo building, house, apartment building and business was notified and I feel really good about that. The result though, was the longest mile of my life.
