Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Ghost of Birch Bay Marathon 2008

I sneaked in another marathon over the weekend up in Birch Bay Washington. This was a homecoming marathon for me that brought back a flood of memories as I ran. The course goes from Birch Bay State Park around the Bay to the North and then loops around Birch Point. I grew up out on Birch Point and had to ride my bike everywhere. When I was a kid it seemed like it was a hundred miles to Birch Bay from my house when in fact it was only about four. Of course I would make the ride without water, without proper fueling, and not eat for several hours while I was away.

I ran by several spots that brought back memories of days past. Some of these were where I met Michelle in 1974, the corner my cousin was killed in a car accident coming to join me for some Mt. climbing, where I hit a deer with my car, the road leading up to the gravel pit where we had keggers, the spot a friend was thrown out of a car at 90 MPH and lived to tell about it, my old bus stop, a cabin where an old girl friend was arrested, the road where my friend and I got his 1957 Chrysler up to 150 MPH, my old duck hunting pond. The list goes on...

Marathon time was 4:00:08



Living with a vegetarian has it's health benefits however I have drawn the line at tofurkey. The veggies around the soy blob was OK but give me turkey any day over this stuff!



Cheers!

13 comments:

Backofpack said...

Ah, come on...you left out the fact that I didn't like the tofurky either! No worries, it won't be on our plates again. Thanks for being an adventurous type guy and trying it with me!

Gotta Run..... said...

You are a good man to try that stuff!!

How does one "sneak" a marathon in?

4 days and it is GO TIME again :)

Wes said...

Races with memories are the best. Tofurkey and soy blob, eh? LOL... I bet you DO get some really tasty veggie dishes though.

seagull junker said...

man, those are a lot of memories... wait, no wonder, you're old. amazing you could remember all that given the atrophy your brain has probably experienced...

just kidding man.

happy holidays,
tom

Unknown said...

I wish I could've joined you, but the spousal piss off factor index was way too high. Luckily I am able to read the index a little better these days and only screw up about 60% of the time.

Olga said...

While I applaud you for a spousal memories/tofurkey crime, I had a good laugh at both Tom's and Rob's comments:) Well, even I happen to have memories of Birch Bay!

Doris said...

"sneaked another marathon in"... HA HA HA!.... yes ok so a marathon is like a warm up for you isn't it ;o)

Lots of memories down that road!

... and as for that HORRIBLE looking tofu thing... BLEAH!

wendy said...

I'm with you, I'm a total carnivore.

Sneaking in a 4 hour marathon, that's the really sick part of this post!

Leslie said...

Now that sounds like a good run down memory lane. I probably would have lollygaged a little longer...

Darrell said...

Very cool to have run in a place filled with so many memories. Seems like a fairly easy pace for you. Glad you enjoyed the day.

Anonymous said...

Life has its landmarks indelibly written on the pages of memory. I suspect that will make for a good topic of reflection on my next run. Thanks.

Joe said...

Sounds like you could be also glad you weren't a teenager again!! Yeah, memories!

And only 38 seconds over 4!!

Fun..thanks for the write up.

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with you about the turkey. Even the name tofurkey sounds to goofy to be real food!

Nice job on the marathon. It's always good to go back and relive some memories - whether good or bad.