Over the Hill

In June I'm moving from New Orleans to Seattle.  Among the many differences between the two cities, there is a significant different in the elevation.  New Orleans is flat.  Really, really flat.  The elevation range here is only -6.5 to 20 ft.  (I'm pretty sure most of the city only ranges -6 to +10 or so, and the levees are skewing the number listed above.)  As a runner, I've become accustomed to thinking of speed bumps as hills.

Seattle, on the other hand, is FULL of hills.  In fact, neighborhoods are known for their hills and directions often come in the form of the relationship to hills.  As in, "yeah, it's just on the other side of Queen Anne Hill" rather than "it's West of here."  Tuesday I walked over 11 miles in the process of apartment hunting.

Holy mother of all that is painful!

My legs hurt WAY more today than they did after the Country Music Marathon 1 week ago.  I woke up this morning and wondered if I'd been sledgehammered in my sleep.  This is going to take some getting used to.  But I won't let the hills beat me.  In the next couple months, I want to start eating hills for breakfast, chewing them up and spitting them out.

Did you ever have to adjust to hills?  How long did it take you?

Trigger Happy

Well.  I did it again.  I signed up for another race: the Seattle Rock N Roll Marathon at the end of June.  I will actually be one week into working at my new job, but I found out yesterday that I'll have that weekend off.  And what do I do with weekends off?

Yup.  That's what we call addiction, ladies & gentlemen.  ;)

Sad or Awesome?

I'm moving to Seattle in a few short months.  I've never lived there before.  In fact, I've only every spent a week there, but I'm super excited about the move.

The first thing I did to prepare for the move was look up the running clubs there.  Sad or awesome?  (You can guess my vote.)

Moving

Yesterday I learned that I will be spending the next 3 years in Seattle!  Woohoo!  Talk about a runner-friendly town.  Now the question is, can I squeeze in the Seattle RNR Marathon before starting work in July?

<fingers crossed>

Congratulations to every that matched yesterday!

New Territory

Today I arrived in Seattle for another week of interviews.  This time I had some scheduling snafus which means that I'll be spending 9 days here... 9 days to find new places to run and explore.  Being a town full of running enthusiasts, routes shouldn't be too hard to find.  My first adventure was around Green Lake Park:

It's January, so reality was a bit less sunny & picturesque, but despite the cold, rainy weather it was refreshing to see the running trail well-populated.  When running in new places around dusk, I appreciate the "New Year's" newbies, if only for safety.  And in case I get lost, it's nice to have people to ask for directions.

Today's run also involved one of the classic new run bonuses:  what I thought was a 4 mile run turned out to be 4.85.  Wouldn't have run that far otherwise & didn't need to, but honestly, I can't complain.

Have you done any exploring lately, at home or away from home?