Spokane River Run

Since Jesse did Bloomsday, I decided to do this run. It appealed to my likes more than Bloomsday; it was trail and 25K rather than road and 12K. Plus both of us signing up for the races that each other wants to do gets expensive after a while, this way we keep cost down and we get to run the race we want and support each other.

This run was at Riverside State Park which has miles and miles of great trails. This is a small, local run and it had a great turnout. It was also very well organized. I have noticed that a lot about Washington races, they really know what they are doing and they don’t start at the ass crack of dawn. This race started at 8:30am. It was great.

Jesse came with me as moral support and we hung around in the start line area before the race. They had food trucks and music so I didn’t feel so bad about doing a longer run since he would have stuff to keep him entertained. I think he even ran a little bit while he waited for me to cross the finish line.

One of the fun things about this race was that lots of other things were going on at the park while we were there. It is not too far from a rifle range so you often hear gunshots while running and on this day there was a local ROTC group doing drills and such. The RD assured us that they did not have anything that could cause us harm; they just looked scary with all their camo and gear and mock weapons. It made for some interesting sights while running through the woods.

The race began and it weaved through the park and up some hills that had fabulous views of the Spokane River. One thing Jesse and I did not notice was how much we missed the sight of running water, such as streams and rivers and things. In California it was so dry that even though there were supposed to be streams and rivers in some places there was not any water in them while we lived there. We did have the Pacific Ocean so that was pretty awesome but seeing a clear stream through the woods was something we missed.

Part of the path took us on some single track right along the river. I think that was my favorite part of the run, it was cooler by the water and since it ended up being a warm sunny day I appreciated the breeze coming off the river.

Overall it was a great run with some beautiful views. I ended up going back and running some parts of it again at a later date when Jesse was working and I was home alone with nothing to do. I don’t think I could ever get bored there since there are so many wonderful trails. I hope to go to Riverside State park a few more times before we head off to our next adventure.

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