I arrived late in the afternoon, and after picking up my race registration packet. I headed to my friends, Dave and Amy’s place where I would be staying for a few days. Dave and Amy lived in Spartanburg until about 3 years ago, I used to Kayak with Dave, and he and Amy would often come over for house parties. I met up with Amy at their place, since Dave was at work. She took me on a bike tour of the town. Couer D’Alene is a beautiful town, sitting right on a large lake and surrounded by pine covered mountains and further in the distance snow capped mountains. It reminded me of Switzerland in many ways. The town is relatively small, but is a popular tourist destination. It also features the largest floating dock in the world. That evening after Dave returned home from work we all rode bikes down Moon time their favourite pub and restaurant. I really love being in a town where everything is bikeable or walkable. It’s definitely one of the criteria I am using to evaluate my future home. That night I went to bed early as the marathon was at 7AM the next morning.
The marathon was going to be my 20th total, and 17th state. Since I have been travelling full time for the past 3 months I was not expecting a PR (which is currently 3:17:45). My goal was relatively conservative at 3:30, or an 8:01 / mile pace. The race was small, 498 participants in the full, and the weather was perfect 55F at the start and maybe topping out at 60F by the finish. The course was an out and back along the lake and only had one small hill, but otherwise was flat. Everything went as planned and I finished in 3:27:22. I was very happy with this result. Amy was there cheering me on during the course, and Dave timed his lunch break so he was at the finish line. By far one of the prettiest races I have ever run. I had lunch and then returned to Dave and Amy’s for a nap. Afterwards Dave took me paddle boarding for the first time. It was very tough, but I managed to stay dry. That evening we went out for dinner and drinks to celebrate my success.
The next day we ran in the park and then headed to a Memorial Day cookout. The cookout was at some friends farm some distance out of town. There were 3 couples and me, food was good and we took a walk around the property, a beautiful location perched on a cliff overlooking a lake below. It was actually the site of Joe and Eilee’s (the owners) wedding. Later in the evening Joe was demonstrating how to remove a stump with the backhoe he rented for the weekend, when it became stuck in the mud. Eventually it took the efforts of all 7 of us and Joe’s tractor to pull it out of the bog, a lot more work than I bargained for at a cook out, but good times none the less.
The next day I headed to Spokane, WA, only 32 miles from Couer D’Alene to my CS hostess’s place. I took my hostess, Sandra, to the Bright Eyes concert where we met Dave and Amy. The concert was good fun, and the opening act Jenny and Johnny was really good too. After saying good bye to Dave and Amy and thanking them for everything I headed back to Sandra’s with her.
Web Album: Day 96-99 Album
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