Anacortes 5K and Bellingham

Bright and early yesterday morning, I left a sleeping family and drove about half an hour to Anacortes.  I'd registered for a 5K walk, way back in May.  My goal is to do a 5K in each of our rotation towns.  And Anacortes was as close as I could get to Oak Harbor, unless I wanted to do a triathlon or a 24-hour relay race.  No thank you. 

I signed up by myself.  I went by myself.  I ran by myself.  So I had zero pressure.  The kids and I have been sick with upper respiratory infections this last week, so I really had no thoughts of doing much more than finishing.  I haven't been running for months due to a knee issue I had back in Jan.  

I got there early enough to walk around the neighborhood to warm up.  It amounted to 2 miles of walking before the run even started.  Once the run got underway I went out at a nice slow jog and thought I'd just see how long I could go.  When I got to the turn around spot I started thinking about jogging the whole thing without stopping.  When I had about a mile left and I was still feeling fine, I thought I could up the pace a little.  

That last mile was hard, but good.  I ended up with a total of 5.5 miles, thanks to the warmup and cool down walking and I jogged the whole thing without stopping.  I'm so glad I was able to run without knee pain.  It's been a long time.  

It was a small run, but well organized and fun.  I took no pictures, but I did get the tee-shirt, race number and participation ribbon to prove I did it.  

That afternoon we decided to head to Bellingham as a family.  It seemed like a neat place and we'd never been there.  It's only about an hour north of here.  

We heard of a place called Whatcom Falls Park that was supposed to be the place to see if you visit Bellingham.  

Going in the late afternoon made it hard to get quality pictures.  This old stone bridge is very cool.  

It was built from 1939-1940.  

 The trail continued and followed a shallow river most of the time.  

Exploring a little closer to the river. 

It turns out that this swimming hole is a very popular diving hole with the local teens.  That splash in the water is someone just diving off the ledge to the left of the picture.  We were there for about 5 minutes, in which time, no less than half a dozen crazy teenagers plunged and resurfaced in the water below.  Insane!

We decided to go about our business when a drunk lady tried to engage us in a conversation about which high school we went to.  

Then after playing at the playground for a few minutes it was time to take our monkeys home.  It was a nice day.  I love Saturdays and spending the day together as a family.