Haul Ash!

To commemorate the 28th anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helen's, Jeff, Marie (my hairdresser) and I participated in the Haul Ash bike ride on Sunday, May 18. This 42 mile ride meanders along the Burke-Gilman trail, from the Red Hook Brewery in Woodinville to the Red Door tavern in Fremont. Along the way, we saw eagles, beautiful views of Lake Washington (and all those fancy-schmancy houses lining the shore) and a whole side of Woodinville, Bothell, Lake Forest Park, and Seattle that you just can't see from the road. I didn't think I'd make it the whole 42 miles and in fact, had planned to ride ten miles, head back, read the paper in the car, and wait for Jeff and Marie. Boy was I wrong! For one thing, Marie wanted to go the whole way, and it turns out, she was about evenly matched with me as far as bike riding (except that she fell and I didn't!). So, we just decided to go for it and we "let" Jeff ride ahead of us (not wanting to hold him back!). About mile 15, we saw Jeff whiz past us and he turned around and headed back towards Red Door with us. We had a beer (at 10:30 in the morning!) spending one of our two free beer coupons, then hopped on our bikes and headed back. With no food in our stomachs, and a beer on board, the first ten minutes were a little wobbly, but it's amazing how fast you can burn off a beer when you're exercising! Jeff went on ahead again, and Marie and I plugged along, pedaling our way back (albeit a little more difficult this time!). Amazingly, we made it back in less time than the first half, arriving at Red Hook just in time, as Jeff had nabbed us a table AND ordered our lunch for us! Wow, what service! We had California burgers, another beer and headed home. I was really proud of myself for making it (and can't wait to do another ride!) and the real miracle is that I wasn't sore at all the next day. I even went to yoga in the morning and felt fine (ok, part of that might have been my amazing foresight at deciding to ice my butt when I got home! It worked!). And the real bonus - it was a beautiful, sunny, warm day and you can't beat a day like that in Seattle. We wore our post-race T-shirts proudly later that day and we have two new beer glasses for the freezer, and two new water bottles for our bikes. We hauled ASH!