Running clubs in Seattle

Now that we're finally settled in (took a few months) it's time to find a run club.  I LOVED my run club in San Francisco (GGRC), and loved leading run clubs for Lululemon.  I've been on the lookout for a good group in Seattle but was coming up empty handed.  Last week I drove all the way to Issaquah to try the "Seattle Running Club" - after a 45min drive, I couldn't find them!  Not their fault - I got lost on Cougar Mt.  Come to realize, there are MANY great looking run clubs closer to home ... and I'm looking forward to testing the trails with some of these groups and then finding "the one" ... or two.

In no particular order, here are some run clubs in Seattle - I hope this saves you some searching time:
Seattle Front Runners
http://www.seattlefrontrunners.org/
Wednesday at 6:30pm at Volunteer Park
Saturday at 9am at Green Lake
Sunday 9am at West Seattle Stadium
Running & walking club for gay men, lesbians & friends

Fleet Feet Seattle
http://www.fleetfeetseattle.com/
911 E Pine St Seattle, WA 98122
Tuesday at 6pm - 6 miles (7-11 min pace)
Thursday at 6pm 3.5 miles (10+ min pace)
Saturday – at 8am LONG RUN (10-15 miles; varying pace)

Eastside Runners
http://www.eastsiderunners.com/
Varying locations
Tuesday Morning Run  at 5:30 am - at Bella Bottega shopping center in Redmond.
Wednesday Night Track Workout at 6:00 pm - at Lake Washington High School.
Wednesday Night Run at 6:00 pm - at Foot Zone in Redmond Town Center (Across street from REI).
Thursday Night Run at 6:00 pm - runs start at Bridle Trails NY Pizza in Kirkland.
Saturday Morning Run at 8:30 am - roving run every Saturday morning, year around, with breakfast afterwards! Great mix between Sammamish, Redmond, University District, Kirkland, Green Lake, Mercer, Bellevue … all over!

Nike Run Club
http://www.facebook.com/NIKETOWNSeattle
Nike downtown Seattle
Tuesday at 6pm 3-8mi

Skyline Running Club
http://skylinefitness.com/running.html
Shoreline
Tuesday at 7pm track
Thursday at 7pm track 

Seattle Running Club
http://www.seattlerunningclub.org/new/
Cougar Mountain
Sundays at 7:30
10-15mi trails

Seattle Runners
http://www.meetup.com/runseattle4life/
Wednesday at 5:45 at Nathan Hale High School
Sunday at 9am Green Lake Starbucks

Seattle Greenlake Running Group
http://www.meetup.com/Seattle-Greenlake-Running-Group/
Greenlake Starbucks
Wednesday at 6am
Saturday at 7am in different places

West Seattle Run Club
http://www.westseattlerunningclub.org/
Alki Beach
Tuesday and Thursday at 6pm
Sunday at 8:30am at Statue of Liberty on Alki

Christmas!

What a terrific Christmas!  This was our first Christmas away from family in CA, and our second Christmas as a foursome (although to the boys it was still just another day with lots of colorful paper), but it wound up being filled with family, great food, and lots of love.

It seems like Christmas has being "going" for two months now - ever since the Halloween candy went on sale at markets.  The past two days cinched it, though.

Last night we enjoyed an awesome steak dinner.  Then, the boys set cookies out for Santa (after nabbing a few themselves).

 This year we ordered most of our gifts (twins + work leaves little time for shopping) and wound up having a very brown and white themed Christmas.  In other words, we didn't bother to wrap most of the gifts - what can we say, the UPS and FedEx boxes were just so festive.  Before bed our stocking were laid out and we were all on the lookout for reindeer.

Come morning I think Matt and I were more excited for gifts and Christmas festivities than the boys.  They kept trying to put their stockings on, and when it came to gift time climbing in the boxes and playing with paper was more fun than discovering the gifts.  What an awesome reminder - you don't need to spend tons to have fun with what you have.  The major hit of the morning, though, were the boys' P'Kolino Little Reader chairs.

After breakfast and a bit more play-in-the-boxes time, we packed up and made our way to Salt Point for a walk.  

 A nap and some more play-with-paper time and we were off again to my cousin Rebecca's for Christmas dunch.  We hung out with her husband's family, her father and his wife, and her kids and had SO much fun!  There is absolutely nothing better than being with family.

Early bird

Last night I was restless.  I don't know if it's the fact we watched Inception just before bed so I was over thinking dreams, or if I'm just too excited to see Santa.  The solution?  A 5am run.  And it felt great!  I rose with the first binkie drop and bawl this morning, laced up my Newton Distance running shoesand made it out the door into the black and still of the morning.  I saw two people on the street - a man in a suit at the bus stop, and a college kid on his way home.  I only made it about 3.5 miles with a quick out and back to the University District, but all in all it felt great and I'm looking forward to more early runs.

Being a woman / mom / professional / teacher / me ... yeah, I want it all!

It's been a while since I put thought to keyboard (how poetic :) ) - things have been beyond nutty in our little provincial Seattle lives.  Work has been very exciting, and beating me up at the same time.  And that's my day job - I also teach online at night and that's been ... interesting.  It seems with the holidays come a lot of excuses and things "coming up" - funny that I get excuses more in the virtual world.  Understandable.  The point is, I want it all - and it's taking a lot of time.

Sheryl Sandberg, one of the woman who inspire me most in the workforce (besides my mom of course) recently gave a speech on women leaders which I find quite interesting.  This is about messages and about women leaders (and lack thereof) who stay in the workforce.  I'm inspired ... and my head hurts from nodding. 

Weekend Roundup - holiday colds

I've come to think that the reason Santa was so rosy and Rudolf had a red nose is they were both sick the entire holiday season and just kept giving the cold back and forth to each other.  Mrs. Claus must have cooked tons of healthy goodness which is why Santa, as we know, ate everyone's cookies as he flew around the world delivering gifts. 

The past few weeks we've had four variations of colds flying around our house successfully hitting all of us.  It started with Cole and a cough.  Then went on to Wilson and sniffles.  On to Matty with a headache and sore throat.  And has landed with me with a cough, the spins, sore throat - you get the gist. 

But, this weekend we were all in healthy form (hurray!) which was perfect timing because we got together with old high school and college friends - and one new friend for Cole and Wilson, a 2 month old adorable Luis. 

We also finally got a tree ... but it's a bit on the dinkous side.  The boys are now champs at knocking over everything they're not supposed to knock over, climbing everywhere, and eating anything with any resemblance of food, so we decided a big tree and decorations probably weren't in the cards this year.  And if you're asking yourself "is that..." yes, it's a rosemary bush (tree).

We have a candy cane situation

It's that time of year again - the time when money seems to fly out of wallets, stress levels rise, and being on the large side and wearing a red track suit with fur trim is rad.  OK, that's glass half empty - the reality is I love this time of year - the holidays!  Seattle is perfect for the holidays as we've already had a bit of snow (it's on hiatus now, though) and the dark nights, city lights, and crisp air seem to scream "Christmas is coming!"

Today we made our way for the obligatory Santa pics.  Last year we waited in the rain to get a pic with Santa and this year, despite being in a rainier state, was much easier.  Much easier except Cole has the sniffles and Wilson has the toddler sense of "don't touch me ... unless you're mommy."

We went to Swansons in Ballard where there were real reindeer (no joke), a camel, and a donkey.  Walking up to the nursery we heard "should we get the kids out of here?..."  Odd, but we kept walking.  When we got to the animal station we saw that the camel was a bit ... excited, and was chasing the donkey around the pen and smelling it.  In other words, the camel wanted to do some Christmas merrymaking with the donkey.

We walked on and found Santa.  When it was the boys' turn to sit on his lap, Cole lost it crying and reaching for daddy.  Wilson just got pissed that he had to stay still and grabbed a stuffed reindeer and tried to stick it up Santa's nose (he has a new nose fetish) and in the process knocked over all of the mini candy-canes. 

After the pics as we walked away I heard Santa say, "we have a candy-cane situation over here."

All in all, though, it was a terrific day.  We finally got a picture with the 4 of us (pics like this are few and far between) and enjoyed walking around looking at Christmas trees.