When I signed up for the Rattlesnake Ridge run back in the winter I had hoped to be ready to do the half marathon up and over the mountain but that wasn’t going to happen so I switched over to the 5-mile run which isn’t even on Rattlesnake proper but instead does an out and back on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail.  Nice smooth, gravel bike trail with only a few hundred feet of elevation.  Pretty easy and fast.

I arrived at 6 a.m. to do setup and registration in the morning.  I got through the 50k people by 7:15 or so then the half marathoners began showing up and that went until about 8:30 when they moved the last of registration for that over to the start line.  Then I did the 5-mile registration and finished up just in time to go tear off my pants and jacket and get into my sandals.  The Lunas got a lot of comment from other runners, they could not believe anyone would run in sandals and this was the most sandal friendly course I’ve ever used them on.

We started out fast, I didn’t want to get behind a bunch of people.  On the way down to the turnaround there were 3 people in front of a pack of 4 of us and we just kept changing lead position but were not going to catch the leaders.   At the turnaround I was shocked, I’d been keeping a pace barely over 7 minutes a mile!  I climb better than many so the slight uphill was nothing and I got past two of the guys in the group easily while one passed me and continued gaining on the next guy.  I just kept going fast since I was feeling good and crossed the finish in 37:43, a 7:34 pace!  That is the fastest trail 5 mile I’ve ever run, the fastest road 5 mile I’ve run even.  5th overall, just like the Cougar 5k last week.   Next up, Lord Hill 10k in July.