Contributed by Jeanine Holmlund

Prompted by our good friend, Len Goldman, BZ Churchman, Jeanine Holmlund, and Joann Pavlovcak went to check out the XC Club Nationals Race December 10th in Seattle.  The cold air and tough competition didn’t deter us from putting out our best effort.  Just as much fun as racing, was watching Len race, running back and forth from one side of the course to the other served as our neglected cool down run.  The ladies ran 3 loops for 6k, while the men ran 5 loops for 10k.  At one point we were lead to believe Len was on his last lap and we started running to get to the finish with him and he yelled back to us, “one more leg!”, alas lapped by those fast masters.  


Another part of this story is about BZ’s childhood friend, Leslie Loper, now an LMJS member living in Seattle.  Our mission was to check this race out on short notice this year and see if it’s something for our team in the future.  We were trying to at least put together a small team of three.  Joann is Canadian and not allowed to score, so Leslie, who bikes and has never run XC jumped in to join us.  After joining USATF and our club, we learned that she would need to reside in our area to be in our association, so no team after all.  The brave soul ran anyway for the fun of it!!  

Finally, on a short recovery run with a Danish bakery as our 3 mile destination, Joann and I arrived to find a closed sign in the window Sunday morning.  Luckily, I know of another one from visiting family in the past.  We called my cousin, who said, “but it’s all the way in Ballard.” I said, “Don’t tell us how far it is, just give us directions.”  Off we went, taking in a Peet’s coffee shot on the road, not dressed for what felt like arctic conditions, taking pictures along the way.  Over the Ballard bridge and on to Larsen’s Bakery, 10 miles total with a bus ride back to the hotel.

An LSD run with Danish Kringle as a reward.