During a recent Seaside Downtown Development Association breakfast meeting, Sunset Family Fitness Co-owner Michelle Brannon said she will be helping to put on the 43rd Annual 5k Beach Run this year, and last year only three Seasiders entered.
“There are a lot of people around who don’t know about the Beach Run. We want to get Seaside involved,” Brannon said. “We want the community to see the benefits of exercise. We are moving the start and finish to the 12th Avenue beach access.”
When I entered 9th grade at Glen A. Wilson High School in Los Angeles, we had P.E. every day and we would start by running a lap around the track. It was always a big deal who would come in first, and all my friends and I would jibe each other before, during, and after the race. Those were some fun times, and although I never took first, third place was pretty much the norm for me and good I thought for a kid who looked more like a bird than a person. If only I had wings on not birdie legs!
My Dad was really into jogging when I was growing up, and after he got home from work most nights, we would jog up the street that was our artery to the city. A lot of times I would get sharp pains under my rib cage on my left side, and I would have to stop running sometimes. I was able to shake it off enough to run a few 5ks in Los Angeles, my last being a beautiful one through UCLA’s tree-filled campus. I was doing great until the end, and my rib really started hurting me. Even worse, my parent’s dragged me to a vegetarian restaurant afterwards and I ate some sort of food that tasted like raw grass. Don’t get me wrong, I am the biggest animal lover there is and I only use meat to make my to-die-for “local kine” Hawaiian dishes, but after the run this summer I know all I’ll want is some of Chandler’s fried razor clams! (Page 14)
It’s with those memories of running 5ks and around the track in high school that make me want to become the fastest runner in Seaside, or at least the fastest guy from Seaside running in the Beach Run. I think it’s kind of sad that only a few runners entered last year’s race as we live in such a runner’s paradise. Ever since I’ve been walking to work, or walking to cover stories when I have a few extra minutes, I have seen Seaside in a completely new light: the countless different kinds of birds, watching the colors of the clouds change every minute, hail in the sunshine...
I can’t even tell you how much I adore the scenery in the hills and Tillamook Head as I walk along through town. I’m afraid no one from Seaside will be catching me during the Beach Run on July 26th. I’ll be having thoughts of Wilson High School in my head!