On my 19,947th day on earth, I learned something that came as a complete surprise: I am not invincible to injury. Racing down Mount Constitution in early October, the medial meniscus at the back of my knee detached from the bone with an unmistakable (but not painful) “pop.” A month later, I broke my arm. With …
Author Archives: ggsmith42
Moran Constitutional Relay 2018
Snap! I felt a pop at the back of my knee as I reached mile five along one of the most scenic sections of single track trail I’d ever traversed. Under different circumstances, I would have stopped, but with several miles to go on my Moran Constitutional Relay team’s penultimate leg, there was no time …
Jack & Jill’s Downhill Marathon 2018
Two fat flies spin wacky spirals around my head and torso, like tiny sharks circling their prey. House flies vomit and poop when they land on you, but they don’t bite, and I have worse things to worry about, so I leave them to their fun. I’ve reached mile 20 of the Jack & Jill’s …
Tidepooling Along the Olympic Peninsula
The shell collector skillfully maneuvers his way across the beach, wades through waves, and sifts through sand to locate mollusks, identifying them by feel. A visit to an ophthalmologist at age 12 is fortuitous. The doctor introduces the blind boy to the beach. “Overnight, the world became shells, conchology, the phylum Mollusca,” the singular lifelong …
Anacortes All Stars Ski to Sea 2018
Best way to avoid worrying for weeks about how you might perform in a race–sign up last minute, which is one reason I agreed to join the Anacortes All Stars Ski to Sea 2018 team only thirteen days before the race. The other: I’d get to run almost entirely downhill. And since the team captain …
Nudibranch Whisperer of Deception Pass
Sea slugs cast a spell on me…and it all began with fake news. Well, semi-fake. Okay, it was actually two photographs, and the one that cast the spell wasn’t exactly fake, but it wasn’t of “the” sea slug. It was a vibrantly-colored red-tipped, black and white version of the same sea slug species taken underwater in all its …
Constitutional Rite
Mount Constitution, which tops out at 2,400 feet, is the highest point in the San Juan Islands. It’s located on Orcas, the largest of several hundred islands that make up the archipelago. ‘The name “Orcas” is a shortened form of Horcasitas, or Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo, the Viceroy of Mexico who …
Hal Higdon, Mount Si, First Road Race With My 19-Year-Old Guy
Three miles from the finish line of the Cinco de Mayo Half Marathon, I notice something half a mile in the distance that I’d hoped not to see: a dark-haired guy in a gray t-shirt and shorts…walking. I suspect my teenage son may have fallen into a trap common to inexperienced runners, like starting out …
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Deception Pass State Park Hiking Hacks
Get in the know before you go: Deception Pass Park Foundation hosts the downloadable map as an alternative to purchasing one at the main entrance for about two dollars. Since there are three distinct areas (Bowman Bay, Cornet Bay and Goose Rock), consider printing them out before you arrive. The map’s key contains numbers, but …
Just Say No to OSPI’s Superfluous Science Assessment for Class of 2019 Students
Three years ago, the first year 11th grade students in Washington were scheduled to take Smarter Balanced Assessments, “more than 42,000 11th-graders — roughly half of the state’s junior class…did not show up for their exams.” The students were not required to pass the tests in order to graduate from high school, but taking them would …
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