Rainy Seattle Arboretum Run

It rained.  All day long.  I know this isn't something surprising in the Seattle area, but the past couple days were so awesome, I just didn't want to believe it.  So I waited well into the afternoon to go for my run, hoping that maybe the sun would come out.  It didn't.  Eventually I knew I had to get out there, so I sucked it up and hit the road.  For this run I wore my Patagonia Everlongs and my Houdini Jacket.  Honestly, in 50 degree weather and rain, the Houdini Jacket is almost too much; probably would have been better with just a thin long sleeve shirt.
Starting off, I had never been to the Arboretum before, so I just explored.  I found the soccer field, where people were playing soccer, then went on forward to the main gate.  Behind the Japanese Garden was a trail that went...nowhere.  Odd, but I turned back and started running on the actual sidewalk trail.  This eventually goes on for a while with some ups and downs, but nothing too challenging.  More of just a nice stroll through the park, but you have to stop every twenty feet because none of the paths make sense.  So finally I found the end of that path, but had seen a way to go under the 520 bridge earlier on a map. Off I went, across a cool old foot bridge and onward toward Founder and Marsh Islands.  The UW rowing team was out in numbers, but not much of anybody else.  As you near Marsh Island, there is usually a floating bridge thing that takes you across the water, but today there was water about five inches deep, to the point where I saw ducks swimming over it.  Regardless, I ran through this and onto the bridge that looked like it should have been from Myst.  The rest of the island was muddy as well, but it was like running on water soaked wood chip ground.  Bouncy but not sticky like mud.  All in all, I eventually got all the way to the channel connecting Lake Washington and Lake Union, right near UW.  Pretty darn cool!  All in all did about nine miles.