We had another Chicken Palooza for my 33rd Birthday. This year, in an effort to be more healthy and offset the effects of obscene amounts of deep-fried chicken, we offered a 2.9 mile run that ended at the Redmond KFC, deemed the "Chicken Run". Part of this was also an answer to my wife’s concern that Chicken Palooza was getting a bit out of hand, and she couldn’t handle hosting this party at our house in her pregnant state.
The weather forecast had been predicting showers all week which had me a bit concerned, but Saturday morning it was merely overcast. When we started driving to the drop off spot, it started raining. I was dropped off on NE 124th St. and the Sammamish Trail. There was no place to park. When I started walking down toward the trail, I noticed that there were 6 foot fences with a sign that said the Trail was closed. On one end of the fence, it turned into barbed wire that was 3 feet high. I thought we might be able to jump over the barbed wire, but then thought of the horrible repercussions of not quite making it. I reluctantly crossed over to the other side of the overpass, where luckily there was a clear path to the Sammamish trail.
We had three faithful friends that participated in the "Chicken Run" – Christie, Teresa, and Kyle. Christie and Teresa recently completed an Iron Man up in Canada a few months ago. That’s the race where they swim for 2+ miles, bike for hundreds of miles, then cap it off with a full marathon (26.2 miles) at the end. Although I’m sure our run wasn’t even worthy of a warm-up for them, I’m glad they decided to slum it with me for half an hour.
As we neared the end, Kyle was winning, but took a fall for me and ran into a light post (not quite by accident) allowing me to win. His wife and kids were parked in the KFC parking lot, probably worried about his faux-accident. When we stepped in the KFC, we were the first ones there. The plan was that Tenille would drive to KFC first and have the buckets of chicken ready. The runners took a few tables and waited, probably making the KFC staff wonder what we were doing? (Oh no, not some more animal activists on a sit-in…) Luckily Tenille arrived shortly thereafter, along with many of our good friends. We cleaned out 4 full buckets of chicken and took over most of the restaurant. The staff seemed a bit alarmed… they probably would have preferred the protesters….
The Kersavages made a trophy for us (which I got to keep, thanks to Kyle’s gratuitous accident). All participants got a Chicken Palooza T-shirt – and by "all" I mean guys… because I doubt any self-respecting lady would wear a home-made t-shirt.
Fun was had by all, and everyone had their fill of deep-fried chicken… until next year… A big thanks to Tenille – who ran around crazy to make Chicken Palooze happen again.
Hyun Family 