Day 455 – US – Washington [Seattle to Bellevue]

03/07/21

32km

  From Seattle (Washington) to Bellevue (Washington)

North America

The North American crossing is officially underway!

In front of the Puget Sound, Pacific Ocean inlet

How exciting to stand at the further end of one continent, about to start a crossing to the other end. I stood in front of the Puget Sound, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, at 7:00 this morning. Blue skies, mild temperatures, ideal conditions. Unlike Europe, I will not get to follow the body of water throughout the continent crossing. Next time I meet an ocean, it will be the Atlantic Ocean in New York city!

The I90 bridge over Lake Washington

My excitement went down a notch as I started the run. For the past 15,420 kms I have been running very comfortably with my stroller, which weight almost did not vary throughout the journey so far. This morning there was an additional 5 kgs inside: all my camping gear. It was quite brutal and I was not expecting it to be this way. Everything was noticeably harder. Manoeuvering it, turning, pushing on flats, handling downhills, getting up the many hills of Seattle, it was very brutal. I guess it will take some weeks to get my muscle mass to match the new increased load. Meanwhile, I’m expecting a few tough runs.

Leafy roads of Mercer Island

Crossing downtown Seattle in the early morning was a pretty sad sight. Many homeless people sleep rough in the streets and there is obviously a lot of drugs going on. The scale of the issue was impressive. Once I ran through the centre and up above the hills, everything changed. Over the I90 bridge across Washington Lake. I went for a little run around Mercer island, a very leafy green residential island and cyclists paradise apparently.

With Ariane by Lake Sammamish

This afternoon I met with Honorary French Consul in Seattle Ariane Ogier. It looks like the French Consulate network is working together to make sure I am being properly welcomed throughout the US, this is truly amazing. Ariane took me to Lake Sammamish where I had a swim whilst Ariane paddle-boarded her way around. The surroundings were stunning, we even saw a couple of bald eagles, symbols of America. It feels reassuring for the solo runner that I am, to know that locally, in the state, someone is aware of my whereabouts – and that there is someone I can contact if need be.

Today and tomorrow are shorter distance runs, which I sure appreciate given the difficulty of running with extra weight (and there is some mighty uphill coming up soon, as I’m about to cross the Cascades mountain range).

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: