Runners With Tunnel Vision Can Check Out Metro Route

Anyone who has slogged through a wet footrace in Seattle and wished they were running in a dry tunnel will get the chance to do precisely that next Sunday.

The Tunnel Run and Walk Sept. 9 is expected to draw at least 5,000 participants who will run and walk courses that include the new 1.3-mile Metro bus tunnel from the International District to Ninth Avenue and Pine Street, near the Convention Center.

The running course will be 5.66 miles and the walk 2.96 miles.

This will be the second year of a footrace and walk staged to celebrate completion of a major transportation project. Last year, more than 7,400 runners and walkers got an early look at the Interstate 90 bridge in the Bank to Bank Run.

Registrations postmarked today are $12 for the run (it starts at 8 a.m.) and $8 for the walk (8:30 a.m.). The cost jumps to $15 and $10 tomorrow. Entry fees include T-shirt. Register in person at Bon Marche stores or Super Jock 'N Jill at Green Lake.

abor Day half-marathon

-- A favorite race of several runners, the Sister Cities Half-Marathon, is set for Monday with the start-finish line at the Chateau Ste. Michelle winery in Woodinville.

The race (formerly the 47 Degree Latitude Half-Marathon) celebrates Seattle's relationship with Nantes, France. The event got a ranking in the ``Fabulous 15'' events as selected by Running Times magazine in 1987.

Organizers hope to make the event into a national

half-marathon championship if a major sponsor can be found.

The 13.1-mile race is expected to attract a strong field and one reason is $1,000 in prize money.

Runners may register through Sunday for $15 at Super Jock 'N Jill or Bothell's Wyndham Gardens Hotel in the Quadrant Business Park off Interstate 405. There is no day-of-race registration.

uick laps

-- Lisa Weidenbach of Issaquah won the Hakkaido Marathon in Japan last Sunday in 2:31:29. It was her second trip to Japan this summer. She is 2 for 2, having won a half-marathon there last month. Her other victories this year were the Bellin 10K in Green Bay, Wis., the Nike Cherry Blossom 10K in Washington, D.C., and the Nordstrom 8K in Portland.

-- A new race on the calendar this year is the Sept. 15 ``Halfway to St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Shuffle,'' a 5-kilometer event in Everett. It will have the unusual starting time of 6:30 p.m. The race will promote Everett's soon-to-be sister-city ties with Sligo, Ireland.

-- Here's a new product that should interest Northwest runners: the Shoe Sentry, a small electrical appliance that speeds the drying of wet shoes. You put your shoes over pipelike devices and they dry. The cost from Athletic Products Inc., P.O. Box 2287 Ocean, N.J., is $39.95 plus $3 shipping and handling. For another $5, an extension that works for ski boots is available.

-- The Seattle Marathon Association and Sports Medicine Clinic of Ballard are sponsoring a training group for this year's marathon and half-marathon Nov. 24. The group will have weekly training runs Saturday mornings beginning Sept. 15 plus two or three seminars on training and injury prevention. For information, write to the Seattle Marathon Association, P.O. Box 45277, Seattle 98145-0277.

-- At last check, about 25 teams of 10 to 12 runners have entered the second annual Run for Sight Sept. 15 at Shoreline Stadium. The 12-hour relay event over a 2.3-mile road course is a fund-raiser for the Lions Club Sight Conservation Foundation, which sponsors eye banks and helps pay for surgery for those who can't afford it. Further information: 622-7459.

-- Don't throw out those old running shoes and T-shirts. Donate them. You can send the shoes to World Shoe Relief, P.O. Box 423, Trabuco Canyon, Calif., 92678. They will wind up in a orphanage, boys' club, rescue mission or prison in the United States or Central America. Send clean shirts and $1 per shirt to American Friends Service Committee-Runner's World T-Shirt Project, 1515 Cherry St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19102. The shirts will go to Africa.

-- The Woodinville Country Slough Run, which has 10-kilometer and 2-mile divisions, also has a new date this year - Sept. 16, a Sunday. The race will be part of the Woodinville Family Fun Festival.