Seattle Rock N Roll Marathon

NO Claustrophobia for me!
I’m very claustrophobic and thought this would be the end before the start of this ½ marathon with over 25,000 people. The start is in waves and recorded by chip time. It took me 20 minutes for our “coral” to get to the start line.

The starting stage area was chaotic but controlled chaos, located in some office park in Tukwila. I was positioned in the front of our coral (no shocker there for anyone who knows me) ☺ and had abundance of room. When I turned around on this little rise, it seemed like people just went on and on with no ending in site. A few more port-a-potties at the start would have been beneficial. I stood in line for 25 minutes. I heard the bushes were well watered.

I lost my running partner before the race even began! It would have been much more fun if she was running along with me.

The Course

The first few miles weren’t very picturesque. Actually down right ugly. However, I didn’t really “see” very much. By the first mile I was already at 8:30 and this was after running up a small incline while trying to get around all the slower people! How and why did they start before me?!
I found someone who’s pace was pretty close to mine for about three miles and tried staying with her. I lost track of her after a water stop but dearly needed water. Two cups. One for the head and one to drink and that would be my routine the rest of the race. It is so dang hard to drink water out of a cup while running. I drank air a few times until I finally came up with a technique of swishing the water in the mouth before swallowing. Note to self: bring fuel belt with water bottles next time!

No serious hills, just gradual inclines but one I anticipated was a good mile long and then a steep part for a block. I used to ride some of this route going the other way and running up was a little challenging. The course took us along Lake Washington and was so nice seeing all the luxury boats, then the Eagle flying around, as well as the satellite plane. (I have no idea what it is called). The bands. Hmm? One word: iPod. It wasn’t very motivating. After the I90 tunnel there wasn’t any music at all. If there were bands stationed, they weren’t playing. I seriously needed motivation at that time. Oh and before the tunnel going up the hill – that sucked. Not because it was steep for a minute or two but people were walking and it was hard to get around them and then they’d stop right in front of you. (grrrr!#@$)

After the 10mile marker, my mind and body was saying “Yeah! You only have 3.1 miles to go!” I then did calculations – I could be under 2 hours! This is where I became emotional. Usually it is at the finish line. Not me. Nope.

So, what do I do? I picked up my pace but that last mile was THE LONGEST. (This is where the bands should have been playing.) I finally figured out where the finish line was and decided to run faster with another female trying to run hard too! It was humorous to me, like we were sprinting for 112th place! At this point I really wanted to finish before 2 hours.

Afterward I was walking around in a slight daze but nothing hurt except the usual pain after running that long. I drank 16 oz of water and couldn’t eat anything. Just putting food in my mouth was disgusting. After an hour my stomach settled down and we went to PF Changs tent for a free lettuce wrap and a tiny piece of chocolate cake. (I’m not totally into chocolate but dang that was good!)

The only real bummer was as I said before; I didn’t run with my friend Carrie. She did awesome as well. 2:00:26.

I can come up with a few things to change for my next ½ but that is for later. Right now I’ll just enjoy my first ½ marathon finish.

They had these really cool medals that I had engraved with my name and finish time. ☺ (NEVER would I have thought to do that when I was skating!)

I already signed up for next year!


Splits: 5 Km 10 Km 9 Mile Finish O'All Sex Div
Times: 27:23 55:56 1:21:38 1:56:50 2504 1160 79
Pace: 8:49 9:01 9:05 8:55
Or another way of looking at it...
Time 1:56:50
Overall Place 2504 / 15541
Gender Place 1160 / 11339
Division Place 79 / 1083
Age Grade 62.4%
Pace 8:55
Ttlrace 15541
Ttldiv 1083
Ttlsex 11339
5 Km 27:23
10 Km 55:56
9 Mile 1:21:38