Seattle 1/2 Half Marathon

Up nice and early once again and headed out for the drive down. I got down to Seattle in plenty of time this morning. Got great parking about 2 blocks from the start. The weather was great! The temps were in the low 50s at the start of the race, and while there was a heavy fog that made it seem like it was misting, it wasn't bad at all and burned off eventually.

We started almost on time and headed out through downtown Seattle. We ran by Safeco Field and Qwest Field and headed through the express lanes to I-90 and through a tunnel. The tunnel was hot by the time I got to the end and was happy to get out of there. After that we headed into residential areas. Would have been a nice view I'm sure as it was along Lake Washington had there not been so much fog over the water. The water stops were plentiful which was very nice. I had Gu and my Shot Bloks throughout and felt really good through the whole race.

I ran pretty much the whole thing(improvement over last time). I would walk when I got water or Gatorade-but that was mostly so I didn't end up wearing it...lol. I had a few other minimal walk breaks, which I usually did in conjunction with digging in my race belt for Gu or Bloks(I never did get around to my Jelly Bellies-there's always next time). I did take a pretty good walk break in between miles 7 and 8...we did a 90 degree left turn and ran smack dab into a nasty hill and I said oh hell noooo and walked up most of it...lol. I finally started to get tired around mile 11 but pushed on through and kept running. I had no cramps in my feet this time around which helped in being able to keep running. Made the turn into the stadium toward the finish line and crossed feeling great! The recovery area dumped me out 1 block up from where I parked so I had a short walk to the truck.

My time was 2:40:35-over 8 minutes off my time from the Bellingham Bay 1/2! I am feeling really good afterwards, too. Last time around, I came home and showered and pretty much collapsed in bed with ice packs. I'm a bit sore, but no where hurting like I was before. Also, last time, I ended up with an inflamed tendon in my left foot and was worried about it today and had decided that I would walk if it started to bother me, but felt nothing! Also wore my new CW-X tights and they were great. My right hamstring has been bothering me lately, but the CW-X's lived up to their promise and the extra support around my hamstring was great and no problems with that either.


Space Needle in the early morning light



Waiting at the start





About to cross the finish line





I did it!!