Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon June 27, 2009

Pre-Race: The race had 25,000 people!!! Yes, that's right. HUGE. The biggest race in Seattle's history. Most of the people did the half-marathon. 70% of the participants were women. The majority of the women were in their 30s. I guess I fit that demographic!

I signed up for the race back in March after I ran the Mercer Island half marathon. When you sign up it asks you what time you expect to finish. Since I had just finished that race in a 1:47 I thought, at the time, that I could shave off a couple of minutes so I put down a 1:45:30. I didn't realize that this put me in a corral. Out of 40+ corrals I was assigned to corral 4 with the fast people. Yikes.

I got a new bike, as most everyone in the world now knows. So, my running hasn't been too consistent since the purchase of my bike. In fact, it's better pretty minimal. But, my husband still thought I might surprise myself because I'd been swimming and biking a lot.

I woke up at 4:45am to meet a woman in Sammamish whose friends gave us a ride to the start. This was really cool, because otherwise we would have had to wake up even earlier to catch a shuttle from Seattle.

Race:
I lined up with the people in corral 4. We were both marathoners and half-marathoners together at a similar pace. So, the 3:30 sign was nearby. (the pacer for the full marathon). The gun went off and I told myself not to go out too fast. But, but, but, everyone was going so fast. It was like we were in a river and the current was quick. People were whooping and hollaring because it was exciting to run with that many people. I got caught up in the moment and was with that 3:30 sign for the first 5 miles or so.

At about mile 5 there was a hill and I realized my heart rate was up there. I wasn't wearing a monitor, but, I knew it was up there. So, I decided to walk up the hill. I got to the top and ran down toward Seward Park area. I wasn't feeling as strong as I should. I started walking every mile. By about mile 9 I was really hurting and my back was getting tight. I was bummed because the weather was PERFECT, the hills weren't too big and there was a lot of positive energy in this race. But, I didn't feel good. People were passing me. I was passing...no one. I really wanted to stop. But, I paid $100 to do this race and I should not quit because it's LAME. So, I kept going and walking and going and walking. I finally got to the finish and was able to stop. Yeah, it was over.

Time: 1:50:09. Avg. Pace 8:24

Post Race: Had fun in the beer garden for several hours after the race. Fun! I also got a sunburn.

I did get one good race photo... here is the link. http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=45933&BIB=4481&LNSEARCH=1