For the eighth city of the year I headed back to my favorite race city, Seattle! Seeing as though my office is based out of Seattle (well, sort of), I mixed work and fun. I flew in to the city and headed in to the office for some meetings, and then at the end of the day headed out to the expo to pick up my bibs for the weekend. After lots of consternation I picked up my half marathon bib, rather than a full marathon…even though I would continue to ruminate over it the entire weekend. Ugh.
The inaugural Rock n Roll Seattle 5K started and finished at the Museum of Flight. Running along Marginal Way, the views of the airplanes were fantastic. We even had impromptu corral waves that corresponded with airplane takeoffs! Since Alaska Airlines was the sponsor, they even had a small little plane arch. Look at the cute little plane! It’s so little!
Since Erik had a shakeout run before his marathon, he did the unthinkable…he jogged the 5K with me, side by side. It was really nice starting and finishing a race with him. I’ve always wanted to do that!
The 5K field was much smaller than I thought it would be, given the lead time and the popularity of running in the city of Seattle. Since we ran the first one, I suppose this sets us up to be legacy runners for this race. I suppose that’s something I’d be okay with.
The 5K run was a very flat course. It was north on Marginal Way from the Museum of Flight, 1.5 miles from the start, with a turnaround and back. We ran on both lanes of the street since they were completely shut down. There was definitely a band and a water station along this route…much better than Liverpool!
After the race, we ran a few errands before heading back to the Museum of Flight.
The finish line was celebratory as expected. Lots of families and charity runners finished alongside one another, and lots of folks headed in to the museum. I thought that it was a fantastic venue for the race. I really look forward to doing it again next year.
After a day of running around, we settled in to an evening of spaghetti dinner at our Airbnb and rested up for our big day.
On Sunday morning, I woke up and got ready for my half marathon. I woke up still fairly tired from the marathon — something that felt pretty familiar from the week, to be honest — and I was glad that many people talked me out of running the full marathon. We walked over to Husky Stadium, which was the start of the new race course. It was a really nice race morning, not too cool but definitely a bit more humid than I remembered for Seattle.
Seattle tends to be a fairly popular race, and since the half and full begin together, the corrals end up blending together. After they called a dozen or so, I finally got to begin my race!
This new course was really interesting. I thought I would like it more, to be honest. So many of the miles wind through my old race stomping grounds. The first 1/10th of a mile runs on the Montlake Bridge, which was an absolute pain. Having to run on the bridge meant that we had to run on the medal grading, which was really difficult and potentially hazardous if you run clumsily like I do.
From there, the course winds through neighborhoods that I’ve ridden through during my triathlon training days. As I dripped from the humidity, I notice that the course comes up along the Kurt Cobain bench:
As the race progresses along the Lake Washington waterfront, it’s difficult to miss the Seattle skyline. The clouds were hanging fairly low that morning, but I still find it beautiful nonetheless.
While running on the course, I kept running and catching up to the guy dressed up as an airplane. I wondered if he was someone who particularly loved Alaskan Airlines? Or maybe he worked for them and really loved the company?
The costume was awesome, but he looked pretty warm while running. He also looked tired because he was hauling the thing around the entire time. I would run into him again and again on the course though, so he kept a fairly good pace given the costume! I hope to be able to run with such an awesome costume someday. 🙂
My legs were feeling particularly fatigued, especially by mile 9. The marathon in San Diego really did a number on me. Even now I still don’t feel like I’ve quite recovered yet. At this point we’re about a mile past the marathon/half marathon split. This sign was here to remind me that my bling was around the corner. Just a few more miles left to go.
We’re winding our way through Rainier Valley. It’s not a very nice part of Rainier Valley, but a few years ago I was part of a painting project that met in a secret warehouse to paint portraits over the weekend. I remembered some of the side streets. I thought a lot about those times of my life, these streets, and how far I had come. I never thought that I’d leave Seattle, let alone live in Denver, yet here I was. After a few miles, we turned the corner in the International District and I could see Century Link stadium.
The finish chute narrowed as the marathoners joined us back near the finish line. By the time I finished I was completely drenched and exhausted. It reminded me of how I felt after finishing Nashville, except it wasn’t hot.
After some stretching and changing, I went back for my other medals and then headed back to the finish line to enjoy the festivities.
I’m now on race 7 towards 15 to my Hall of Fame status this year. I really need to focus on taking care of my body, stretching, strength training, getting massages, and not overextending my training.
My next stop…24 hours, start to finish, in Chicago!
Amara in Training 