{Flashback Fridays} Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon Recap

Looking at my race calendar, I realized I've ran a few (just a few) races in the past year that (obviously) have not made it on the blog.  So in an effort to share my racing adventures, I will be doing a little series I like to call "Flashback Fridays".  Each Friday I will be recapping one of the races I've done in the last year for your reading pleasure.  Just humor me. Ready, go:

 Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon
Saturday, June 22nd, 2013: Seattle, Washington

Since I ran the San Diego Rock n Roll Half last June, I figured I would switch it up a bit and pick a different June Rock n Roll.  Enter Seattle.  My friend Sheena and her college roommate were planning to do this race, and it looked like a great course in a great city, so I decided to tag along.  After visiting Seattle in December, I really wanted a chance to see the city when it was warm (hopefully) and sunny (hopefully).  This seemed like the perfect opportunity.

We arrived in Seattle on Thursday afternoon, just in time to make it over to the expo to pick up our bibs and check out the booths (read: get as many free samples as humanly possible). The Expo was held at the CenturyLink Field Event Center.  For someone who hasn't spent much time in Seattle (like myself), this is where the Seahawks play and is also conveniently located right next to Safeco Field where the Mariners play.  A lot of parking, but most of it is expensive, so be careful.  Bib and packet pickup was surprisingly easy.  I'm not sure if that's because we were there 2 days before the race and only the locals were picking up packets that early, or if what, but there was barely anyone in line.

After a quick lunch across the street at Pyramid, my mom and I revisited the expo hall to see how many free bags of pop chips we could accumulate. See below.  And then headed off to Bothell where we would be staying with family for most of the weekend.

Expo Loot

On Friday, the day before the race, I told my mom I only wanted to do one thing: take a ferry.  So we did.  Lunch in Port Angeles, a drive through Poulsbo, and another ferry back into downtown.

Ferry adventure!

Because the race starts and ends at Seattle Center, I really wanted to stay close to, if not, in downtown the night before the race. We found a great deal online to stay at the W Hotel downtown.  It was only 5 blocks from the monorail which takes you directly to the start line.  It was also convenient that the course ran right by the hotel not once, but twice. It made for easy spectating for my mom.  The monorail was one of the many organized options of getting to and from the race.  It worked great! The race started at 7am, so I took the monorail at about 6 am.  No lines, no waiting, just a lot of semi-nervous looking runners, some holding a banana.

Race Morning: I was ready (and I think I have an addiction to all things green)

The monorail drops you off right at the Armory in Seattle Center.  Word to the wise, the Armory has 3 floors of inside bathrooms with flushing toilets. All were open and operational.  Forget the port-a-potties.  Also, Starbucks was open and ready for those who can actually drink coffee before a race.

After dropping things off at gear check and doing a bit of stretching, we hopped into our corrals ready to start the race.  Being in corral 28 (or maybe it was 27), we didn't actually cross the starting line until almost 8am, one of the main drawbacks of a large race.  Hurry up and wait, for sure.

I really enjoyed this course.  The first 2 miles run through downtown Seattle.  Quite a few spectators make it outside their hotels to cheer on runners as they pass.  Just before mile 2 there is quite a downhill.  While I enjoyed it, I also had the "what goes down, must come up" mantra in the back of my head.  We made the turn onto Dearborn, and I saw a bunch of people on the side of the road at what looked like a makeshift water stop.  I realized that it was a Nuun waterstop! I yelled to Sheena (who enjoys Nuun much more than I do and bought 8 tubes at the expo) in excitement.  It was such a welcome change from the gatorade along the course.  Yay for Seattle races with Nuun!

Miles 3 through 6 ran through sparsely populated areas of town.  Lots of trees overhead, which was great considering there were almost no clouds in the sky.  It was a beautiful day!

Miles 6 and 7 were probably some of the best, most emotional miles I've ever run in a race. This course has a full mile of remembrance for soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Signs line the path with pictures and names of those who served our country and made the ultimate sacrifice. These are followed by a line of people holding American flags. This sent chills down my spine and gave me goosebumps.  It's additions like this to races that make me take an extra moment (or mile) to think hard about why I run and how appreciative I am to have the opportunity.

At mile 8, we made a left turn onto the I-90 freeway (yes you read that right) and made our way into a mile long tunnel back into downtown.  This part was pretty killer.  It was as hot as a sauna in there, and my GPS watch was not entertained.  This was not my first foray in freeway running, as the San Diego Rock n Roll runs along the curvy and slanted 163 freeway.  This wasn't nearly as slanted. Sheena went on ahead after I slowed down and yelled "save yourself" in her general direction.

The remaining miles of the race were ran back through downtown, passing CenturyLink, and out on to the Alaskan way Viaduct.  At this point, I was just working through the miles, counting down to 13.  We ran through another tunnel right at mile 12.  Not nearly as sauna-like, and a nice reprieve from the sun. 

In the home stretch, right at the end of the race, we turned the corner to what seemed like would be the start of the finisher's shoot.  Enter, small but killer hill right at mile 12.9.  I was not a happy camper. In fact, I think I said "you've gotta be freaking kidding me" out loud.  As I attempted to sprint up the hill, my will to live quickly dissipated and I began to walk.  As I ran/walked through the finish line, I said goodbye to my hope of a PR and just started to look forward to the water and free Jamba Juice.

Final time: 2:29:33.

Moral of the story: I would love to do this race again next year, with some hill training.

After the race, we raced (again) back to the hotel to shower quickly before check-out time (note to self: schedule late checkout), had breakfast at Pike's Place with a great view of the water and went to my first Mariners game.  Overall, I would say the weekend was a success!