Rock ‘n Roll

I participated in the Seattle Rock ‘n Roll half marathon this year.  My sister, Sharon, roped me into it.  I started training in Geneva (lots of hills), kept it up in Edmonton (high altitude) and then Portland (easy shmeezy).  My brother and sister-in-law also registered for the race, but neglected to train.  They picked up their shirts anyway and here we are the night before the race.  The map behind us shows how far we ran.

Sharon booked us a hotel right near the starting line.  But on Friday night when we went to check into our room, we discovered that she had booked the wrong night!  The place was completely full but the staff at DoubleTree Guest Suites were fabulous; they found us a room at a nearby hotel and let us use their shuttle in the morning to get to the race.  If you’re ever in need of a place to stay in Tukwila, WA, I heartily recommend DoubleTree.

Traffic to get to the race on Saturday morning was INSANE.   I was glad to know that the little tags on our shoes timed us and there were multiple starting corrals so we didn’t have to be there right at the 7:00am start time.  Especially when there was a 10 minute wait to use a honey-pot before the run. 

When I signed up for the race, I estimated my finish time at 2 hours 40 minutes.  So I was assigned to start in corral 30.  But since I was there with Sharon and Christen, I joined them at corral 19.  It wasn’t long before they left me in the dust.  I kept pace with a number of others in that corral though and felt pretty pleased with myself every time I passed someone.  There were lots of people cheering us on and one sign that I loved:

“Don’t look now, but somebody’s following you.”

My knee started hurting around mile 8 so I stopped for a bit to stretch it.  That seemed to do the trick and I didn’t have much trouble with it the rest of the race.  Most of the time I ran at an easy enough gait that I could breath comfortably through my nose.  When I saw a sign marking 20KM I decided to kick it up a notch.  Then I rounded a bend and saw the 13 Mile marker and started sprinting.  It was great to fly by other runners at that point.  I crossed the finish line in 2 hours 11 minutes 28 seconds!  Here’s a picture of me and here’s the video as I cross the finish line.

After the race we indulged in pedicures.  (My first ever!)

 

Such lovely toes. Can you guess which ones are mine?  If you picked the whitest, you’re right.  :)

Sunday morning my thighs were a little stiff and I was absolutely starving, but other than that I was feeling pretty good.  I’m already signed up to Rock ‘n Roll again next year.  Anyone want to join me?