I did it! Seattle Half Marathon

Well, today was the day I ran the Seattle Half Marathon, quite possibly the warmest one on record. It started at 7:30 am at 55 degrees. It was foggy and misting, but so warm!

Danielle and I started the race out at the back of the pack. This was intentional so I wouldn't run too fast at the beginning and it is always more fun to pass people than to be passed by others.

I started out strong, made it up the first hill reasonably well. I continued through the I-90 express tunnel with relative ease. As we headed out on Lake Washington Blvd, (Danielle pretty much left me at mile 3,) my right knee started to get a little sore. I kept thinking "My knee hurts but it doesn't matter." I slogged along until mile 6/7 pretty well. I was really happy to see the GU shot table and discovered the vanilla flavor goes down pretty well. I was more than happy to fuel up because I knew that the biggest hills were still to come.

Mile 7 was hard. It takes you up a large hill into Madison Park through Denny Blaine. Then, you get to go up this ridiculous hill called Galer Street. Then there is a crazy slow uphill until you FINALLY get to mile marker 8. Then, you get your last 'break', a slow descent into the arboretum.

Then, it is up, up, up to Capitol Hill through this magical wooded path that I had no idea that it even exsisted. It is so pretty, windy, woody and pretty. It eventually spits you out on Bolyston on Capitol Hill which made me really happy because I've ran the next section a bunch of times before.

Once we headed down the last major downhill, I really started to struggle. My pinky toe on my right foot started hurting at mile 10, so by mile 12, I was in so much pain. I was determined to keep going though. No walking!!

Once I finally reached the stadium, I was exhausted. I saw the finish line, but I got to tell you, I normally sprint the last 50 yards or so of each race but that was not the case today. I left it all out on the course.

I finished a little after half of the people in my age group, which is a pretty big improvement for me. My chip time? 2:16:35.