Junk Food Runner: Rock n Roll Seattle Half-Marathon

Monday, July 2, 2012

Rock n Roll Seattle Half-Marathon

Better late than never...my report from Rock n Roll Seattle!

This was the biggest race I have ever done, around 25,000 people. We stayed about 30 mins outside of the city and had pre-purchased parking at the garage so we left the hotel around 4:45 and were parked by 5:25. Everything went pretty smoothly, we checked our bags, used the porta potties, and got in our corral. We were in corral 24 so we didn't start till about 7:36. It was cold! But as soon as we started running I warmed up.

Hubs stopped to use a porta potty around mile 3, I was going to walk for a bit to stretch my calf and he was going to catch up with me. I started running again after a bit and thought he would run until he caught up with me; he thought I was going to keep walking until he caught up and got worried when he didn't see me walking on the side. We ended up not finding each other again until about an hour after I finished the race.

Technically...I ran a 13.1-mile PR of 2:16. But, there were so many people and so many turns that I ended up running 13.43 miles in 2:19:58, 23 seconds over my current PR. Grrrr! So close! I just need to find a small race with minimal hills and turns.

We really lucked out with having perfect weather during the race, cloudy turning into sun, high 50s and a light breeze. An hour or so later it started pouring down rain, I felt bad for all the marathoners still out on the course.

We walked over to Pike Place Market, hubs got a sour dough cinnamon roll and I got a Texas apple fritter. It was bigger than my head. The woman next to me on the bench was looking at us so I didn't take a picture. Trust me, it was amazing.

We sat at a coffee shop for awhile deciding what to do. This is when it started pouring down rain. We opted to go to Red Robin on the pier (a 10 minute walk), since our car was still parked at the garage a mile away.

There were several other groups of racers at RR. Funny to see the different types, an older grizzled man wearing two Garmins, a mom and two teenage-looking girls, three women decked out head-to-toe in Rock n Roll merchandise.

After lunch we amazingly caught a cab right out front and went back to our car. Then we drove back to the hotel and were lazy. It was great. I had ice cream for dinner.

Overall the race was pretty good, despite losing my husband for a few hours. My favorite part was running along Lake Washington and Elliot Bay. I think hubs' favorite part was meeting Dean K. at the expo. I don't know if I will do it again though, there are a lot of logistics involved! But I do love running in Seattle, so we may look into the Seattle Marathon. It was a very fun weekend!