Rock n Roll Seattle Marathon 2011

Before the race
I took a Friday afternoon flight out of LAX with Virgin America. On the plane I ended up watching episodes of "Good Luck Charlie". Good wholesome Disney television show. Once we landed at SeaTac airport, I made the short trek over to the Link light rail station. $2.75 one way to Downtown, what a deal. I got off at the Stadium station and walked over to the expo.

Virgin America

Riding the Link light rail

I got my race packet, shirt, and bag. Then made my way through all of the booths. I had no intention or need of buying anything. But I knew that I wanted to check out if they had a deal for next year's race. Indeed they did... $65 for the marathon. I couldn't pass that up. Somehow I screwed up and signed up for the half-marathon, but they said they'd get that changed.

As I was headed out over to the International District, I bumped into Maniac Hideki. It was sprinkling a little bit, but never enough for me to take out the umbrella. I stopped by Uwajimaya and bought some drinks and snacks. Then I headed over to Maneki to eat dinner. Last year I timed it wrong and wasn't able to eat there.

Uwajimaya supermarket

Snacks

I got there right when they were opening for dinner at 5:30pm. The food was definitely as good as touted on Yelp. I ordered the chirashi and ika maru yaki. That was plenty of food. Both were good and I most likely will return next year to try other stuff on their menu.

Maneki - ika maru yaki

Maneki - Chirashi

After filling my belly with delicious food, I made my long trek up to my hotel in Belltown. I know that I could've taken the bus for free, but walking was pretty much my "shakeout run" before the race. I stopped by a Walgreens on Pike and 3rd to pick up some pre-race Orange Juice.

I checked into the Belltown Inn and just relaxed in my room. Got my race stuff ready. I watched a little bit of TV before going to sleep.

Belltown Inn - urban blight

Race day
Race morning, I got ready and walked over to the shuttle stop across the street from The Westin hotel. It seems that they're cutting costs this year. They used the yellow kiddie school buses not designed for adults this year instead of the nice tour buses. Luckily it was just a short drive down to Tukwila.

Also this year they didn't have Cytomax at the starting area. Kind of disappointed since the final instructions said they would have some. That kind of threw a monkey wrench into my plans. I had planned to fill my handheld with Cytomax but I had to fill it with water and the electrolyte tablet that I was planning to use during the 2nd half of the race. Since I was only trying to survive the race, it didn't really matter. It's always good to be flexible and be prepared with plan B.

I sat down at a curb and waited for the start of the race. The Marathon Maniacs all gathered around 6:20am to take the group photo. I checked my gear bag at the UPS trucks and headed for my corral.

Marathon Maniac group photo

Goals
Goal was to just finish and have fun along the way. 3 months of rest from marathons awaits me at the finish line.

1st half
I started near the back of my corral with the 3:40 pace group. The pace group leader kind of took off a little bit fast. I stopped following her near mile 3. I really could only fake my way through 10k. After that everything fell apart. Near mile 8, there was a line of people carrying flags to remember those who gave their lives serving in the military. They were the group that wore blue to remember. I had to run clear to the left side of the road so I wouldn't get too emotional. The race was already getting hard as it is. I made it to the halfway mark at about 2:10 and just completely switch it into fun time mode.
1: 8:15
2: 8:14
3: 8:45
4: 9:16
5: 9:22
6: 8:28
7: 9:39
8: 10:05
9: 10:05
10: 10:30
11: 10:37
12: 12:02
13: 13:44

2nd half
Not much running in the 2nd half. Thank goodness I got so much support from the Team in Training coaches. Again I had trouble on the steady climb at miles 17-18. I felt so out of shape. Even the downhills felt like uphill. My quads really cramped up near the end. The S-caps I was taking was barely helping. I could only manage a jog down the finishing chute.
14: 11:13
15: 15:53
16: 14:34
17: 16:11
18: 16:17
19: 14:13
20: 15:20
21: 15:37
22: 16:23
23: 16:24
24: 13:40
25: 12:56
26: 16:47
26.2: 2:20
Finish: 5:26:52

After the race
After I crossed the finish line, my legs pretty much locked up. The overly eager medical folks quickly took me over to the medical tent. I just told them that I needed electrolytes. One of them realized that I knew what I was talking about told me to keep on walking, there were some Cytomax further down.

I really love this course. It's not the easiest, but I love running along Washington Lake. I just might run this race every year especially if they keep offering deals at the expo.

By the way that I felt during the race, I was 100% certain that I would stick to the plan and not run a marathon for the next 3 months (July - September). The only race that I'm tempted to enter is the ET Midnight Marathon. We'll see if I can resist. :)

Shirt, bib, and medal

Medal

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped by Uwajimaya to pick up some victory beers. I don't bother with the cheap swill, MGD64, that they give out at the beer tent anymore. Again I didn't take the bus because walking after a race helps speed up the recovery for me. It felt really far far far away. Once I got into my room and sat down, my legs started burning from the lactic acid buildup. Ouch!

I ate snacks and watched some TV. It would've been good to eat with my beers, but they did not have twist off caps. I didn't have anything that I could use to open them, so the beers had to wait. After getting cleaned up, I walked back out to the Pike Market Place to eat an early supper and buy a souvenir bottle opener.

Coedo beers, Shikkoku and Kyara

Pike Market Place

window shopping at the souvenir shop

Bottle opener

I walked up and down the waterfront to see what was available. I eventually ate at Ivar's Fish Bar. I think next time I'll just have chowder only. I always have a hard time eating solid food too soon after a race. The fried oysters were decent, but I should just stick to raw oysters.

Ivar's Fish Bar - fried oysters & chips and white clam chowder

I walked back to my hotel, drank my beers and promptly took a nice long nap/sleep/coma.

I woke up the next day. Spent most of the morning just watching TV. I got checked out of my hotel and headed out to explore Seattle. I walked up to the Space Needle, but didn't feel like going up. I'll do that next year. I walked back to the waterfront to eat a nice lunch at Elliott's Osyter House.

Space Needle

Norwegian Pearl docked at Pier 66 - I want to go on a cruise one of these days

I had a nice huge imperial size Maritime IPA. That really hit the spot. I had the waitress pick out a half dozen small size oysters. She also recommended the Dungeness crab cakes. She was right. They were good. I would eat here again even though their beer selection was very limited.

Maritime IPA, imperial size

Elliott's Oyster House - half dozen raw oysters

Elliott's Oyster House - Dungeness crab cakes

I climbed the Harbor Steps a few times this weekend. If I lived here, this would be a nice place to hang out or run stairs. Since my flight was in the evening, I headed over to the AMC theatre to watch a movie. I ended up watching Green Lantern 3D. It was a pretty good movie for a comic book nerd like me. Plus Blake Lively was pretty dang hot! Afterwards, I walked back to the International District station and took the Link light rail to the SeaTac airport. Seattle, I'll see you again in a year. :)

Harbor Steps

Green Lantern 3D