Iron Horse Half Marathon 2021

On July 21, I received an email announcing that the Rock n' Roll Seattle Half Marathon scheduled for August 22 was officially canceled. The main reason cited in that email was that there wasn't enough law enforcement available to secure the race course. I had purchased a saver fare ticket with Alaska Airlines which meant that I would have to pay extra to change the flight or eat the cost and stay home. I searched for races that were near the Seattle area. I found the Iron Horse Half Marathon that was on the same day, but then saw that the cost for renting a car was ridiculously high! One of my running friends in that area quickly offered to give me a ride to and from the race if I decide to register for the race. I hate to be an imposition, but she reassured me that it wouldn't be since she was already giving 2 other people a ride to the same race. With my friend's generous offer, I registered for the race and booked my accommodations at a Ramada in Tukwila.

Saturday 8/21
My flight out to Seattle was early in the morning. I got dropped off at Ontario Airport. I always prefer flying out of this airport instead of LAX. This was my first flight since the pandemic hit. I timed it so that I would be fully vaccinated prior to this trip. I was somewhat anxious to get a seat assignment as I had purchased a pretty cheap saver fare with Alaska Airlines. With the saver airfare, they're supposed to assign a seat during check-in, but instead I was on the waitlist. I assumed that the flight was oversold. It turned out that I had worried about nothing as I ended up being assigned an aisle seat.

Inflight water, Biscoff cookies, and hand sanitizing wipe

The flight up to Seattle took less than 3 hours. After getting off of the plane, I hit the restroom to empty the bladder before searching for the spot to wait for the hotel courtesy shuttles. I'm so used to taking the Link light rail. Once I found the spot, I called the hotel and was instructed to wait at island 1D for their shuttle. The first Ramada shuttle showed up and I asked the driver if he was headed to the Southcenter location. He totally sassed me and asked me to read what's written on the side of the van. Shortly, the correct shuttle showed up. I believe the driver's name was Rick. He's 75 years old and in really great shape. He reminded me of Jack LaLanne. Unlike that other driver, this guy was really nice and friendly.

Waiting for the hotel shuttle

After arriving at the hotel, Ramada Tukwila Southcenter, I checked with the lady at the front desk to see if I could get an early check-in. She told me that I should be able to do that at noon. Originally, she was going to charge me for that until I told her that it should be free for platinum members. Since I had a 1.5 hour wait, I decided to head over to the Southcenter to get some water and lunch.

I crossed over via the Tukwila Urban Center Pedestrian Bridge. My first stop was at Target to buy some water. I bought two 1.5L bottles of Good & Gather water. I was in and out of there in no time as I used one of the self checkout registers to pay for the water. I still have a bunch of money left on my gift cards to use up.

Tukwila Urban Center Pedestrian Bridge

From Target, I hoofed it over to Chick-fil-A. On the mobile app, I placed my order for a spicy southwest salad with grilled nuggets, a fruit cup, a large Sunjoy, and a Chick-fil-A sandwich. The Chick-fil-A sandwich was free as I had a reward to use up. Once my food was ready, I found a table to eat my food. Although I had ordered grilled nuggets, they gave me grilled filet instead. No big deal, it's still chicken. Also I noticed that the salad was huge! They had packed the container with much more salad than I'm used to getting.

Spicy southwest salad, fruit cup, large Sunjoy, and Chick-fil-A sandwich

Spicy southwest salad

After I was done with my lunch, I walked back to the hotel to check-in. As promised by the lady at the front desk, she checked me in and I was assigned room #120. I vegged out in my room which included watching the Dodgers vs. Mets. It's been rather cool to watch Scherzer pitch. What was even cooler was the Dodgers winning 4-3 with a save by Jansen.

Mets vs. Dodgers, Max Scherzer pitching

Later that evening, I walked back over to the Southcenter again to meet up with my friends for dinner. The restaurant that my friends picked was the Miyabi Restaurant. Once we were seated, we could access their menu online by scanning their QR code. For my appetizer, I got their geoduck butter and for my entrée, I got their Seattle nabe with a bowl of rice ($2 extra). The appetizer was good, but it was more butter than geoduck. That's understandable since geoduck can't be any cheaper these days. The Seattle nabe was a pretty decent yosenabe. I've always found it weird that restaurants would charge extra for a bowl of rice. I would guess that it's because people these days are afraid of carbs so it would be better for them to make the rice a la carte. After we finished our meals, one of us was still hungry, so he ordered the Let's go Seattle roll to share with everyone. I'm not a fan of fusion rolls, but it was not bad.

Appetizer photo

Geoduck butter

Entrée photo

"Seattle" nabe aka yosenabe

Let's go Seahawks "dessert"

Instead of hoofing it, my friends gave me a ride back to my hotel. Back at my hotel, I vegged out a bit and laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race. It was nice that our bibs were mailed to us so we could reduce the unnecessary gathering of people... racing in the time of COVID.

Flat runner

Sunday 8/22
My friends texted me just ahead of their arrival at my hotel for the carpool over to the race. The race had us park at the finish area over at the Meadowbrook Farm to catch a shuttle to the start line. The shuttle aka school bus dropped us off near the Homestead Valley trailhead of Olallie State Park which was the SE Homestead Valley Rd exit off of the 90 freeway.

Taking the bus to the start

Drop off spot

From the road, we walked up the path towards the trailhead. At the first fork in the road, the right side took us to the cache of portapotties. We hung out here until it was time for our particular wave start. We snapped the usual pre-race photo.

Walk up to the portapotties

Portapotties

Pre-race photo

Walk up to the start line

I wasn't quite in shape to start in wave 2, but I did anyways from near the rear. Wave 2 started at 7:25 am. I felt a little bit better that I wasn't the slowest runner in that wave. The race started on the Iron Horse trail. For the first few miles, I made sure to take it easy. I kept reminding myself to clock no miles under 8 minutes.

Start line

Still early in the race

I latched onto a runner near the part where we hopped on the Snoqualmie Valley trail. Although my legs felt good, I made sure not to pass her, as I knew that my endurance wasn't quite there yet to maintain a quicker pace. I don't think she liked me running right behind her, so eventually she took a step to the other side of the trail to let me go by.

Just as I had anticipated, my legs tired out and felt super heavy as I got through mile 8. I took my one and only walk break to take in my gel. The best that I could get out of my legs from that point on were about 9:30 minute miles. My friend that starting in a later wave caught and overtook me just shortly after I crossed the road at North Bend Way. I was very tempted to take additional walk breaks during those last few miles.

So glad to get to the finish line

Crossing the finish line

Finish: 1:57:42
Click here for my Garmin data.

Even though it was a downhill course, it felt good to finish a half marathon in under 2 hrs. Now, I'll have to keep on working on doing that on a regular course. After collecting my finisher medal, I met up with my friends that had finished ahead of me. We grabbed some post race snacks and checked out the different booths that were giving out samples of their products. I got a race shirt, but my local friends passed on taking another shirt. It was my first Orca race.

Finish line

Finisher medal

Date Me Energy

Post race snacks and water

Race shirt

Back of race shirt

Once our last runner finished, grabbed some water and snacks, we started working our way back to the car. It was pretty cool that my friend had the Orange Mud seat covers. I'll have to look into purchasing one, so the car doesn't get too nasty from post race sweat.

After I got dropped off at my hotel, I made a quick stop at the front desk before heading back to my room. In addition to scheduling a 1 pm shuttle ride over to the Tukwila International Blvd Station to catch the Link light rail into Downtown, I scheduled a 5:30 am ride to the airport for tomorrow's early morning flight home.

I guess I never really noticed, but man, I was pissing blood back at my room. I guess I normally pee after a race in one of the portpotties and never really noticed that the darkness of my pee was blood. Thankfully, exercise induced hematuria is perfectly normal. It cleared up within a few hours.

After I got cleaned up, I made my way to the lobby to catch my shuttle. That very helpful shuttle driver gave me very detailed instructions on how to ride the Link light rail. I let him finish instead of telling him that I already know how to ride it. After getting dropped off at the station, I tapped my Orca card and went up to the tracks. Something didn't look right. One of the workers there informed me that there was track maintenance. So if we're heading north, we had to board a bus over to the next stop at Rainier Beach Station. From there, I took the rail to University St Station. I then walked over to Ivar's Fish Bar to get lunch.

Taking the hotel shuttle over to the Tukwila International Blvd station

I got in line and ordered a 4 pcs and a bowl of white chowder. Once my food was ready, I found an open table in the eating area to eat my meal. After finishing my meal, I stopped inside the restaurant next door to use the restroom. I then walked over to the Pike Place Market to do a quick walkthrough. It didn't look like Uli's Famous Sausage was having any indoor dining, but thankfully I saw that they were still selling their sausages.

In line to order

4 pcs and a bowl of white chowder

Gum wall

"How's my butt?"

From there, I decided to hoof it all the way over to Capitol Hill to pick up some burgers at Dick's Drive-in. The hike took almost half an hour with it mostly uphill. With COVID distancing protocols, they are now down to 2 lines. The wait wasn't too bad. Once I got up to the window, I ordered my usual, 2 Dick's Deluxe.

In line for Dick's

Bag of Dick's

After getting my burgers, I walked across the street to catch the Link light rail from the Capitol Hill Station. The trip back was the same deal. Had to get off at Rainier Beach Station and wait for a bus ride down to the Tukwila International Blvd Station. There was a lot more people on the return trip so there was a bit of a jockeying for position at the curb to board the bus. Once I arrived, I called the hotel for a pick-up. The wait ended up being around 45 minutes as they time it with their regular hourly shuttle pick-up at the airport. There were a few shady characters milling around the station, so I eventually found a spot near the people at the station directing riders to the bus detour.

Capitol Hill Station

It took long enough for me to get back to my room, so I ate the two burgers as my dinner. The burgers were wrapped in aluminum foil, so they were still nice and warm. Even though it was a bit of a hassle, I thought it was a better choice than getting dinner at the nearby Jollibee and I do love me some Jollibee!

A couple of Dick's Deluxe

Dick's Deluxe

Monday 8/23
I woke up early, packed up my stuff, and headed to the lobby for the ride over to the airport. The ride only took about 10 minutes. I got through the TSA checkpoint and to my gate in less than 20 minutes. I kept checking the mobile app for my seat assignment. Unfortunately, I was assigned a middle seat for the return trip home. It wasn't too bad as the flight only took about 2.5 hours.

Inflight drink and snack