I drove out pretty early to catch my 6 am flight with Alaska Airlines at LAX. I'm always excited to visit one of my favorite cities and to run this particular marathon. I love the Pacific Northwest so much that just a few months ago, I almost took a job up near Seattle. This year would be the seventh consecutive year that I've run this marathon since it joined the Rock n' Roll Marathon Series back in 2009. It was pretty cool to finally see working power outlets and USB ports on the plane!
Yea! Power outlets and USB ports!
I arrived in Seattle just a little before 9 am. I made my way to the SoundTransit light rail station. It was $3 for a one way ticket. I got off at the Stadium station and made my way over to the CenturyLink Field Event Center for the race expo. As I approached the entrance for the expo, I noticed that there was a huge line of people waiting to get inside. It was already about 10 minutes after 10 am, the time that it was supposed to have opened. As I was headed to the back of the line, they were just starting to let people in.
A very long line of people waiting to get in!
After picking up my race packet and race shirt, I started exploring the very familiar Rock n' Roll race expo. I picked up a few giveaways from various booths. The one that I spent a little bit of time at was the Toyota booth. I had to register my info on a tablet and go around to each vehicle to learn about the car's features and get my QR code scanned. The final car was a Sienna modified into a SpongeBob themed vehicle. I took a photo inside the vehicle and got a SpongeBob Movie lunch bag. Per the usual, I stopped by the Rock n' Roll area to sign up for next year's race. It was only $55 for the full marathon! Even with state tax and processing fees, it came out to only $69.04. Who says Rock n' Roll races are too expensive?! My legacy will continue!
Continuing my legacy!
After leaving the expo, I headed over to the Ivar's Pier 54 Fish Bar along the Alaskan Way to eat my customary first meal in Seattle, but it was temporarily closed due to construction. So I walked over to the 206 Burger Company near my hotel to eat lunch instead. For me, burgers are always a good backup plan. It was a small little burger joint among several other restaurants in the same complex. I ordered their 206 Burger and tater tots. I love any place that has tater tots on their menu! Inside was a bit crammed, so I found a table just outside in the courtyard. It was lunch time and the seating availability seemed to be pretty plentiful. After a short wait, I got my food and was ready to chow down. It was a good, tasty, and juicy burger. If I worked nearby, I would definitely eat here on a regular basis.
Ivar's is temporarily closed due to construction! :(
206 Burger with tater tots
After lunch I walked about a block over to my hotel, the Executive Hotel Pacific, to see if I could check in early. My room was ready, so I was able to go up to my room, drop off my bags and relax a bit. I was given a decent room up on the 6th floor.
Per the usual routine, I went through the expo haul after unpacking all of my stuff for tomorrow's marathon. I laid out my race gear to make sure that I had brought everything with me. I then watched a little bit of TV before taking a nap.
Expo haul
Flat runner
After waking up from my nap, I walked down to the International District to buy some drinks and a banana for tomorrow at Uwajimaya. I waited in the food court until it was time to meet up with my friends for dinner at a nearby Japanese restaurant.
Drinks and bananas
When the time came, I walked over to Tsukushinbo for what's becoming the location of our traditional pre-race sushi dinner. There are no signs on the outside of this restaurant. We had with us someone that had just recently moved to Seattle. She was almost certain that it was a prank until other people besides those in our party started showing up before the place opened. Even without a sign, this restaurant is very popular and is packed right as it opens at 5:30 pm. We or Mr. Shoe knew from last year to make a reservation. This year, I ordered the yamakake and the chirashi. Everything was as good as I remembered it to be. The portions were on the small side, so don't expect to leave here feeling stuffed. They specialize in quality over quantity.
Marathon Maniacs at Tsukushinbo
Yamakake
Chirashi
Empty!
Saturday 6/13
At about 4:30 am I started getting ready for my walk up to the starting area at the Seattle Center. As I turned on the water for the shower, I noticed that the shower head had lights! Pretty neat. It was the first time that I had seen this type of shower head. Apparently the color indicated the temperature of the water. At first I thought that it randomly changed colors.
The shower head has lights!
Mercedes Benz sink! :)
It was a little over a mile walk up to the Space Needle. I decided to walk since I thought it was a waste of money to pay $2.25 each way to ride the Seattle Center Monorail for such a short distance. It was pretty cool to see that they had moved the starting line so that the Space Needle would be in the backdrop.
Starting line at the Space Needle
There were no UPS trucks this year for gear check. Instead they fenced off a grassy area where they stored all of the gear bags in piles grouped by last names and bib numbers. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. I used a portapotty before heading back to the base of the Space Needle for the customary Marathon Maniacs/Half Fanatics pre-race photo.
Pre-race photo
My friend and I started in corral 4. My left foot still has been feeling quite sore, but I still decided to run the first 10k a bit harder and just cruise to the finish line. The first mile was pretty flat with some short steep inclines through the downtown area. Then there was a long downhill to the International District. The course then takes us down along Rainer Ave towards Seward Park. At about mile 6.5, the full marathoners split off from the half marathoners on Lake Washington Blvd. The legs felt like they were filled with lead during mile 7. I then proceeded to slow things down. I felt really horrible during mile 9. The left foot felt extra sore and I was just really tired. Most likely it's because I've been losing whatever fitness that I had left. I reached the halfway point just under 2 hrs.
1: 8:03
2: 7:56
3: 8:39
4: 8:29
5: 8:25
6: 8:26
7: 8:36
8: 9:08
9: 10:21
10: 9:42
11: 9:33
12: 9:58
13: 9:47
13.1: 1:58:11
Just after reaching the halfway point, I noticed that there was a floating platform towed by a tugboat with a Brooks Run Happy sign sitting on it out on Lake Washington. It looked like it would've been an awesome day to be out on the lake. The next mile continues to be one of the main reasons why I run this race every year. There were pictures of fallen military service members. Then there were many people lined all along the side of the course with each person carrying an American flag. They were part of the organization called, Wear Blue: Run To Remember. You can't help but get a little bit misty eyed seeing all of the young faces and reading their names and ranks. It also makes me proud and feel lucky to be an American citizen. Even with it's flaws, there's really no other country quite like the USA.
Lake Washington
Back to grind. The next 7 miles or so always ends up being the hardest for me. After a little out and back on Lakeside Ave, the course joins up with the half marathoners for a brief but steep climb up to the I-90. The half marathoners headed left towards the finish line while the full marathoners headed right for an out and back on the I-90. This section is always difficult for me because it's exposed with no respite from the glaring sun except for the tunnel. The turnaround was at about mile 18. It was pretty nice to finally get out of the sun at about mile 21, but the mile or so inside the I-90 wasn't too much fun since the air was stale and the road was cambered. As I finally got off of the I-90, I started heading towards downtown, getting closer and closer to the finish line. Unfortunately as I ran through downtown, I got to witness a couple of homeless guys arguing about the size of their penis and who was going to beat whose ass. Also that section was an uphill climb before turning left to go run on the Alaskan Way Viaduct. There was another uphill climb up to mile 25. Thank goodness during the final mile, I got out of the sun for a bit while running through the Battery St Tunnel. Along the side of the road before turning on Mercer St stood a spectator with a sign with those tear-off contact info tabs. I usually like to play along with spectators, so I ran by and took one. The final stretch was a hill up to the finish line.
Spectator during the last mile
14: 11:36
15: 10:13
16: 11:17
17: 13:21
18: 11:24
19: 12:43
20: 12:47
21: 13:29
22-23: 27:08 (13:54)
24: 12:11
25: 12:59
26.2: 15:19 (12:46)
Finish: 4:41:32
One thing that I had noticed about this year's race was that the aid stations were not manned by volunteers. Some of them as well as the course marshals were wearing yellow official looking jackets. I'm pretty sure they were race employees. I have read about their pending litigation concerning using charity volunteers to bypass paying employees to man the aid stations and checkpoints. Whatever the case, it was a good change. Volunteers tend to crowd the course competing with each other to get runners to take their cup instead of their friend's cup.
After getting my medal and some post race drinks and snacks, I made my way to the gear check area to get my bag before getting in line to get my finisher jacket. I now have 3 of these jackets... New Orleans, San Diego, and Seattle. After I got my jacket, I gave away my free beer ticket to a random runner and started heading back to my hotel. I probably should've rested at bit at the Seattle Center and ate something. I started getting dizzy and light headed, so I pulled over to the side and rested on a bike rack while drinking some leftover Powerade.
Finish
International Fountain
Another finisher jacket
Finally I made it back to my room. Walking back seemed way longer! I got cleaned up and rested for a few hours while channel surfing on the TV. The warm weather really wiped me out. I was not looking forward to going back out for dinner.
I eventually decided to check out Shawn O’Donnell’s American Grill & Irish Pub for dinner. Apparently it was right before the Seattle Sounders game, so I got to order off of their game day menu. I started things off with a Guinness since it was an Irish pub. I then ordered their Fish n' Chips and the Corned Beef n' Cabbage which were two of favorite foods. I was definitely very rungry! They also brought out some bread while I waited for my food to come out. I devoured all of my food while watching some soccer on the TV screens. I had a rather good conversation with the bartender about marathon running and traveling the world. She asked what my favorite marathons have been. I told her that New York, Berlin, and Tokyo have been a few of my favorites. It turned out that she had traveled to Japan as well.
Guinness
Bread
Fish n' Chips and Corned Beef n' Cabbage
Sunday 6/14
As I was getting ready to check out, the water pressure was very low and the water coming out was dirty and brown when I started the shower. They must have very old pipes. Fortunately the water cleared up. I let the front desk know about the water pressure as I checked out.
I walked up to the Regal Cinemas Meridian 16 to watch Jurassic World. I watched the regular 2D version of the movie and the movie theater was super old. It reminded me of the theater that I used to go to back in the 80's. This was the fourth movie in the Jurassic series and it was more of the same content. Some kids go to the island. They end up facing off with velociraptors and a big tyrannosaurus rex. We're told how extremely intelligent velociraptors are and that they communicate with each other because they hunt as a pack. The main characters somehow escape death and leave the island. About 5 minutes into this particular movie, I wanted any dinosaur to just pop out of nowhere and eat the annoying kid. But overall I thought this was a pretty entertaining movie, about as good as the first one. Chris Pratt was well suited for this type of movie.
After the movie, I walked over to the nearby Tap House Grill to eat lunch. I got a table after walking down a flight of stairs to the dining area. I started things off with an Elysian Dragonstooth Stout. I love stouts and I ordered this one in particular because of the name. Then for my meal, I ordered The Morning After Burger. Not bad! I think any burger tastes better topped with an egg. It was just the protein that I needed post marathon.
Elysian Dragonstooth Stout
The Morning After Burger
After lunch, I decided to take a walk down to the Public Market. That was a bad idea since I was carrying all of my bags. The weather was really nice and sunny, so the place was super crowded. I tried to get out of there as quickly as possible, but it was just a sea of humanity.
How does my butt look? Are we grading on a curve? :)
I hopped on the SoundTransit light rail at the University station and headed for the airport to wait for my 9:45 pm evening flight. It was scheduled to arrive in LAX after midnight. Since all of the earlier flights were completely full, I couldn't fly stand-by on any of them. I had so much time to kill, so I made my way over to the Ivar's Seafood Bar to eat dinner. I just couldn't leave Seattle without eating some fish n' chips and clam chowder from Ivar's! It's not gourmet seafood by any stretch, but I always try to eat at Ivar's whenever I'm in Seattle. This airport location would be my last chance. There was a huge gathering of people in front of this place. At first I couldn't tell if people were in line to order or waiting to pick up their food. It would turn out that the long line on the far left was the line to place your order. Although the line was long, it moved pretty fast so long as the customers knew what they wanted when it was their turn to order. The food came out pretty quickly even though there were a lot of people waiting and what looks to be only one cook.
Ivar's Seafood Bar at SeaTac Airport
Fish n' chips and a cup of white clam chowder
My plane pulled in a little before 9 pm. Everybody in the terminal noticed that the plane's paint job had Tinker Bell on it. I wasn't the only one to get up and take a picture of our plane! I believe that this was my first time flying on a Disney themed airplane.
Tinker Bell flying me home to Disneyland!
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