Rockin' and Rollin' and What Not (Seattle RnR Part 1)

You guys!  Last weekend was one of the best weekends EVER!

There's no way I can jam it all into one post, so I will talk about the wonderful bloggy peeps I met in a separate one.  I am going to focus on the race itself in this very special two-part post.  Ready?  On your mark, get set, go!

PART ONE

The morning of the race, TriGuy was incredibly, wonderfully nice (well, he's usually pretty nice anyway).  He got up at 4:15 and drove Adrian, Ann Marie, and me downtown.  Much more on Adrian in the blogger post.  He stayed with us as we met up with Phuong, Rebecca, Stacie, Lauren, Pensive Pumpkin, Dawn, and a slew of other bloggers.  We took some pictures, discussed if it would rain or not, flitted around nervously, and eventually made our way to our corral.

Once the gun went off, we got into place and began the 25 minute shuffle to the start line.

The lady behind me whacked me about 50 million times.  I guess she was eager to start. 

While we meandered along, Ann Marie asked me how I wanted to run the race.  I responded very succinctly.

Yeeeeaaaahhhh, I hadn't put a whole lot of thought into it. I said I wanted to hopefully run the whole race, get in some negative splits (start slower and finish faster), and finish feeling okay.

My other goal was to not have my usual "death-warmed-over" look in every photo from the course.

I decided I would make an effort to smile every time I saw the fancy cameras. (Remember this for Part 2).

Ann Marie had said she was going to run this race with me, and she stuck to her word!  We started out slow.  I really wanted to pace myself, plus I needed to shake out the cobwebs.

Once we hit Mile 2, it was time to pick up the pace a bit, and settle in for a nice, long run.

The most notable thing about this race was that there were soooo many people!  Fantastic spectators, enthusiastic cheerleaders, incredible volunteers, and of course runners!

Fast runners.

Costumed runners!

Barefoot runners!!

There were bands every mile.   Some of the early ones were pretty motivating to keep us moving.

Poor guys; it was probably nerve-wracking.  They were trying, and I give them credit for being out there.

During the first part of the race we had been running for a few miles down a long and boring road, when we rounded a corner and came to a hill. A HILL.

I can't believe they didn't have photographers stationed there to capture everyone's first reaction to it.

I'm going to say it was around mile 5 because that's when everyone else's race recap said it was.  A few people were running up it but most were walking.

Now remember, I eat, sleep and breathe hills, so there was NO WAY I was walking up this one, and I told that to Ann Marie.

So up we ran!  Near the top I spotted Rebecca and said a quick hello.

Rebecca is not new to running but she is new to racing.  This was her first half, and she's running a full this fall!

Then, it was time to run skitter down the other side without breaking my face.  The rest of the course was a mixture of flat stretches, steady inclines, a few tunnels, and some on and off ramps.

Around Mile 7 I spotted Chelsea cheering in the same place she was last year, and I said hi.

Throughout the run I tried to pick up speed on the downhills to make up for the uphills, and for the walks through the water stations.  The water, by the way, tasted like liquid plastic.

But I guess it's hard to get delicious water to 20,000+ people quickly, so they did what they could to make sure we all had water.

When we hit Mile 10 or so, we had to run up a HUGE overpass.

Mostly not cool because I was ready to be done by then.   The final 3 miles held some surprises of their own, that I will discuss in Part 2.  Stay tuned!

Did you run the race this year? 


If so, what did you think of the hills?  The water?


What exciting summer plans do you have lined up?


UPCOMING POSTS: RACE RECAP PART 2, BLOGGY PEEPS, YOGA

Edit: I'm chillin' on the Yeah Write Hangout grid this week.  Click on the button for some fun reads and great writing!