Seattle Half Marathon Recap

It all came down to today's 13.1Wow! What a day! My brain hasn't quite wrapped around what happened exactly, so this may be all over the place. First, I'm happy to report that I figured out how to do mile splits on Gus. It's actually pretty easy: Garmin Forerunner 305 --> Menu -->Training --> Training Options --> Auto Lap: Set by Distance @ 1 mile. Ta da! It is such an amazing feature, and I'm still wickedly grateful to Coach Fish for this cool gadget I call Gus. :)

I'll start from the beginning. Woke up this morning after having some really weird race dreams that had to do with spiders and pirates, and apparently me running away from them (Ok...throw in a couple of ninjas and it'd be a party). Quickly got changed and double-checked all my equipment batteries and made sure I had my post-run G2 (the lemon-lime is mighty tasty btw) from the fridge. Made myself some wheat toast but forgot I didn't have PB! Oh no! So, I used a little butter. Gave Murphy a goodbye/goodluck kiss thenTrav and I were off...

As we were driving to downtown, I was checking the two iPod earbuds that I brought along because both of them are a little wonky. Well, one pair had only one side that worked--garbage. The second pair I was just about to test out when my iPhone completely went blank. Um. What? Yeah... Tried holding down buttons, Travis tried calling my phone. Nothing. Completely blank. WTH?! I only mildly started to panic at this point (and we had just come up to the Mercer exit, which is always backed up and anxiety-inducing), then the iPhone was like "Sike! Tricked ya, didn't I?!" *&($@)*$#*()!! PHEW, crisis averted. This was the only little stress outbreak I had for the day; anxiety WIN.

We parked easily enough and the start line was less than a block away. Trav took a quick picture of me pre-race and kissed me goodbye. There was about 10 minutes until the Half Marathon start, so I just listened to my music (with one earbud shorting out...bummer!) and zoned out. I took a couple of iPhone pics (see Space Needle pic above) because it was so awesome being surrounded by runners and the city lights. Before I knew it we were off! I scanned the crowds for Trav after passing over the mats, and I found him and waved...he tried to take a pic of me, but there was a dude in the way (see me with my blue gloves, waving behind dude in white hat?). From here on out it was just me and my music. And perhaps a LOT of people watching. I saw a boy that looked no older than 9 running, a woman that seriously could have doubled as the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz...but with a strange/scary running gait, and a handful of people that kind of ran like Phoebe from Friends (and that made me giggle a little). I'm sure I looked like an idiot at some point too. :)

Mile 1: 8:27
Mile 2: 8:29
Mile 3: 8:24
These first three miles I was just so excited to be running, I went out a little fast. Not too bad though, if I could keep that pace the entire time! Then I'd run a 1:52 half...hmm, I guess that could be my goal for the next.

Mile 4: 11:45
Mile 5: 5:03
Mile 6: 8:43
Um, yeah. Miles 4 & 5 are waaaaay off because we ran through the I-90 tunnel and Gus freaked out and didn't have a signal. Speaking of freaking out, running in a tunnel is weird. Straight up Armageddon style, except without the abandoned cars and stuff. It was a very odd feeling. Oh, and so was getting stuck keeping pace with this mammoth of a dude that was literally dripping sweat (I dodged some!) and smelled funky. Yuck. Getting out of that tunnel was a breath of fresh air. At around mile 6 I grabbed two gu's (not to be confused with my trusty Gus) to try later. I didn't feel like getting an upset stomach during the race. Ugh. But apparently this one dude just couldn't wait for the mile Honey Buckets and dropped trou right off the road in the bushes. Gross!

Mile 7: 9:16
Mile 8: 9:53
Mile 9: 9:02
Ah yes, hills, I've met you before. Except I also was introduced to my good friend asthma. Thank goodness for my inhaler. I had to walk up a hill for a moment to take a puff. But I didn't walk for long at all!

Mile 10: 9:19
Mile 11: 8:54
Mile 12: 8:54
At this point all I was thinking was "almost there." Plus I saw a woman holding a sign that said "It's not supposed to be easy, but you're strong enough." Heck yes! And, there was a 70ish years young man running a good 9:00 pace that was just amazing. At roughly 2 miles to go I spotted my friend Luke in the crowd (of Quick Pickle fame), so I sprinted the 50 feet to smack him in the arm. He turned and was pretty surprised "GO Zoe!" he said. I told him that that quick sprint to catch up to him was brutal and to just keep going.

Mile 13: 8:36
SOOO CLOSE! I had to walk a little to take another puff at this mile, but then there was a crowd and I just tried to kick it in. I think the hot pink shirt/hat combo really worked.

Finishing strong! And HAPPY!

Luke was waiting for me right next to the finish and we were yelled at by Trav on the sidelines. And guess who was there? My in-laws! It was so awesome that Trav's parents came! This is the first time they've seen me race. :) Yay! Unfortunately I couldn't meet up with Kerrie or Amanda today because of the surprise in-law visit. But I saw their stats and they kicked major boo-tay!! Very proud of both of these women! :)

That's the race recap for now (it's late!). Tomorrow I'll go into my interesting recovery methods. ;) Be sure to stay tuned.


FINAL STATS:
Mileage - 13.1 miles
Time - 1:58:01 (Chip), 1:59:07 (Gun), 1:57:28 (GUS)
Overall - 675 673 out of 4269 (Females)
Division Place - 131 out of 839 (F25-29)
Pace - 9:00