Saturday, June 27, 2009

Rocking Seattle!

We left the curtains open when we went to bed last night, and set the alarm for 4:50am. I woke up at 4:30am, because the sun started to rise in Seattle already! Photobucket Seattle's days are so much longer than San Diego. Sun rises before 5:00am, and doesn't set until at least 9:30pm. In San Diego, the sun rises around 5:30am and sets at 8:30pm at this time of the year. I got dressed and got my gear together. Todd walked me down four blocks to the Westin, where the shuttle buses took the runners to the starting line in Tukwila. The lines were really long and went around the block, but I got on a bus after 15 minutes. Photobucket We spent about half an hour in traffic exiting the freeway to the starting line in Tukwila, no joke. Tons of cars stopped on the freeway and runners just streamed out from the cars right there on the freeway and walked down the exit. The traffic was BAD! They need to rethink that next year. After I exited the bus, I went to gear check to drop off my sweater. Photobucket It was still a little chilly but I didn't want to carry my sweater for 13.1 miles, obviously. I ran into Robert and Cassey from West Coast Road Runners, also checking in their gear. I started walking towards my corral, #27, when I saw the really long lines for the porta-potties. Photobucket Good thing I didn't have to go! The orange tag is my ChronoTrack RFID. It is scanned at the starting line, 5k, 10k, 9 mile mark, and at the finish. That is how they know I ran the whole course, and also how I get my actual time, since I didn't cross the starting line until a good 45 minutes after the race gun went off. Photobucket I got into my corral and I was ready to go. Photobucket Unfortunately, it would be an hour before I actually got to the starting line. There were a ton of people behind me too. Photobucket Finally... here we go! Photobucket While waiting in my corral to start was slightly annoying, it was nice to start the race with people who ran the same pace as me. You are assigned a corral based on your estimated finish time when you registered for the race. When I registered in March, I had told them 2:40 for the half marathon. The first band on the course. Photobucket The beginning of the race was not very scenic. It was kind of industrial and then residential. Photobucket Photobucket There were more hills than I had anticipated. The scenery didn't really get good until around mile 6, when we got down to the shores of Lake Washington. Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket The balls of my right foot started to get sore around mile 9. Around 9.2 miles, we had to run almost a mile inside a tunnel. My Garmin had no reception, so I couldn't tell how long I was in there. But the Garmin restarted at the tunnel exit, it just started from the 9.2 miles, so both my mileage and time was way off. I am slightly annoyed that my Garmin wasn't smart enough to extrapolate the difference. After the tunnel, we headed west on I-90 towards downtown Seattle. Photobucket Photobucket Safeco Field came into view (where the Seattle Mariners baseball team play). Photobucket Then Qwest Field, where the NFL Seattle Seahawks football team plays. Photobucket I was so excited that downtown Seattle was getting closer and closer, because my legs were starting to stiffen up. Photobucket Photobucket We made a loop downtown Photobucket before heading south past Qwest Field, then U-turning to go up north on Occidental Drive. Photobucket I am so close! Photobucket I finished, but I didn't know what my time was, because of Garmin tuning out in the tunnel. Photobucket I got my finisher's medal and some food and drinks, before heading to the "V" section (for Victory!) to find Todd. Photobucket I was so happy to finish relatively pain-free! Todd looked up my time on his iPhone and it was 2:40:37. Damn I was good in predicting my time, LOL! We planned to walk back to our hotel, which was two miles away, but after a few blocks we found a taxi. Sweet! After showering, we had lunch next door at Whole Foods Market, then I rested the whole afternoon. We had a nice dinner at Wild Ginger, based on a recommendation from Todd's friend Ashley. Now it's time for bed, because I'm really tired from getting up at 4:30am and running the half marathon! We'll be back in San Diego tomorrow night.

13 comments:

  1. Clap your hands!!! congrats Christine for finishing the half marathon - you are so fantastic!

    great pictures of the surroundings there! And it seems the weather was really beautiful.

    Love Todd´s shirt for his trophy wife..

    Wow, but waiting, standing and running with so many peoples, I think that´s nothing for me...

    Have a good flight back home!

    HUGS

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  2. Oh, Christine, I'm so proud of you! It sounds like you ran a great race -- and took such great pictures along the way. Felt like I was right there with you. I am still trying to get my brain wrapped around waiting 45 minutes to start...I don't even think it took that long at the NYC Marathon for everyone to clear the start. Wow.

    Did you like Wild Ginger? I've been there too, based on a recommendation.

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  3. WOOHOO! WTG, girl! Great run... and thanks for taking us with you... that's the closest I'll ever get to a half marathon. ;)

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  4. Congratulations sista! You did it :D Now you can give up this silly running hobby. LOL I give you permission.

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  5. You ROCK GIRL!! Congratulations!!! The pictures look great!

    On another note I was browsing at some sites on Etsy and found something that made me think of you. ;-) lol here is the link to it knittybitties.etsy.com

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  6. Woo hoo! Way to go! I've been praying for you all weekend. Looks like it was a blast. Thanks for sharing the views along the way with us.
    I'm thinking of signing up for a 10-miler in October...a trail run. We'll see if I can get the plantar fasciitis in check by then...
    Great job!

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  7. Did you run in a cute skort?? That is just SO COOL and FEMININE :) I am just totally wowed that you ran that far!! I think the farthest I have ever run was 7 or 8 miles and I was SO FAR BEHIND the rest of my group (high school cross country) that they sent someone back to look for me in a car. :) You are an amazing and inspiring woman!

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  9. Wooo HOOOOO!! Congrats, Christine! I was waiting for you to post, just so I could go along on the run with you. I hope that your flight back home was relaxing.

    Miss you!

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  10. Great job and congratulations on your run!

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  11. Woa. I hurt just reading the entry. I'm so impressed with what you've trained to do!! - and jealous that you have a body that works so well - mine's been sick and I haven't been doing squat! or squats. :)

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  12. Wow! I think you did AWESOME!! Reading this post almost makes me want to try to take up running again, but then I think about the bursitis that began to flare up in my knee and think again.

    I really love all the photos you took along the way.
    When I read that you were going to walk another 2 miles to your hotel I almost died...glad you got the taxi :)

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  13. Wow, what a great run! And what a fab time estimate! =) So fun to be able to follow you on the run, and see some more pics from Seattle. It sure looks like an interesting city.

    Glad you found Todd again, not an easy task with so many people there I guess.

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