So it was the weekend of the Seattle R.ock N R.oll again. This time, 27,000 runners registered for the sold out race. As usual, most of the runners registered for the half. L and I were all set for the full 26.2 miles and made plans to meet downtown at 5 am. Which meant I got up at 4 am. Let me repeat that- I voluntarily got up at 4 am on a Saturday to go run 26.2 miles. Cra-zy.
There were some glitches with the shuttle buses and lack of adequate port-a-potties for 27,00 runners plus volunteers. The race started and our corral (#8 which was a HUGE improvement over corral #24 from last year) already crossed the start line while we were all still standing in line for the bathroom.
L and I jumped in with another corral as it approached the start and we took off. It was so crowded and hard to find a good pace for miles. I hate to say it but there were too many racers.
Oh and let me back up- on the way down to the shuttle buses, L told me she had decided to run the half instead of the whole. I had to understand as she had been sick twice and had been traveling which had left her very little opportunity to run in the month leading up the race. So I already knew she would be leaving me when the groups split at mile 9.2. Instead, we ended up splitting at mile 5 as she needed to stop and deal with some issues. Damn. 21.2 more miles to go and now I’m alone.
I kept my eye on my Garmin to keep my pace about 8:35-8:45 per mile (going for a sub-4 hour finish!) and hit L.ake Washin.gton Blvd. I love the stretch along this road from Seward Park to Madison Park. At mile 9, in Leschi, we ran up the on-ramp to get on the express lanes of I-90. At that point, my Zune quit on me. Dead. Totally dead. Now I am looking at 17.2 more miles with NO ONE TO TALK TO AND NO MUSIC. This sucked pretty bad.
I ran out across I-90 to Mercer Island and made the turn around to head back to Seattle. We rejoined the half marathoners in the express tunnel and ran together for about 3 more miles into downtown. I think they were on miles 9-12 and we were on 12-15 at that point. I was slowing down to 9:15-9:30 minute miles which wasn’t going to get me my sub-4 finish. I had a really hard time dealing with that.
I was struggling with pain in my pelvis from an injury I suffered a while ago. I had a groin pull which led to an inflammation of my pubic joint and I have not been able to completely heal from this. The pain in my pelvis led to a change in my gait and then my right calf started to try and cramp up. The muscle would seize but not quite be able to cramp. It was momentarily painful and highly annoying. It was tempting to just cross over to the half marathoners and run their last mile with them and be done. But I stuck with it and hit the on-ramp to 99.
Last year, the long stretch up to Fremont, back to way south of downtown and then up the hill back to Qwes.t Field was really hard on me mentally. For some reason, this stretch wasn’t as hard for me this time. Maybe because I had already had plenty of time to have my mental breakdowns from mile 5 on? Who knows.
By mile 21, I was in so much pain that the pelvic pain and pain in my feet was all relative. Everything hurt. But everything always hurts at this point in the race. I found my determination that had been missing since about mile 12 and managed to get my splits down closer to 8:50-9:00 minute miles. The sub-4 finish had slid out of my grasp at about mile 19 and I knew there was no getting it back.
I managed the final turn around between mile 24 and 25 and headed back north to the exit to Qwest and the finish line. Down the offramp and around the corner and the finish line is less than .2 miles away. I sped up but was unable to actually break into a sprint to cross the finish line. Chip time was 4:24. Disappointing.
Sunday morning I finally faced the inevitable and looked up my stats:
Only 4,010 of the 27,000 ran the whole. That means I at least ran twice as far as 23,000 other people. I was in top 40% of all marathoners; top 30% of all women and top 25% of women my age. I may not have gotten my sub-4 but maybe that’s OK.
I’ve been trying to be OK with this result but it was hard when I ran into my trainer at the gym this morning and he was so excited to hear about the race. I felt like I was disappointing him when I told him I didn’t finish sub-4. I’m sure he was just disappointed FOR me but still.
So: moving on to the next race. The Ragnar Relay Northwast Passage to celebrate my 40th birthday. Less than 4 weeks away…