It was completely unexpected as I had completed 10.5 the day prior, but yesterday's five miles was better than I could have hoped for.
The air was still and crisp in the way that only fall can deliver, I'd just gotten off of work and had a busy night ahead of me (I had to assemble a shark costume for this weekend's tournament, and this included fighting the crowds on Capitol Hill at The Red Light and American Apparel), and this would be the one thing that I really did for myself. I was wearing my pink shorts and the Seattle Half-Marathon 2008 long-sleeve t-shirt, and as seems to be my trend these days, my iPod was set to my music nerd playlist (lots of classical piano, some jazz, some opera). It took no time for me to find my smooth - probably set in once I passed where Roanoake and Harvard meet, which makes sense because that's when I finish with the worst of the hills - and before I knew it, I was just zooming along Interlaken with nothing but the best days on my mind. Every light I encountered was green, which allowed me to run through the entirety of my course. This is not entirely unprecendented, but it is unusual while running along Eastlake and especially between the Interstate intersections on Roanoake. And when I ran into Eastlake for my last 1.2 miles, I don't know what came over me. My legs became lighter, my stride longer, and I kicked that thing out like it was no big deal.
All in all, I finished my 5 miles in just over 39 minutes. Ego boost!
In other news, I was contacted by one of my cousins recently. She ran her first half-marathon earlier this month and appears to have acquired the addiction. I think she and I may try to run one half (maybe even full!) marathon together. We're looking at a full sometime in October of next year. Any suggestions?
Happy Halloween to all. Take care this weekend :)
2 comments:
Just did the Tri-Cities Marathon (on Halloween), and it was well-run, flat, and you know what the weather was like. No half marathon options, but you can run it as a relay team (split up the 4 quarters any way you like), so 2 people can run 2 halves, or 4 people can run (basically) 4 10Ks.
Also, it's cheap: $65 for a marathon, $23 per person on a relay team (so we paid $46 for 2 half marathons; compare that to Seattle - $75 each).
The only drawbacks I can think of are that it competes with Hanford Howl (at least this year) and sometimes the wind is high (given the nature of the course, the wind will be in your face half the time and at your back the other half; yesterday it was basically I side wind and I didn't find it a problem).
Congrats on that run, Greg! I saw your time on Facebook - zoom zoom :) I think that Halloween's out of the question for two reasons: 1) and this is the selfish one, Hanford Howl 2) My cousin has two young children, and I couldn't ask her to skip trick-or-treating with her kiddos to come to eastern Washington for a run. Thanks for the suggestion, though, and again: congratulations!
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