Seattle half-marathon: Race report

Above is my bib number. It was special for a few reasons:
1) The number is a palindrome, a sure sign of luck.
2) The last two digits of the number are my age.
3) This number contains my favorite number. Twice! (The number 7 is special for me. Coincidentally, my first, middle, and last names all contain 7 letters. On a more fun and unique level, my siblings and I have always worn jerseys with numbers that are multiples of 7).

These were all good signs.

I arrived at the starting line about 45 minutes before the race after tossing and turning all night. This gave me plenty of time to drop off my clothes bag, warm up, stretch, acclimatize to the chilly Seattle winter morning (37F!), and shake out the nerves. It was dark outside, and there was a picturesque layer of fog blanketing the city. The Christmas lights atop the Space Needle and those affixed to one of the Queen Anne radio towers shone lazily through the light cloud cover. Basically, what I'm trying to tell you is that it was magical.

After the half-marathon walkers started their race, we runners all crowded into the starting gates. I have to admit, being surrounded by thousands and thousands of people threw me a bit out of my comfort zone - I get nervous in crowds, and we were crammed onto 5th avenue like sardines. People were bustling, trying to find their pacers if they were shooting for a time, and the collective excitement threw an electricity into the air. And finally, at 7:30, the announcer sounded the buzzer and we were off. Welll...we were off after some delay :) There were so many runners that I didn't cross the starting line until almost 4 minutes had passed! I didn't mind - I knew I wouldn't be one of the first finishers, and I didn't want those super fast people to have to dodge me as they raced down 5th. And I have to say, it was kind of fun being in the back a little bit because as we ran through downtown, it was an absolute trip looking up 5th and seeing it completely covered in runners as far as the eye could see.



For those of you who don't know, Seattle's half marathon course is not an easy one. I'm sure you could have figured that out yourself, as Seattle is known for its hills and trust me on this one: they're pretty rough. I knew what was ahead, and figured that hanging out by the 2h pacers would keep me from burning through all of my energy before hitting the hillier second half of this race. In theory, I think this was a good idea, but I just couldn't find my stride with them. They were just a bit slower than the pace that I naturally adopt. So, around mile 4, I picked it up and settled into my smooth (hi Slomo!). At this point, I couldn't stop smiling. Apart from the hilliness and the distance you spend in the I-90 Express Lanes tunnel, this is a beautiful course. You get to run through downtown, then along Lake Washington (which had this lovely, eerie appearance in the gray morning), which leads you to Galer to dump you onto Madison, but then you get to run through a lovely tree-filled arboretum, and then along Interlaken (my favorite running street in Seattle!). That puts you onto Roanoake, then Harvard, which puts you on Lakeview where you get amazing downtown and Lake Union and Space Needle views. The last mile or so brings you through the ugly part of SLU, but that's ok because you're so darned tired that you don't even notice. So, yeah. I had found my smooth, I was admiring Lake Washington, and could burst with happiness. But, as I traveled north, nerves started to set in a little bit. Galer was coming up and that mother is steep. And right after that, is a good 1/2 mile climb up Madison. Trust me, it hurts. I remember doing this in 2008, and I stopped to walk a good portion of it.

I didn't want to walk any of my race.

So, I finally got to the point where I saw runners turning left up a steep incline, many of them stopping to walk, and I knew that it was time. I said out loud, "Well, Kristen, let's do this!" I turned uphill, slowed my pace a little and powered through it. Galer is steep, but it is short and usually surrounded by awesome fans braving the cold to cheer their runners on. I made it up just fine, but the next left dumped me onto Madison, a long hill that is just plain scary. i didn't look at the top, and instead focused on the people around me. Sure, there were folks walking it, but there were also a lot who were still running. If they can do it, I can too, right? So, head down, iPod bumpin, I pushed through. Sure, I was tired, but reaching the top of the hill was almost as good as crossing the finish line. I did it without walking! And I was still running! I threw my arms up in the air and jumped for joy. The man running next to me screamed "YES! YOU ROCKED THAT HILL!" I smiled and screamed "YOU DID TOO! YOU'RE AWESOME!" We high-fived, and then continued on our run. This is a memory that I will probably carry with me for the rest of my life.


The run continued, as previously described, onto my favorite running street in all of Seattle. As soon as we crossed 23rd, I kind of hit autopilot and loved every second I spent on that street. Every view was gorgeous, and I knew I was getting close. And everythign was just fine until that last mile. Boy, oh boy did I hit a wall. It's like all my energy drained, and I still had a mile! Every fiber in my body wanted me to stop, but luckily, sheer will is not a fiber. It's something that we tap into and somehow, miraculously, it carries us through. And somehow, it carried me up that last little hill on Mercer (granted, I *may* have cried a little bit), and into the stadium at the Seattle Center. And really, that's all I needed because when I entered, I saw the clock, which told me that, despite crossing the starting line 3.5 minutes after the official start, I'd still get an official time under 2 hours.

The amount of accomplishment and happiness I felt overwhelmed me. I could have cried. Instead, my legs picked up pace, I dodged through the many other sub-2-hour half-marathoners, and gleefully threw my arms in the air ahd smiled as big as I could as I crossed the finish line.

13 weeks of training. 13.1 miles. Official time of 1:58:fortysomething. Chip time of 1:55:29. I couldn't be happier. And now I'm trying to figure out where I want to travel for a February half marathon. Addicted much?

Hey there, running. It's good to be back :)