So it wasn't a race at all, but it was an 'organized run' and this is a longer report so I checked it as a race report.
We started at a lake trail around green lake, where the entire rest of Seattle had congregated to run. It was a great flat warm up trail around the lake. Mid 40's was the temp.
Then the sun came out from behind the clouds and the weather warmed up to the mid 50's for the rest of the run and was absolutely gorgeous!! Danny created a really cool tour of Seattle. We were running around lakes, over bridges onto soft dirt trails around some islands, through beautiful dirt paths through parks. Then we came to Lake Washington and ran along the shore for a few miles with Mt. Rainier towering in the distance across the lake. Sun was shining, air was still, cool, and perfect. Being at sea level was great on the oxygen levels. And my body felt fantastic! No ankle issues or any other issues.
Here is a shot running over some bridges to some really cool island trails:
Jenni took this cool shot with my camera as we were running with the view of Rainier on Lake Washington:
Everything felt fantastic until about mile 13. Then little by little the ham strings, groin, then feet, started to tire. We had to go up over a 3-400 ft elevation hill climb to cross from Lake Washington over to the peugot sound. Totally beautiful. We descended right into the heart of the city and down to the shoreline where there is a nice trail.
At this point my feet were getting tired. I tended to gravitate toward the grass and dirt vs. staying on the sidewalk because it was nicer on my soles which were feeling pretty beat up by mile 15 or so.
This was another really pretty section of the run at about mile 16 on the boardwalk of the peugot sound:
Here was the total approximate stats for my portion of the run.
21 Miles - 3:16:00 - ~9:30/mile avg - HR: 140 avg
Splits: 10:04, 9:44, 10:04, 8:48, 9:05, 9:02, 9:03, 9:06, 9:26, 8:47, 9:00, 10:02, 9:18, 8:32, 8:41, 9:20, 9:20, 10:47, 10:08, 10:50, 11:18
My nutrition plan was to try out 'VESPA', and then slowly intake carbs throughout. I also wanted to take S-caps too, but I left them home on accident. Oops. I think if anything could have been better it would have been to have more water and have some S-caps. My legs really started feeling it around mile 18-19, when I was low on water. I'm not sure I would have wanted to run farther than I did regardless though. It was perfect. If I would have kept pushing through mile 30 I'm sure I would be really feeling sore right now. As it is I'm a little stiff in a couple spots but mostly feeling fine.
I only ate a total of 3 Gu's the whole time, and then about 25 ounces of water. Probably not enough water. I didn't feel a lack of energy though. I think that VESPA stuff really works.
Danny did 30 miles and seemed to finish feeling pretty great and smiling...nicely done! He commented on how it was way more enjoyable than either of the marathons he competed in. It was a super fun run indeed.
Here is some graffiti that was cool that we ran past...I was biking at this point, it was about mile 25. I stopped running at mile 21 because I didn't want to hold Danny up, and my legs were ready to close up shop for the day:
Here are some other random shots:
Discovery Park, Mile 22
About 5 miles in.
Danny at Mile 26, looking good.
21 Miles later...the food and gatorade was tasting very good at this point since I ran out of water in the last few miles.
