Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

Upper 50sF, mostly clear.  Active recovery run. 

Hello June!  My legs did NOT want to move this morning.  At all.  I just walked briskly the first 5 minutes. But I love how a recovery run like this goes from "cripple" to "stiff" and finally to "weak but functional."   

It was such a busy weekend, and I have a light, happy feeling this morning from having got through it all.  I meant to mention yesterday that we saw an amazing show Saturday night. (Great fun, the only challenge about it being the noise & crowds in the arena - hard for me.)  It was the touring Lipizzaner Stallions.  Wow. Incredible.

I am ready to share my fuel recipe now.  I used it again yesterday for my 20 miler and it worked well.  I often have difficulty with nausea when it's warm, no matter what I eat or drink.  There was just a bit of heat nausea around mile 18, but not too bad at all.  So I doubt the gel was a problem.  I would be curious to hear if anyone has comments about any of the ingredients, like "good grief, don't eat that while you run."  I would also like to say how much I love not having to deal with the trash and mess of those little gel packs.  The flask is so easy, and it fits really well in the skirt pocket.  Without further ado...

BACLAVA FLAVOR ENERGY GEL

Amounts are approximate.  Mixture is for a 6 oz. fuel flask. To be consumed WITH WATER.

Fill flask ~1/3 with water

Add dry ingredients to water:
A bit less than 1 scoop (scant 1/4 cup?) Whey Factors protein powder (vanilla flavor)
1/2 t cinnamon powder
Contents of 2 “Salt Stick” electrolyte caps (open the caps)
1/8 t ginger powder

Shake vigorously to mix before adding next ingredients.  The powders will not mix easily with the thicker ingredients...

Scant 1/3 flask Agave Nectar
Scant 1/3 flask Honey  (more or less honey to nectar ratio depending on taste preference)
1-2 drops vanilla extract
1/2 t walnut oil

Shake vigorously again, and before each time you drink some.
Store in the refrigerator.
Take a swig WITH WATER every 30-40 minutes of running. 

58F at my house, pockets of warmer and cooler air throughout neighborhood (due to hills). A few clouds.   Easy to moderate run (4 E, 5 mod.)   20 min strength, stretch, & Stick.

My calves are still sore from Sunday, and it took a while to feel comfortable.  I worked on them with the Stick before I went out and I think that helped. I got to run almost an hour before the sun came up, which was refreshing.  This is truly a heat wave for May/June in our area.  It will hit the 80s today. 

If you need a smile this morning, watch this clip of a little boy harp prodigy.  :)

60F, sunny and breezy.  Temp rising as soon as the sun came up. Objective: VO2 & running efficiency (form).  Intervals: 10 x 2 min hard, 2 min recovery.  20 min strength & stretch.

I stayed mainly on Ridge and Kinsey streets to give myself the greatest possible amount of flat  terrain.  I often have a hard time staying on these two streets because I feel kind of stupid going around and around.  Each street is about 5 blocks long and the two streets are parallel.  Today I just forced myself to be boring and it wasn't so bad. ;)  

I haven't worked much on form for a while and I noticed that my arm swing was a little wonky during the intervals.  I have to really concentrate on swinging it straight back, and it helps tremendously with the speed work.  That's the arm the always wants to do a chicken wing - reform school for you, arm!   Calves are still a little sore but they loosened up nicely.

I read a great quote yesterday, something like, "Today is a gift. That is why it's called The Present." 

60F, clear and breezy.  Easy day to rest from yesterday and be ready for Fri-Sun workouts. 

The temperature will reach 90F today.  Ninety. Ug.  And I have to leave my cave for a homeschooling event.  But the good news is that today is supposed to be the last day of this freak heat wave and we should return to our normal cool spring temps over the weekend. Maybe even a bit of rain.  :D 

I was pretty comfortable in the shady 60F air on my run this morning, but during my negative mental wallowing about the heat to come I remembered how much I hated the icy roads in January, and more than once this winter I cut a run short because of being too cold.  Trying to appreciate the weather, I was reminded of the lyrics to a Montgomery Gentry song, "Lucky Man:"
I have moments when I curse the rain
Then complain when the suns too hot
I look around at what everyone has
And I forget about all I've got

Low 60sF, clear & muggy.  Easy to moderate run w/ last 15 min before cool down @ MP, + chicken arm reform school (see Weds.) 

Sometimes we believe what we want to believe.  After a scorching day in the 90s, last night the weather suddenly turned cloudy and very windy, and we even had a brief hailstorm.   So, despite this morning's clear sky and absolutely still air, I believed that a long sleeve tech shirt would be appropriate.  Not!  Sweat bath. 

Hopefully more clouds are coming today - no more severe heat.  The worst is that my lupines, which were huge and so incredibly beautiful, were all blown over last night. 

Tidbit for today: optical illusions. Enjoy! 

Cloudy (ah...) 58F and humid.  Club run.  Turned out to be a progression run, unintentionally.

Today was the 2nd meeting of the new Mt. Si Running Club.  I arrived early for my private warm up of ~1.5 miles, as I did last week.  People can say "we'll start slowly" all they want, but it will rarely actually happen, as evidenced by my experience this morning.  

It was a small group that met over by the high school, and the woman I ran with last week was not present.  While deciding on partners and distances,  I voiced my desire to run about 5 miles starting at 11:00 or 11:30 pace, and gradually speeding up to about 10:30.  An easy run.  One woman who ran with a much faster group last week said she wanted to do that too.  Ha. ha. ha.   We took off,  chatting and introducing ourselves and I quickly noticed how winded I was.  Garmin check: 9:40.   "Uh. Are you sure you want to run with me? I'm going to slow it down a bit." 

In spite of me putting on the brakes from time to time, we just got faster and faster.  Wipe that grin off your face!  (You know who you are.)   Ah well, I had a great time and it was almost a marathon pace workout.  Aerobically, it was probably the same as MP since we were chatting the whole time, and running on gravel (which is always harder for me).   I still would have preferred a slower pace, but these club runs are about adventure and comraderie, so I am satisfied. 

We ran through old Snoqualmie out to Centennial Park, onto the Snoq. Valley Trail (soft surface), over to the North Bend elementary school and back again.  I LOVE this weather.  The clouds and cooler air feel so good after the freaky heat.

Mid 50sF, cloudy.  Endurance run.

Not one of my better runs.  Everything felt too hard by 10 miles, and at about 14 miles the wheels started to come off: lethargy, form deteriorating, and eventually pain throughout the legs.  I forced myself to go a few more miles just to practice some mental toughness and try some mind games, but was happy to go home early.  I think I shall take tomorrow off.  I feel worn out. 

54F, mostly clear, humid.  Easy run w/ fast finish.  20 min. strength & Stick.

A pleasant, though slightly sluggish run.  The air is a bit heavy this morning.  We had a blood red sunset and moonrise last night, so I'm sure there is a lot of particulate hanging around. About this time every year I start wishing I lived in the Highlands of Scotland. Or somewhere foggy. 

My arms and back are a little sore. We did our spring scything yesterday.  Yes! The art of scything lives.  We have a bit of meadow grass property on the outskirts of our landscaped area and it's just nice to keep it below knee height and take care of the blackberry vines that always want to come up there. I can tell you my neighbors think I'm certified insane (perhaps some of you do too?) so I generally do it when I know they are at work.  One of my neighbors, who is extremely nosy and rude, once had the bad manners to call out to me, "What the h----- are you doing??"  A scythe is faster, lighter, quieter and easier than a weed whacker.  DD helped rake up and raked in some dough for herself. 

55F, partly cloudy, humid.  Lactate threshold/Tempo run: 4 E + 2 T + remainder moderate.

Yesterday afternoon, as our mercury climbed to 80F, the thunderheads that had been predicted for Eastern Washington were camped just beyond the mountains near my house.  So close!  It was beautiful, but I wanted them to scoot just a teensy bit farther west to cool us off.  This morning's run was quite pleasant, but still a bit warm with the humid air.

An observation about weight.  I was bringing in some purchases from my car, including a 20 pound jug of cat litter. Since my right arm is still sore from scything (see yesterday's post), I had the goofy but practical idea of putting the thing on my head, like an African woman.  I set it on its side and held on to the handle.  That worked nicely, but as I carried it up the 10 steps from the garage, through the house, and down the 14 steps to my basement, I thought to myself, "this is what it would be like to be 20 pounds overweight."  Difficult!! And I couldn't imagine trying to run with those extra 20 pounds.  I like my weight all right, so it's hard to get worked up about losing the 5-10 pounds I probably should lose -- but how much lighter would that feel as a runner? Something to think about.

55F, getting cloudier :D  -w/ sun breaks and humidity.  General aerobic run, moderate pace.  (ETA: Forgot to mention: 20 min. strength & stretching)

A great run.  These Nike Lunar shoes feel really good, possibly as good as The Magic Shoes (Brooks ST3s).  The only reason I've relegated them to 2nd place is that the right shoe always feels too tight across the toe box for the first 5 minutes or so. Then it is fine. Weird.

I have a question for anyone who may know about this.  How do you run sharp corners?  Do you tilt like a motorcycle? Do you slow down a lot, shorten stride, or do anything different with your feet/legs?  I am talking about going around a 90 degree angle corner on a sidewalk for example.  I'd just like to get your thoughts on this because I find turns to be very uncomfortable sometimes and I wonder if there is something I can do differently.

Tidbit for today:  One of my favorite heros, Peter Schiff, was recently on The Daily Show.  I don't watch tv but this episode was brought to my attention.  It's nice to see a voice of reason getting positive air time. 

55F, cloudy.  :)     Slow and easy today. 

Just a wee jaunt to get the legs loose and enjoy some fresh air.    

Low 50s & cloudy, changing to low 60s and sunny. North wind.  Endurance run + club run + Spirit Crusher Hill + 4.5 miles @ MP+20 down to MP before cool down. 

Every now and then a run just shines for some reason.  That was today.  Legs felt great. Energy, great. Magic Shoes, great.  

I ran about 7 miles around the neighborhood and down to the meeting place before the club run.  I only ended up running with the club for about a mile, because I was determined not to run on gravel today.  It probably would have been ok, but I had a plan and wanted to stick with it.  No one wanted to run on the streets with me, so I just went as far as the trail head with them.  

There were no runners who said they would like to run at 11:00 pace (my choice), and a big group who did want to run at 10:00.  So I tucked in with them, thinking I'd just get left behind in a bit, and that would be fine since I wasn't going where they were going.  How long do you suppose it will take me to figure out that people don't say what pace they really want, or maybe that they don't know their pace?  We were at 10:40-10:50 the whole time I ran with them. lol

I came back through town on my own and hit the bottom of Spirit Crusher Hill at mile 11.5  That was the strongest run up that hill I have ever done! I stopped once at the drinking fountain about 2/3 of the way up, and other than that I ran steady.  The worst of the hill comes at the last .5 miles and my pace was reduced to around 14:00 but I didn't stop, didn't feel overwhelmed, and didn't break down physically or mentally even a little bit.  Yay!

But it gets even better.  At about mile 16 I had been back in the 'hood for a while and decided to finish with a route going out to the Heights, where Jefferey lives.  Things were still feeling pretty good, so I decided right there and then to run that part with more effort.  Each mile got faster than the last! That hasn't happened to me since... um... I'll get back to you on that.

I let my last mile be easy, but even then I felt really good and my form was still in check.  Today was as good as last week was awful.  I sure appreciate the confidence booster. 

I'll be back on the blog later today to leave comments for all my dear friends. Right now I'm late for showering  so I can get going to my Knit-in Public event. Today is World Wide Knit In Public Day!  Totally crazy, I know.   But there is a K.I.P just up the road at my library, so DD and I are going. 

57F, cloudy w/ breeze.  Recovery run. 

Stiff and sore the first 3 miles or so, then easier.  My legs actually feel a lot better than I thought they would.  I mostly felt weak. Typical and not bothersome. :) 

Doing the long run on Saturday worked out better than I expected too.  Having a good running day didn't hurt, but the logistics of it went well too.  I think I'll do that more often. 

Monday to Sunday week mileage: 53.53 miles.

Mid 50sF, cloudy.  Another recovery run.  20 min strength and stretching.

I've got my usual DOMS today, mostly in the quads.  So I took it really slowly.  I am loving this weather.  I thought I even felt a few raindrops from time to time but I can't be sure.  

Much to do this morning...  :)

58F, mostly clear.  Another easy run, with a few strides thrown in.   Abs & pushups.

When circumstances collide....  I guess it is just as well since I am in a taper period, but I would have run longer today if I could have without sacrificing more sleep.  My daughter's gymnastics class met at a distant location last night and my husband's job required him to be at the office extremely early for a teleconference with someone in Switzerland.

Here is yet another article on barefoot running, which seems to come up more and more these days.  I don't think I will choose to go that far, but I do favor minimalist shoes in running and going barefoot at home.

Edited to add:  the book which is mentioned in the article is on Amazon with a little video clip that is pretty interesting: http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307266303/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245162794&sr=1-1

56F Cloudy.  Mile repeats - sort of...

I believe I must have eaten something bad. I've had some intestinal distress since about 1 in the morning.  I almost didn't run. Then I almost didn't try my mile repeats. But I figure something is better than nothing.  The pace that was to be a bit faster than MP was only faster than... "slow." lol   Everything sort of fell apart during the second one (meant to do 3) and I had to quickly walk home.   It's the best I could hope for, and I truly do believe that some running is better than none. :) 

56F, cloudy and humid.  Easy to moderate run.

I'm trying to identify a couple of birds I saw playing together this morning.  I think they were Sapsuckers; they looked like this one except much prettier.  One of them kept perching on a sign post and pecking it slowly as if he just really liked the way his beak sounded on the metal.  I actually had to stop running and watch them for a while, it was so interesting.   This is the sort of thing that makes me think I should run with my camera (the one on my phone is so poor quality).  Then I'll end up like the Jogging Photography Club in the movie "Yes Man."  lol

Lookie here!  A day off.   Man, I went back and forth about this.  Add miles after the 5K tomorrow? Take off Sunday for Father's Day?  Run low miles today?  In the end, my pillow won out.  Glorious, Precious, Sleeeeep...

Hubby, daughter and I are all off to one of our favorite events today, the annual Homeschool Curriculum Expo.  I remember the first time I went, when we were still just considering this path, and the joy of seeing that I would not have to reinvent the wheel.  We take one of those big crates on wheels with a long handle and fill it up.

One of my closest friends, who is from Iran but lives here, has been in such turmoil all week.  Her aged father in Iran was taken from his hospital bed during the night and put in prison. I have no idea what the circumstances were.  He is back in the hospital now -- I guess they didn't actually want him dead which is what nearly happened.  I think I've posted this beautiful link before, but I would like to share it again... here is hoping for peace in their future and ours. (The statistics are out of date by at least a year.)

FALL CITY DAYS 5K  - Garmin time 24:45  Low to mid 50s, cloudy w/ sun breaks. Mile splits: 7:45, 7:55, 8:02, (last .1) 7:54  Chip time now in: 24:37. :D

LOOK AT THOSE SEVENS!!!!!   Never, in all my running have I seen 7's for more than about 400 meters.  [Insert happy dance and unabashed grinning here.]  It just amazes me that a warm up period can feel sluggish and so difficult at 11:20 and then a race can be run so much faster. 

I'll have to come back later with some better details.  At the moment I'm VERY happy, and slightly confused. Read on...

I arrived early and had a nice, well timed warm up.  30 minutes of walk/jog, easy run, then drills and strides.  Settled in around the start area five minutes before the race. So far, everything going great. But then, the minutes ticked on.  I tried to stay loose and warm by pacing, bouncing, etc. but the race started over 15 minutes late!  Gr. 

I should have listened to Jefferey and seeded myself further up in the start area, but other people always look so fast to me. (He warned me about getting boxed in at this race.)  The gun went off and no one seemed the least bit interested in ceasing the chat fest and moving forward. 

When we finally did edge up to the chip mat, I found myself totally boxed in.  "What have I done?" I'm talking about 12:00-13:00 pace and a wall of bodies.  I must have panicked a bit, because after darting around people and trying to get up where I belonged the first mile was too fast!  That would explain why I feel like my lungs are going to explode.

Fortunately, it was a very flat course, with just a wee rise to cross a bridge at the beginning and again at the end. The course is an out and back through rural territory, a tree lined road with fields  on either side.  When I started seeing the faster 5K runners coming back towards me, I tried to look out for other 50-59 y.o. women and I didn't think I saw any, but obviously I missed at least one.  From the turnaround back to the finish line was just about hanging on and keeping my effort just below "blow out, burn up" stage.  My lungs were searing pretty much the entire race.  My legs felt good in the first half and tired but ok in the second. 

After crossing the finish line, I know it took me a moment to remember to hit "stop" on the Garmin (this matters later).  I went to the recovery area and got a banana and some water.  A woman who looked like she might be just a bit older than I was already there and I risked being rude by asking her age group. Same as mine.  OK, so no first place. I'm still elated with going sub 25.

When the results were taped to the side of a rock sculpture, I squinted at them (mind you, I lacked my reading glasses) and thought my chip time was listed as 24:37.  Woohoo, thought I.  The age groups were not listed, so one had to scan the age column to try to determine placement. That was a stretch for my presbyopic peepers, so I moved on.  I got my sweatshirt from the car, cheered Jeff in on his 10K race, and hung around for the awards ceremony to see what might happen.

"5K, Females, 50 to 59...  First place... so&so, with a time of 24:27."  Dang, she beat me by only 10 seconds!   "Second place... so&so (who was NOT yours truly), with a time of 24:37."  What? No one crossed the finish line anywhere near me except a kid who looked to be about 11 years old (darn him).  I thought 24:37 was MY time.  Are my eyes that bad?   "Third place... [my name] with a time of 25:0h something..."  No way. 

Even if I misread the results board, believe me, I have stared at the number 24:45 on my Garmin about 64,000 times since that dazed moment when they put a third place ribbon in my hand.  And my chip time had to be shorter than 24:45, not longer, because I started and stopped the Garmin outside the time spent actually running the 5K.  A time of 25-something is either gun time, or not mine at all. 

Has this ever happened to any of you fellow bloggers?  It doesn't really matter. I am so pleased with my race and will just go back to staring at my 24:45 Garmin time until the facts are printed in black and white somewhere close to a pair of reading glasses. 

On a side note, I also saw many members from my new running club.  How fun to have friends at a race!  

UPDATE -- my time was 24:37 after all -- yeah!  That is a PR of 1:25!  And my place was 3rd, also very respectable especially now that I know they got my time right. :D  First and second place finishers in my AG were not that far ahead of me: 24:20 and 24:22.  I am delighted!!

48F, cloudy & breezy w/ showers.  Easy run, w/ form focus.  Tapering for Seattle RnR.  20 min. core, upper body, stretches and Stick.

Father's Day was spent helping Young Miss Sno cater to the every need of Mr. Sno, not an easy task given his phlegmatic nature.  In the afternoon we played a very long game of Monopoly (is there ever a short one?), in which I somehow managed to obtain all four railroads and became filthy rich.  Mr. Sno was supposed to cream us, as he normally does, but I guess holidays do not influence board game outcomes.

Legs are a bit sore today.  That won't do.  I was going to do a little MP running tomorrow but we'll see how things feel.

48F, some clear skies, some light fog and low clouds. Lovely morning, imo.  Easy to moderate run.  

The legs are still feeling kind of "dead," so I cut this run a little short (meant to do 8).  I really want to be fresh on Saturday, even if I am not going after a time goal.  Twenty-six miles is a loooong way to go on tired legs. (The point-two is no problem, lol.)   

So, the plan at this point is a little increase in my protein, more sleep, tomorrow off, and just a little running on Thursday. Friday off.  

I saw a lot of wildlife this morning. 2 deer (separately, and upon whom I came unexpectedly close up), 1 rabbit, and something I think was a Northern Harrier.  On our community website, a resident just reported seeing a Black Bear out on the Parkway.  

Low 50s, gusty winds, wet streets.  Easy run, w/ 4 strides (~50 m).

This is the last run before Saturday; everything feels fine.  :)

There is an old Dilbert cartoon where some consultant is showing the engineers how some plan or product will work (I may have the details a bit off),  and near the end of his presentation there is a slide that says, "Insert Miracle Here."    I would like to make sure I'm not writing a race plan that looks like that, and that I don't communicate any such thing here on the blog. 

I was thinking about this on my run this morning.  I know I've said "no time goal" for this race before, but -- in a dear and much appreciated mark of friendship -- some bloggers still seem to think I'm going to run fast on Saturday, maybe PR, maybe even BQ.  (Isn't it hilarious that these acronyms have become verbs?)   I guess I can't stop anyone from this generous and supportive viewpoint.  And I really do appreciate your confidence!  But, just so that I can have some peace of mind about this, I am going lay out my race plan in detail.

Overall goals: having fun, negative split, enjoy the experience, keep it slow enough to recover quickly for training towards my "real" marathon in Oct., run the last 5 miles really strongly if possible.

My first 2-4 miles- nice and slow; take some pictures of the crowds. I may never race a big mega race again and if I have any chance of enjoying it, I think I must not "fight" it by worrying about my position or speed.

Up to mile 13- still easy, no miles under 9:30.

Miles 13-21- have a very steady pace between 9:30-10:10

Last 5 miles - speed up if I can, hold steady if I can't speed up.

See you on the other side!  :)

Goal: fun & easy.
Splits: 5K 33:39, 10K 1:07, half 2:20, 30K 3:18, 40K 4:19
Weather: Low 50s, rising into low to mid 70s, sunny & clear

Number 18 in the bag!  It was a rockin and a rollin, but more like an ocean liner than Duane Allman’s fingers on a fret board.... slow!  Executive summary - a great experience overall, though I did not handle the rising temperatures well.  I did not see Elvis. And I was so sure he’d be there.

I’ll get the whining out of the way right off the bat, then the raves, and then a little blow-by-blow.  First, the whining...

This is a very hilly course.  From the first little rise at mile 1.6 to the last seemingly gruesome climb at 25 (what hill is minor at that point?), there are a lot of hills.  Many of them were gentle or short, and there were certainly long stretches of flat running, but the hills were formidable.  I greatly pity the runners who had no hill training. 

It’s just pathetic, I know, but I got so hot once we were out on the I-90 floating bridge. And I never really cooled off after that.  It’s about 1.5 miles over the bridge and back; on the way out there was a slight breeze, and Mt. Rainier was out, and I was still in my happy place. But when I turned back, out of the breeze, I started to feel my face flushing and all I wanted was to reach the shade of the tunnel ahead. 

The tunnel. Ok. This just should not be legal.  We rejoined the half-marathoners as we entered the tunnel and within 15 seconds the roar of sound was unbearable.  People were screaming, whooping, and the band at the far end was cranked up with their speakers pointed down towards the other end.  I didn’t really know where the roar was coming from; the Mt. Baker tunnel (seen in this picture as the freeway disappears into the landscape for a bit) is a little over a half mile long and it wasn’t until I was right on top of the band that I realized they were there. I was just trying to keep my head down and get through there as quickly as I could.  And - it wasn’t much cooler inside the tunnel than out.

Shortly after the tunnel we were all funneled into a narrower lane of traffic and there seemed to be 1 marathoner for every 15-20 half-ers, most of whom seemed to be struggling through their last 2 miles.  Dodge, weave, dodge, weave.  I never thought I’d be faced with that kind of running at mile 13!  (Our mileage was higher than theirs because we marathoners had an out and back on the bridge.)

Let’s see. What else can I complain about?  The road surface was really rough in places when we were on the freeway.  I had to get up at 2:50 AM to get into Seattle for the shuttle buses.  And if it’s warm enough for no sleeves who wants to wear a black? (The race t-shirt.) Glad I didn’t have mine on for the race!

Now for the praises...

The race organization was excellent!  Those Rock n Roll people really know what they are doing! 

I surprised myself by liking most of the bands!  Because of my age and my musical tastes, I didn’t think I would enjoy most of the music.  In mile 3, when we all ran past a band singing the Beatles’ “Come together,” everyone started singing along.  Excellent fun!   I did have to listen to “Too Many Puppies” twice.  Even one Too Many Puppies is too many Too Many Puppies in my book.  Ah, but I was done whining, wasn’t I?

When the course was pretty, it was incredibly pretty!  The first few miles are pretty trashy, but then we got views of some lovely neighborhoods, Lake Washington (complete with bald eagle overhead), Mt. Rainier, Elliot Bay and Lake Union.   Anyone visiting from out of town really got to see the best of Seattle today.  For their sakes, I was happy for the clear skies.  Sunshine -- most people do seem to enjoy that sort of thing. 

The volunteers, support crew and the crowds were all really nice.  I ran my marathon so slowly and the enthusiasm isn’t usually that good after 4 hours.  Maybe they were all happy about that sunshine stuff.

Spending time with AuntieEm, fellow blogger and my friend from Ravelry.com (and with whom I’ve run 3 races now) was delightful! 

Ok, a little overview of my race and I’ll sign off. (Warning, Contains material of a disgusting nature.)

Because I am so anxiety prone, and because I couldn’t see how they would ferry 25,000 runners to Tukwila with only 400 buses, I had told my lovely house guest, AuntieEm, that I would have to be on an early bus.  We left the house about 3:30 and about an hour later we were shivering safely in the Start Village.  With nearly 3 hours to wait.  (Forgot to whine about that.)  Though the race began at 7, my corral did not take off until a little after 7:25.  I shed my thrift-store sweat shirt at the first water station.

By mile 6 we were along Lake Washington and everything was Feeling Groovy. (I didn’t hear that song, but it would have been nice.) This is the best part of the course, in my opinion.  With the trees and the lake, it is just lovely.  I could tell even here that things were warming up, but I still felt great and hoped for the best. 

I think it was sometime around mile 10 or 11 that the marathoners split off to run over the I-90 floating bridge and back.  See section 1, Whining, for details.

The half marathoners left us for their finish line sometime during our 14th or 15th mile.  Sorry for the vagueness; after spending a half mile in the tunnel, I gave up on any kind of Garmin Gazing, and the mile markers were kind of small (read, I wasn’t paying attention).  This is not a good race for people who like their Garmins to guide them.  First is the aforementioned tunnel.  Then when we parted from the half-ers we ran for a long time on the bottom deck of the viaduct, and a little later there were 2 passes through the Battery Street tunnel.   In spite of all these periods of gps no-mans-land, my Garmin read 26.52 at the finish!  Sigh.  Maybe it just freaked out on me, but I know I ran a lot of extra steps -- there was almost no way to cut the tangents when we were packed together, and there was at least a mile of dart-and-dodge at mile 13 (see above).

Once one is away from Elliot Bay, there is very little scenery to speak of until the mile 19 turnaround at the Aurora Bridge.  Leading up to this bridge, we climb and climb for what seemed like a couple of miles -- on the least shady side of the street.  Feeling too warm became feeling hot and for me that means - Nausea and GI distress.  :(  At the turnaround I spent about 5 minutes in a Honey Bucket, unfortunately heating up even more.  Maybe I’ll just skip this part.

When we got back over the bridge we got to run downhill on the shadier side of Hwy 99 - ah!  I was feeling a bit better now.  Back through the Battery Street tunnel and past beautiful Elliot Bay, with the ferries streaming out over the Sound. 

If I were designing this course, I would have taken everyone around the lovely, wooded Seward Park at ~ mile 6 and eliminated the last little bit. We had to run past the finish area and down to the West Seattle bridge entrance, make another hairpin turnaround, and run back.  Just 3 miles, but it felt like forever. My nausea returned and all I could think of that last mile was how embarrassing it would be if I puked.  The crowds from mile 26 to the finish are thick and loud.  But I made it ok. 

It took me about 25 minutes to walk to my car, my legs were so shot.  Now that I’ve had a nap and some Ibuprofen, I am feeling much better, and we’re off to Mexican food in a few minutes.  I will conclude that I hope to remember this experience forever, the fun and beauty of it but also the feeling of being too warm -- I do not want to run any more summer marathons! Even the “cool” ones in June are just not good for this cloud lover.

Resting today again.  Blogging my eight hours of sleep.  :D  LOL   I am walking down stairs backwards, but the soreness doesn't feel as bad as usual.  I miss running but I like the sleeping!