Seattle Marathon 2011

Seattle #4...Rain, Wind, PR

That was my Facebook post today.

I lined up today thinking I had accomplished two great goals this year (Mt Si and Austin 70.3). Today, I wanted this to be my fun run. No pressure. Just a tradition. The event that keeps me running through the fall to winter transition. The race where I see lots of friends and other maniacs on the course.

I started with the 4:45 pace group. I lost them on the bridge and Sonja, too. I waited a couple of minutes at the turn around, but I didn't see her. As I left the bridge to exit onto Lake Washington Boulevard, I had caught up with the 4:30 pace group. We saw the first runner heading North on Lake Washington Blvd toward the Arboretum. We were heading South, but we waved and cheered. I love running around Seward Park. It's like running through a forest surrounded by a lake. Just after Seward Park I got to see Shane. Since I am able to train on this route, I know the next few miles are the flattest, so I picked up my pace. I moved a head of the 4:30 pace group. I had mile splits under 10. At mile 18, my watch said 3 hours and change. My mind was racing...I actually might PR today. So I picked it up until Galer-Madison; the steep hill and continuous hill incline, then pushed through Interlaken. The rest is a blur. It's a little deceiving coming out of Interlaken. It still feels so far from Seattle, but at this point it's mile marker 23. And the 4:30 group had caught up to me. I stayed with them as long as I could. Then that little incline back toward Memorial Field-I had forgotten this hill. I was running out of u-m-p-h. I was very happy to see the big arrow pointing toward the stadium. I made it in at 4:31:41!