Rock'n'Roll Seattle Marathon....for Darla

I'm in Washington State and enjoying some very needed R&R with my family at my parents house as I'm nearing the half way point of this journey to run 52 marathons. On Saturday I ran the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in Seattle and I can't begin to tell you how glad I am to be back home! Having grown up in Washington State, I'm always thrilled when I have the chance to get come home to the Northwest. Like they say, there is no place like home, and to me there is nothing like the Seattle area!

It's been crazy busy since I arrived on Thursday evening. I generally only get to see my parents once a year when they fly out to my place in Virginia, so being back in WA means a chance to not only enjoy their company, but also catch up with good friends and take my kids sight seeing.

On Friday morning my husband and I went to the race expo at Qwest Field. And in true Rock'n'Roll style, the place was packed with vendors. Brooks took center stage with a very creative carnival theme, including a fortune telling machine to predict runners race outcome. I got my fortune card and it was positive. Even though I'm pretty sure the printed cards were the same for everyone, I hoped it would be true for me.

Brooks booth

 Perfect fitting rooms! Ha!

Little fortune running booth and instead of a glowing crystal ball - it had a glowing shoe!

The hat I bought at the expo :)

Afterward we spent a couple hours downtown, walking along the Puget Sound waterfront and having lunch at one of the many seafood restaurants on the piers. Having just left Virginia, with temps in the 90's and high humidity, coming to the Seattle area was a real break from the heat and it looked to be perfect weather for Saturday's run.

Saturday meant another early morning and with over 20,000 people running either the half or full marathon, it meant a lot of runners at the start line. I got there in what I thought would be plenty of time, but the port-o-potty lines were insane! I stood in one line for about 20 minutes and it barely moved. I changed to what looked like a shorter and hopefully quicker line, only to find it was one of 2 lines that was sharing the same group of 3 honey buckets. All I can say is it was one darn long wait!

 My friend Brad managed to find me while I was waiting in line

I spent the time chatting away with a couple of girls who were both running this as their first marathon. I'm always really excited to meet people about to do their first 26.2. But the line continued to slug along and by the time I had my turn, the race was already well underway. With so many runners, everyone was put into a corral and they implemented a wave start to keep congestion down. It also meant that many people had to wait a very long time before actually getting to cross the start line. My corral was long gone so the people I started with were going at much slower pace than I was planning to run. When I crossed the start mat the race clock was already at 36 minutes, and there were still quite a few corrals behind me.  

About to start

We started in Tukwila which is down past Seattle and we ran through lots of residential neighborhoods. My focus was on trying to keep pace and get around the masses of people that were at a slower pace. I found myself moving through pockets of people for the first several miles and that kept me entertained and amused. A lot of people dressed up in costumes and everyone was rocking to the bands on the course. The first few miles of every marathon are usually really fun as everyone around is excited and feeling good. As I was running, I even found myself feeling like I could almost forgot my injury issues. I started out feeling very good and I became one of the thousands of totally psyched runners. The weather was perfect, I was running through places that are near and dear to my heart. It was a good, good day.

Some of the fun costumes

One of the fun cheer groups on the course!

At 8 miles I started noticing some twinges in my left knee and it was a quick reminder that I'm still not 100 percent. I had to slow down my pace and take a few walking breaks in an effort to subside the discomfort. It continued to be an issue the rest of the race, but I managed. The first half of the race seemed to have most of the hills, and the second half of the race we got a lot of Seattle views, but unlike most marathons, we didn't run down city streets. We got to see everything from the Alaskan Viaduct Freeway. We also went through several tunnels, on ramps and crossed the I-90 floating bridge over Lake Washington. Even with a somewhat overcast sky we still had great views of Seattle. All the same, running on the freeways meant very little crowd support in the second half of the race and I really wished we could have run through Seattle instead of over it.

 Crossing over the floating bridge

View of Seattle from the on ramp

Running through one of the tunnels on the course

Almost done, mile 25

 Safeco Field straight ahead

A ferry in Puget Sound

I neared the finish and was enthusiastic to have another marathon under 5 hours. This was my 23rd marathon of my 52 journey. People keep asking me how I do it. And all I can say is it's by God's grace. My body has been beat down, I find myself discouraged at times, tired and wishing I had a week off (ok so maybe more like a month), but I know it's not about me, or how I feel and I'm so thankful for each of the children I have run for. Seeing their pictures, reading their stories, knowing what they live, that's all the motivation I need and God will do the rest.

 Coming off the ramp toward the finish line just before mile 26

With the finish line dead ahead

Final Race Stats:

Finish time 4:42:09
2277 overall out of  4080
910 out of 2019 women
222 out of 483 for age group (25-29)

My medal