Sometimes, I'm a drama queen. RnR Seattle Marathon Recap

Quick, last week recap:
Thursday: 5 miles, Back Bay, 3 at MGP, easy
Saturday: read below.


This week:
Tuesday: 4 miles
Thursday: 5 miles
Saturday: 11 miles
Sunday: 3 miles


It's almost as if I only left myself 34 days until my next marathon.....
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So. Rock n' Roll Seattle Marathon.....

Pre-Race
Becka, L, and I stayed an easy .75(ish) mile walk to the starting area, which seemed SUPER awesome after seeing the traffic. Traffic in Seattle? Ridiculous.

The starting line is in City Center, right under the Space Needle.

We had Brooks VIP bathroom passes

real bathrooms, with real water...

and these happy people holding tray's full of goodies.

Why, yes, I WILL run HAPPY

We started in corral 24, and it took about 35 minutes before we crossed the start line...

Mile 1-5: 11:01, 10:24 (downhill), 11:15 (slight uphill), 10:42, 10:38
These miles started heading south through downtown, past the Nuun station at mile 2, and nothing else super exciting to mention. Mostly I was just excited that the weather seemed to be cooperating - overcast and cool. The bands on course (roughly one every mile ish) were okay, the spectators were fun.

Mile 6-10: 11:54 (hill), 10:48, 14:04 (bathroom), 10:38, 11:29
Mile 6 brought a pretty big hill...

there are tiny people up at the top, I swear.

...and I walked it - on purpose, I 100% planned to walk any tough uphills. I know they aren't my strength, and I didn't want to trash my legs on something that wouldn't gain me any time. We split from the half marathon course just before mile 6...

And ran along Lake Washington...

And then looped around Seward Park...

PS, the water tasted funky. We quickly figured out why.

Eff you, RnR.

Mile 11-15: 12:56 (bathroom), 11:04, 10:26, 11:24, 11:13
We headed out of Seward Park, hit the same restroom area as we did on our way in, and ran along the water again on Lake Washington, up to a random point just past the I-90 bridge, then looped back onto the bridge. There was a mile here dedicated to fallen soldiers...

There was another stretch somewhere with a similar dedication to LLS, but I literally look the other way when I see that stuff while I'm running. The alternative is I cry every time, and it's REALLY hard to run and cry simultaneously.
Nothing else super exciting here. I felt fine. Still hitting roughly where I want to be - slight variations if there's an uphill/downhill, but that was how I planned to be running...

Mile 16-20: 11:18, 13:42, 11:45, 14:23 (walking the tunnel), 11:59
And then The Bridge Of Death. This sucked. We ran out onto a bridge...

It was suddenly a thousand hundred degrees, the sun came out, and this was completely exposed. No shade. It was kind of nestled between and slightly below two adjacent bridges, so no shade, no breeze. I swear the temperature rose like 15*. It sucked. For real.
I feel like these times must be wrong, because I swear I thought I was dying.
At the end of the Bridge of Death, we went into a tunnel. A tunnel that was maybe a mile-ish long, and banked like a damn race track. I am not exaggerating.
Do you know what's remarkably hard to run on? Super banked road at mile 17. The only highlight was running into Lesley on the out and back, and she was only 2 miles or so behind us. So I ran/walked it through the first time, and straight up walked it on the way back. I joked (kind of) that I was done running, and would only run downhills from now on... {foreshadowing}

Mile 21-23 23:42, 6:18, 14:19
Ha. I know. 21 was another bullshit tunnel, 22 was stupid. 23 was no better. Oh, but I took these pictures...

And then it started pouring fucking rain. So there were no more pictures.


Mile 24-26.7 14:14 (some downhill to run...), 17:01, 15:42, 10:25
....and then I for REAL ran no more. I kind of just.... quit. I didn't care that it was raining. I didn't care that I was carrying my phone and ipod in the rain (I mean, I care NOW that my phone is being wonky, and I sure hope The H doesn't read all these words...). I didn't care that it hurt LESS to run than it did to walk. I was done. I was pissed. I for real said I'd rather have hypothermia than run one more step on this godforsaken course.
I don't know how Becka and L didn't leave my whiny ass there, on that stupid road, but I kept walking, hoping Lesley would catch up and they could run off and save themselves from my misery. I know. Pretty dramatic.
The stretch from 23.5-25 was on a totally exposed, raised street, that was super hard to walk on, and super awesome to be pelted with pouring rain and cold wind on. But apparently I was really stubborn in my refusal to run another step.
Mile 26 we turned and there was another tunnel, but it was the MOST GLORIOUS TUNNEL IN THE UNIVERSE. We walked through there, to about 25.5, and B convinced me I should run. So I ran. My pace when I crossed the finish line was 8:18. For real.


Finish


When we crossed the finish line, grabbed our medals, and mylar, it was FREEZING cold, still pouring rain, and so windy. That mile walk back to the hotel was so much less awesome than it was in the morning.


Conclusion:
I am a whiny baby. I was hurting, but certainly not hurt. Not hurting any more than I probably did during training. I COULD run, and running felt fine. I just decided not to. That is the LAMEST THING EVER.
Don't get me wrong - I finished a fucking marathon. That's pretty rad. I'm not even all that annoyed with my time - I was not tied to a certain time goal, so whatever. I'm REALLY okay with a 5:30.
But I quit. I just stopped trying. And that's not really cool. That really annoys me.
Also, I need to work in hill work, and do strength training again. Can't hurt....

Anyway.

So San Francisco is next, but I'm going into that with the same non-goals as Seattle. And hopefully I'll be able to better contain my whiny self.
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The rest of the Seattle trip was FANTASTIC. I've got a ton of stuff to cover still! But not today.