Seattle Marathon Review

November 29, 2015:

My Race:

Whew - My 91st marathon is finished, and I did OK, finishing in 6:40:47.  That time compares well enough to the most-recent three marathons, all of which were mostly walking, as was this one.  Also, I notice that the second 13 miles took only 4 minutes longer than the first 13, and the second 13 were by far the hilliest.  Cool.

Before the race at the TNT booth

This is a fun marathon, especially if you like a challenging course.  ("Challenging" is runner talk for hilly.)  Soon after the start, we ran out on the center lanes of the I-90 floating bridge across Lake Washington, then turned around.  Then we headed south along the shore of Lake Washington to do a loop around a lovely park, continuing north under I-90, still along the shore.  Here comes the challenging part - zig-zagging up to Ravenna Park, another beautiful and natural area, where the course undulated up and down until we began final the downhill trek.

The finish was inside the football field in Seattle Center, only a few hundred yards from the Space Needle.  Very nice, and the after-race party was indoors in the warmth.

Today that warmth mattered.  This marathon is often rainy, but today the weatherman promised a cold start with bright sun and light winds.  What happened, though, was a cold start with fog and surprisingly brisk winds.  Neither of those let up for the entire race, with the temperature starting at 30 and topping out at 38.  I wore my Minnesota Distance Running Association (MDRA) wind jacket over three thin technical shirts, running pants under running shorts (for the pockets), ear cover and visor, mittens, and thin Wrightsocks in my Brooks Launch shoes.  I opened and closed the wind jacket as necessary, but never felt tempted to remove the jacket or a shirt.

Finished!

After the race I have nothing to whine about.  I expected to feel very tired leg muscles, and probably some ache in back muscles, and sure enough - no surprise!  But nothing else hurts - not knees, hips, hip flexors, or feet (much).  It's all good!  Now relaxing with jambalaya, chocolate ice cream, homemade pizza, and eventually a sip or three of beer.

My girls had a good race too, finishing their half marathon a few minutes sooner than expected.  Yay!

The Seattle Marathon:

We ran this same race in 2011, and it hasn't changed much. It's a great race. Here is the link: Seattle Marathon Review 2011 .

Signs Along the Way:

Life is short - a marathon makes it seem longer
Obi-Wan Kenobe says "May the course be with you"

My Thanks:

I'm always amazed at the spectators (and volunteers) who will come out in the rain, cold, or fog and cheer for those of us who are silly enough to run 26 miles in a big circle, eventually ending up where we started.  Thanks Seattle!

Splits: 14:22, 29:03 (2 mi), 29:24 (2 mi), 18:11, 14:04, 15:27, 16:40, 14:24, 14:09, 17:28, 14:02 (3:17:06 at 13 mi), 14:36, 14:32, 14:51, 16:00, 49:37 (3 mi), 15:14, 14:32, 15:26, 15:08, 15:15, 15:48 (6:38:05 at 26 mi), 2:46 (0.22 mi), total 6:40:52 by my Timex.  The results web site says 6:40:47. Average pace 15:17.

Next:

We three don't currently have our next marathon scheduled, because I'd like to settle on my next myeloma treatment first, as I am not currently on treatment and the myeloma is growing.  I still intend to finish 100 marathons, though, and we already have a list of 17 possibilities for the first half of 2016.  If I'm lucky, I'll run 4 or 5 of those, and a similar number in the second half of the year.