Seattle 1/2 Marathon race report

There weren't very many good pictures of me from this race because it was so crowded... oh well.

Background - I trained a lot better for this half than the last few I've ran, including a few tempo runs, a few good hill runs, and long runs of up to 12 miles.

The race - So glad the weather cooperated after all the snow of the past week - it ended up being cool and overcast, with the sun coming out right at the finish line. I started the race off with my friend T, who was aiming for a sub 2 half - we stuck together for almost the first mile until the 2 hour pace group caught us (we started in a really weird spot) and he took off with them.

The first 4-5 miles were strong and steady, keeping a pretty decent pace without pushing too hard. A nice change from those other halfs that I hadn't trained for at all! When I hit mile 5-6, my left inner thigh/groin/hip and the inside of my left knee started cramping up so badly I could barely run. This happens occasionally, but usually I can just run it off in a few minutes. This one lasted for almost an entire mile, and at some points I was literally kind of just dragging my left leg along. I started getting kind of frustrated - NO WAY would this happen during this race that I'd actually trained for!

I was really thankful to hit the uphill part of the course starting with the Galer Street hill. I ran up it, and up Madison, with no walk breaks, and it really helped seem to loosen up that hip/thigh. They still never really felt 100% for the rest of the race, but at least I was able to run steadily again. I maintained my pace pretty well up Interlaken hills (despite an extra mile or so back to the med tent to get help for a runner that passed out on the course in front of me - YIKES - I think he ended up being ok though), and over the rolling hills over the freeway and back towards downtown. I hit the mile 12 marker and pushed pretty hard through the downhills and up that steep, obnoxious hill on Mercer Street to the finish. My mom and DBF were at the top of the Mercer Street hill, so that gave me a nice little boost to the finish.

Final time - 2:18:52 for ~14 miles. That's only 6 minutes off my PR time for 13.1 miles, so I'll definitely take it. I also negative split the course by 2 minutes, which I am pretty pleased with given all the hills in the second half! Definitely one of the strongest halfs I've run aside from that stupid leg cramp - I need to figure out how to avoid those once and for all (more strength training, probably).