Seattle Rock N Roll 1/2 Race Report

What a relief to actually be able to post this!

Background - I ran pretty low mileage through the winter after the Seattle Marathon, and started ramping up again this spring to build a base for the Portland Marathon in October. I had originally hoped to PR at Rock N Roll, as I had some great runs leading up to it.

This Wednesday, however, my IT band started hurting (a LOT!). It was swollen and hurt to touch, and while I could walk on it, running was very uncomfortable.Most people suggested that I just not do the race, but a) I've been looking forward to it for ages and b) it is an expensive race to enter!! so why not at least try? So I spent all of Thursday and Friday icing, stretching, and massaging it, and it gradually improved.

Still, I was super nervous when Saturday morning rolled around... what if I took two steps running and it started hurting again? Would I have to walk the whole thing? I hate walking!

Went to the Expo on Friday - didn't stay for too long, was kind of disappointed that I didn't get to meet up with Digital Man, LuvPre, etc., but had to get back to my Grandma's (she lives right near the start line)

The Race - Woke up at 4:30 AM and was at the start line at 5:30, which turned out to be just enough time to check my bag and wait in the ridiculously long porta potty lines.The race starter was Husky football coach Steve Sarkisian, which was cool (being a huge Husky football fan, we are desperately hoping for change!).I was in corral 16, so after lots of not-so-patient shuffling, we finally made it to the start line.

Mile 1 - I am running at a good pace and my knee doesn't hurt. Hey, this might work after all! This part was pretty flat and through an industrial area.

Mile 2 - I missed the mile 2 marker, but there was a small hill and the upper calf/back of my right knee was starting to hurt - still, it wasn't my IT band, so I kept my fingers crossed and kept going!

Mile 3 - Still feeling pretty good, and I'd heard that IT issues usually pop up around mile 1.5 or 2, so still being pain-free helped my confidence a little bit.

First 5K split - 35:01, 11:17/mile pace

Mile 4 - I started getting a little silly here, despite there being a fairly long, gradual uphill - I was in front of the 2:15 pacers this whole mile, and was tempted to go for a PR, as my calf had started to loosen up and the knee was still pain free!

Mile 5 - Starting to wind down to Seward Park, legs still feel ok with nothing hurting, but they are a bit tired, and I make the decision to just take it easy and not go for a PR since it's probably not in the cards anyways!

Mile 6 - Heading down to the water - I love running near Seward Park along Lake Washington, and it was absolutely beautiful today! The road was wide, flat, and shady, and some nice people sprayed us with hoses. There was also a LOT more crowd support along this section (and in general) than for the November marathon, which I guess is to be expected.

10K split - 1:09, 11:15/mile pace

Mile 7 - Took my first GU, still running along Lake Washington, still going strong. Somewhere along the lakefront there was a bald eagle in a tree right next to the road - so cool, I've never seen one so close up before! Just to repeat, the weather and the day (and most of the course) were absolutely gorgeous - great showcase for Seattle!

Mile 8 - La la la, starting to dread the hill up to the I-90 express lanes at Mile 9...

Mile 9 - Turns out the hill was steep, but pretty short, so I was able to run up it without much of a problem at all. After going up the hill, we turned into the tunnel, and I got a sudden burst of energy. There was a band playing in the tunnel, and it was dark and cool, so that was fun!

9 mile split - 1:42, 11:20/mile pace

Mile 10 - I take my second GU, and we come out of the tunnel and start curving around on I-90 into downtown Seattle. My legs are still feeling strong at this point, and I am glad to have my own fuel belt with Powerade rather than Cytomax! This seemed like the longest mile EVER for some reason - when we finally hit Mile 11, I was confused because I thought I'd missed the Mile 11 marker and that should be Mile 12... Damn! I also saw a girl on the side of the road talking to the medics and saying that her IT band was killing me... I sent up a prayer to the running gods because that could have easily been me!!

Mile 11 - Starting to go down off I-90 and into downtown Seattle, there's a slight hill up to Mile 12 but everything still feels good.

Mile 12 - Take a quick walk break to call my Mom and let her know that I'm almost at the finish... I have to leave a voicemail and hope she got it. After I put my phone away, I settle back into a good running pace and we turn up onto the Viaduct.

Mile 13 - Mostly flat or downhill on the bottom section of the Viaduct - nice and cool with very pretty views of Elliot Bay and the Seattle waterfront! I started kicking at this point, running strongly and passing more and more people. We came around the corner and through the finish chute into the parking lot of Qwest Field.

Final time - 2:26:19, 11:11/mile pace

I got my medal (they are super cool) and went to find Mom - apparently she only heard the "Hi Mom" part of my voicemail and thought I finished, so she left the finish line and went looking for me... Whoops! All in all, fun race, fun course, great weather, and lots of relief! Now to recover from this and get back into the swing of Portland training...

And some pictures, because I'm awesome like that ;)

Not sure why this one is sideways, but I can't seem to delete it, so...

Getting ready to Rock N Roll...

Yup, only two more days until Seattle Rock N Roll! I'm super excited even though I'm "only" doing the half! I feel like I've gotten some pretty good training in lately, so hopefully that'll help! The weather is looking pretty decent, and I drove the half course (the first 9-10 miles or so at least) on Monday and there aren't any major hills of note, just a few gradual ups and downs to keep the legs loosened up - looks like a fun course!

In other news, started the paralegal program on Monday (although I haven't gotten my books in the mail yet so there's not too much I can do thus far), and am starting to get deeper into the job hunt - ugh!

I finally uploaded graduation and other random pictures to my Facebook, but I thought I'd put a few of my favorites on here for those who aren't on Facebook.

Mom and I after graduation...

Grandma and I after graduation!

Me feeding our family friends' baby... he's soooo cute!

Me after the 2008 Jingle Bell Run... very appropriate weather for it!

Sean and I at the beach... I just thought this was a cool picture.

A fresh start

Well, all of my grades from spring quarter are finally posted, and I passed them all, which means I am really, truly, officially graduated!

Mus 116 - 2.0 (hated the class!)
Soc 347 - 2.5 (it was an 8:30 class... haha)
Soc 371 - 3.6
Soc 366 - 3.3

I was originally disappointed that my Soc 371 grade (Criminology) wasn't a little bit higher, because I worked my ass off in that class. But then I got a few texts today from classmates who were in that class, went through graduation, and found out they failed the class and didn't actually graduate... the grades I've heard in it so far are 1.3, 1.6, 1.9, and 2.0. So I guess it really was just a tough class and I should be glad to do as well as I did!

I had a few rough years of school sophomore and junior year (junior year I think I only passed like 25 or 30 credits...), so it was a toss up as to whether it was even mathematically possible for me to graduate on time. I had to take 15 credits in the fall, 20 credits in winter, and 17 credits in spring, and had no room for error - I couldn't get less than a 2.0 in any of my soc classes, and I couldn't fail any of my classes at all. Given my track record for the past few years, I was hesitant, but I'm glad to say I passed every class I took, and had a 3.0+ GPA every quarter this year as well. :) I set myself back in a lot of ways, but I overcame all of that and did it! Yay!

Paralegal classes start next week, and I need to start job hunting... it feels like sort of a new chapter in my life, like I can put all the stress of undergrad behind me now that I know for sure I finished, and look towards the future and focus on that!

Running has also been going really well lately (knock on wood!). I had a great hilly 6 miler today, legs and lungs felt great and I feel like I barely had an issue with the hills I was struggling up in the fall. Hopefully everything will keep going well in that regard - and now that I don't have to go to classes, I should have more time to add in more stretching/strength training/cross training.

Also, I'm going to try and upload some pictures from Beat the Bridge, Bloomsday, graduation, etc that are on Mom's camera. I'm not very techy, but I'll try!

Here we go again...

I finally got around to registering for the Portland Marathon in October! :)

Lake Youngs Race Report

The training: Pretty good in the past few weeks, actually. I've done a midweek long run of 8 miles, a 13 miler on Monday, and 4 miles of fartleks on Thursday. Hit 26 miles for the week, and next week hoping to hit even more!

The race: I did the one loop, 9.6 mile version of the Lake Youngs Ultra. It started at 7 AM, so I pretty much rolled out of the bed into the car and to the race. I had forgotten my watch, but they had a clock at the finish line so I wasn't too worried. I said hi to Spencer, who was running the three loop version, and met up with Betsy and her friend (who were also running the three loop version). It just so happened to work out that Betsy's slow pace (she ran Lake Youngs today and is running another marathon tomorrow!!) is about the same as my fast pace, which was convenient because I wanted to push myself during this race as a good training run for the Rock N Roll half. We ran around Lake Youngs a few times in high school, and let me tell you, I don't remember it being quite so hilly! But with the exception of a few hills, it was mostly rolling and not too bad - just more than I'm used to training mostly on the Burke-Gilman! The weather was great, cool and overcast. I felt pretty good throughout the loop despite the hills and the faster pace, and it was fun having someone to run with! The finish line was awesome - lots more food than I am used to! I also got to meet up with Black Diamond Barney and Stevie Ray from Runner's World, so that was fun! I stuck around after I finished to eat and watch Spencer come through to start his last lap, and then jumped in the car and drove home. I had tons of fun both running the race and after the race - great atmosphere! I will definitely plan on doing this race again next year!

Final time: 1:50:30, 11:31/mile pace

Final thoughts: As I said above, I had a great time in this race. I ran it pretty much exactly the way I intended to, and felt pretty strong, which was a good confidence booster for the Rock N Roll half. Hooray!

Updated with pics! Thanks to Betsy's awesome hubby Matt Hagen for all the awesome pictures from the race (http://matthagen.smugmug.com/gallery/8565785_ueWE3#P-1-24) - check out his pics, they are great!

Betsy, me, and Jessica - can you believe Betsy has run 4 marathons in 2 weeks? She looks great!

My running form, on the other hand, is not quite so awesome... but at least I was having fun!

Thanks again to Matt for the pictures!

Graduation report

I still can't really believe that I'm actually writing this - seriously, where did the last 4 years go??

I'm attempting to look at it as a new beginning, rather than an ending, but of course there are plenty of mixed emotions.

Graduation last night was a lot of fun - I am really glad I decided to go to the department graduation (Sociology) instead of the big one on Saturday. Mom, bro, Grandma, and Mom's friend and I all went out for pizza beforehand, and then they dropped me off at Meany Hall, where the soc grads were supposed to meet.

I found a few of my friends that I've had soc classes with, and we had an hour to kill before we actually had to be ready, so we just wandered around campus. Then they lined us all up and we went into Meany to the sounds of Pomp and Circumstance. Everyone, judging by the whispers and giggles, sort of seemed to feel the same way - "is this reallly happening???? ohhh my god!" :P Meany Hall is a pretty damn big auditorium, and there were tons of people there, which was really cool. It was also nice that we got to sit with friends instead of having to go in alphabetical order!

Some of the professors spoke, and one of the students, and there was a video about the Soc department. But it really was short and sweet, especially compared to high school graduation! Before too long, we were all lined up to go onstage and get our "diplomas" (they mail the actual ones to us a few weeks from now). All the girls were wearing super awesome high heels (which is what Casey, Ashley and I spent most of our time focusing on as everyone walked by) - our department is like 90% female, haha. It was like a fashion show almost! I am pleased to say that everyone (myself included) made it across the stage without tripping, falling, or otherwise doing silly things. I think one of my favorite parts was walking out of Meany at the end, while Tequila! played over the loudspeakers. :)

The family and I went out for ice cream afterwards, and when I got home I just relaxed on the couch and watched chick flicks with friends and roommates.

Now I'm like... what next??

It's the end of the world as we know it

Yep, that's right... tomorrow is my last day of college (criminology final which I am putting off studying for!), and then I graduate on Wednesday. Where the **** did the last four years go??

I'm excited in some ways (mostly to be done with schoolwork in one piece), but at the same time, I'll miss it - I mean, WHAT? I have to go into the REAL WORLD? And WORK for the rest of my life? Eww... But hopefully the paralegal program this next year will go ok and will help me get a decent job when I'm done with it. I'm still sort of at a point of mixed feelings and disbelief about everything. Ahh!

Had a great long run after my organizations final this morning. Perfect running weather (sunny and 60s), and the Burke Gilman trail is so beautiful on sunny days. 14 miles total, legs felt tight but super strong, and I had a hard time holding myself back. I thought I ran the first half too fast, and then ended up running the second half even faster. My legs never really got tired/cramped or anything. Now that I am done running and have been sitting around all day, though... ouch! I could use a nice massage!

Ok... enough procrastinating for now! I'll be back later in the week with a graduation report, a RR from Lake Youngs, and a graduation party report (maybe! ;))