Race: Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle Half Marathon
Date: June 25th, 2011
Start Time: 7:00AM
Location: Seattle, WA (Tukwila, WA to downtown Seattle, WA)

OK. I think this is a record. A good 88 132 days after the actual race, I’m finally logging this race report. Eep! >_< Anyway, enough with delaying, here goes…

Out-of-State Race
This is my second year in a row that I did an out-of-state race — at least, prior to DC last year, the last time I ran a half marathon out-of-state was in Texas for the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio Half (2008!). Then before that, my first ever marathon in Chicago (2005). At the end of this year, I’d have gone to two states (Seattle, WA then Miami, FL for December) . No wonder I’m running out of dosh. Hehehe.

But I digress… back to the race report.

My sisters and I had a bit of a snafu flying to Seattle. We all wanted to fly together, so Annelle and I planned to go to SFO first, meet Minel, then proceed to Seattle. Well, I ended up getting an earlier flight (it was cheaper) with Annelle arriving about an hour after I arrived at SFO, and then Minel meeting us about 50 minutes before our flight left for Seattle where we were actually nearly the last ones to get on the plane, thanks to taking our time at a certain wine bar at Terminal 2 inside SFO. Hahaha. Ok, I digress again, but I have a point!

We arrived on a Thursday, two days before the race. Even if Seattle is on the same side of the Norf American continent, we still wanted to arrive a few days early to get acclimated to the weather. We were even expecting the worse (rain, humidity, etc.) but were pleasantly surprised at the Sunny yet cool climate.

OK, so that’s not the actual race report! Hahaha. Let me really jump right into it:

The Expo
We went to the Expo on foot — well, slightly since we were able to get free transport to the expo and then walked back to our hotel afterwards. The expo was sufficient and I was able to get a few deals (gear-wise) to replace the worn ones I have. I got some 2xu compression sleeves and a new Nathan race belt attachment (to carry my mobile phone). There were the usual goodies and swag (free reusable bag for our race packets, too!) and it was the first time that I actually stayed put (slightly) for one of the race speakers: John “The Penguin” Bingham!

Carbo-load
My sisters, her friends and my friend, Mike (a Washington-native), and I went to this cool little Italian eatery close to Pioneer Square where we had our  usual pre-race carbo-load. OK, so there have been studies that carbo-loading the night before doesn’t really make a huge difference (you’d have to start several days before to really build up your reserves), but it’s part of our routine that seems to help us anyway After supper, Mike invited us to go to some good Jazz clubs in the area but it was race night and we had to bid our adieu for bedtime… at 9PM. LOL Thanks, though Liggie!

Race Day
Having completed several RnR-organised Half and Full Marathon events, my sisters and I should have been used to the inevitable shuttles-to-start-line delay (especially since this was a point-to-point race). Well, surprise, surprise! Delay at the start line shuttles! Hahaha. I won’t delve much into it (your usual issues of people not following the queues, cutting into queues, non-existent queues) since we eventually made it to the start line anyway with enough time to do our pre-race potty break. Hehehe. At least there were a LOT of porta-johns available that even with the even longer queues (which, by the way, were MORE orderly than the shuttle bus ones), the turnover was quick.

The Course
I have to admit, I was not impressed with the half-marathon course. I knew we were starting in Tukwila, WA where, well, I don’t know what to see in Tukwila, but what I do remember was seeing quite a bit of industry — lumber and pipes, to be specific. When we finally got to a more “scenic” area, it was just looking at large houses, some boats on a lake and this really (really) large forest on the other side of the lake — the kind of forest where one would want to spot a Sasquatch; but I wasn’t that lucky.

I also have to note that I hit the wall just after mile six, closer to mile seven. LMFAO. I think running at a slower pace and being unstimulated by the scenery contributed to that familiar draining sensation. In hindsight, the slower pace meant that once I sped up, I was able to survive the remaining parts of the race with a renewed sense of energy. In fact, despite not getting a personal best at this race (thanks, in part to me not doing my proper research on what my previous PR was, lol), I was still able to finish with negative splits!

Chip time: 2:38:38. Not a bad finish, IMO. Finishing under 2:40 is always good, I say

Deffo had more fun doing the touristy things pre- and post-race, but not during the actual race (we didn’t even see the Space Needle whilst on the half marathon course!) If you’re going to Seattle, just go there for fun. Unless you run the full marathon, you most likely won’t see much of what makes Seattle, Seattle with the current half marathon course.