We did the expo thing, and we did the Seattle thing a day before the race. Walking around Seattle, we found the original Starbucks at Pike's Place Market and wandered around looking at shops, watching the guys throw the fish in the Market and generally taking in the liberal atmosphere of the city. If you have never been to Seattle, you would expect that it rains all the time and is gloomy. That's what we expected, for the most part. It was cloudy and it did rain a little, but it was a mild rain. It was cool and perfect for a race.
Race day we took a cab again to the start line and it worked out well again. We got there in plenty of time and we were in corral 25 or something. The race started in an industrial area in a part of town called Tukwila, just south of Seattle. As the race began it immediate started going uphill and along a highway, which lead to a series of hills in a residential neighborhood of beautiful provincial type houses. The surrounding area was gorgeous and green and the temperature was perfect in the high 60's. The hills were actually pretty steep on the front and the back, allowing for a great challenge and good pushes off the back sides. I felt a lot of energy. I gave Renee the now traditional goodbye kiss after about a mile or so and I took of at my pace. Her knee was hurting her again, but she hung in there. She didn't want me to hang back because she was either tired of me or wanted me to do well.
After a few miles I had my wind, my cardio was good and I felt great. I was being careful not to go out too hard to begin with and I felt great. The race wound around a pretty area on Lake Washington called Seward Park. People had slowed down a little ahead of me and I found that there was a memorial area that had pictures of fallen soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq who were from the Seattle area. It was a very touching tribute and I couldn't help but get a little choked up. Family members held flags that had banners attached with the names of the their soldiers on them and right as I got to the memorial Toby Keith's "American Soldier" started playing on my shuffle. I got choked up and slowed down and gave high fives to the family members.
After the memorial the road wound around Seward Park and along the lake. We went into a tunnel that lead into the city and when we emerged we were on the freeway heading into Seattle. The finish line was at Qwest Field, which you could see the entire way into the city, teasing in the distance. It felt like it was never getting closer, but added a little motivation to the run. Coming off the freeway into downtown it looked like the finish was close, and my Garmin told me I was at mile 12. I picked up my pace and was trying to hit 13.1 under 2:00. There were some really steep downslopes on some of the streets, which I had to slow down for. The last mile was along a double-decker stretch of road next to Qwest Field that would down to the side of the stadium. Finally, we made the turn behind the stadium and the finish line was in sight! I picked up the pace for the last 200m and crossed at 2:09 at 13.8 miles according to the Garmin. My time for 13.1 was 2:02. I had just missed the 2 :00 mark! I was thoroughly drained, so I know I left it all out on the course. The only place I could have improved would have been where the memorial was because everyone was running slow, other than that, there was no time to be made up this time. I was pretty proud of that run, given the terrain.
After the race we watched the headliner band, Everclear, for a little bit. We left and walked back to the hotel, which was a lot closer than it was in San Diego, only a mile or so. We stopped along the way for photo ops and then relaxed a bit.
As far as the challenge, the Seattle race was the best so far. I loved the combination of hills and flat running and the weather was perfect. It was a scenic route and very enjoyable. I did my best time so far on the hardest course. Renee finished with some pain, but she stuck it out with her bad knee.
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