The Tale of My 5th Half-Marathon

To bed by 10:30 Saturday night and up by 3:50 Sunday morning.

So began my quest to the finish line.

I heated up my oatmeal, brewed the coffee, and headed out the door. Ran back in. It was pretty warm outside (in the PNW in NOVEMBER) and I grabbed a tank top.

I met Katie, her hubby and her son at their house and we piled into their car to race to the ferry.

Before we left the driveway I spilled coffee down the front of me.

Soaked through 3 layers.


The ferry line was long, and it got a little tense. But we made it. While on the ferry I rinsed my top layer and dried it with the hand dryers. I kinda pulled my right shoulder outta socker ‘er somethin’ with all that fancy dryin’. Yay. I was getting so excited about running 13.1 miles with a cranky shoulder and coffee stains.

Yadda, yadda, yadda… We parked and headed to Memorial Stadium in Seattle… It started to drizzle, so Katie and I broke out our high-end running rain gear, but we only wore them while we waited.

*do dodo dodo* I Tweeted. I Whrrl’d. We saw our friend Brian, I saw Joe, I tweeted with Chris who was waiting for the full start…(and apparently experienced her worst marathon ever!) I went pee 3 times… It’s a fine balance – that hydration and bladder fillage.

The great news was at 4 minutes to start time, my bladder told me I needed to pee again. NEEDED. And my tummy started to growl. Niiiice. 2+ hours of running on a hungry belly. There was no choice but to pee down my leg hold the pee, but I did throw back a Gu pack. It didn’t fill the belly but tricked my body into *thinking* it had something to go on.

Then I saw my pet, Peeve:

How can a shirt be peevey? THAT, my friends is a race shirt. A shirt for the race that had not yet begun. You do not wear the shirt to a race you have not yet run! BLASPHEMY! And also, helooooo –  PEEVeY!

I cleaned out a rock in my shoe.

The gun/horn/whatever went off and we stood there. *waiting* *waiting*

It took over 5 minutes for us to simply cross the start line. And then is was a regular game of human pinball… passing, weaving, bumping, hopping… 15,000 people running on the street. The view running down 5th Avenue (it’s 5th, right?) as we head toward that one freeway is awesome. A sea of people. The best shot I could get was this, because I run so fast *ahem*:

I saw Stacey (her story is up) and Christy… we *wooted* and *waved*…

Mile 1.Mile 2. Mile 3. Mile 4. Somewhere in there I stripped to my tank top. I think it was 52 degrees. Mile 5 done was done in 47 minutes. Oh, and a growing need to pee. Mile 5 it was.

Oh HAI long line. Oh HAI adding 5 minutes to our chip time! It’s OK though. I stopped my timer. Wish I had stopped it at the finish line….

Did I just give it away? We DID finish, but…

I need to tell you Galer Street is of the Hell. Hell is not hot. Hell is made of hills with no down. Galer will be in Hell, and so will Madison. and that is why I never want to go to Hell. Amongotherreasons.

Yadda, yadda, yadda… Got cold again around mile 11 and put back on the long sleeves. Katie and I finished, but with a special treat! About 3/4 mile from the finish I saw a familiar face – my friend Heidi. I was all, “Is this my Heidi?” and our little trio ascended the evil underpass hill (Face of Satan) and emerged victorious into Memorial Stadium!

*cheering* *confetti and glitter throwing*

We crossed the finish line with our arms across kinda like in the picture you see below, except we were running with our arms like that and I think my tongue was hanging out. And we were running (did I mention that?), so that looks a lot different that 3 women not running.

Katie, Cheesy Grinny Grinnerson & Heidi!

The Katie and The Grinner again.

I was so busy capturing our golden moments I forgot to stop my watch, but here’s what I give to you:

Official Time: (gun to crossing the finish) 2 hours 20 minutes (remember! We didn’t cross the start for nearly 6 minutes after the horn, so, that is important.)

Chip Time: (actual mat to mat time) like, 2 hours 15 minutes

My Time: (stopped watch for potty break, line of 10 people, might I add…) I believe it was at 2 hours 9 minutes.

Subtract my twittering a Whrrling, we mighta shaved a few more off. But what fun is that?

Katie took a pic of me in my space blankets (they gave us one, but I dug an extra one out of the trash cuz I was cold and I’m classy like that):

Katie was all, “I don’t think I got that.” I was all, “Uh…” So she took it again. Here I am all snuggly with my space blankies:

Katie said something brilliant about the concept of a finish time. “MY finish time???!!! A GOOD time!” That’s right, we had fun… and despite the pee and the hunger and the stupidness of having to wake-up at 3:50 – it was GREAT.

And I have been in bed much of the day – babying a very angry belly. She hates it when I jumble her around like that. My husband has been a GEM. He has been babying me while I baby my belly. I insisted they stay home for the race, and instead they cheered me on via Twitter… and when I got home the kids were out on the porch with pom-poms and cheers. And I raced past them because, well… if you run then you know why I was making such haste…

I think that’s enough. Uh. Yeah. Definitely.

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