Rock n' Roll Seattle Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

Main goal was to run well the entire race, ending with a negative split. Because I haven't been specifically training for the half marathon (focusing on half Ironman training instead), and because I was hurt for more than a week in June, I did not give myself a stated time goal. But I did keep in mind wanting to cross the finish line as close to 2:00:00 as possible (anything under 2:12:00 would have been a PR).

My bib number being 9336, I was assigned to start in corral 9. But all of the other BT'ers (except Dean) were going to start in Corral 20. I decided to run for fun with friends and start in corral 20 rather than go up to corral 9 where I would be more pressured to run faster.

Kerri said she was going to run between a 2:00 and 2:10 race, and I thought I would stick with her. But when our corral finally got to the start line, Kerri took off like a rocket. I kept with her for about 90 seconds and decided that I would run my own race. So I let her go. But I had already lost Rick, Shelly and Dawn, so I was on my own.

That was not a bad thing. I kept a good pace, weaving in and out of the slower runners. passing lots of other runners kept me motivated, but I kept an eye on my Garmin to ensure I didn't run too fast.

I also had a water/salt tablet strategy. I took one salt tablet before the race began and had three more plus two Powerbar chocolate balls in my running belt. I would take one salt tablet every half hour, using water only from the aid stations. No Cytomax since I didn't train with it and since I have had stomach issues in races before that may have been electrolyte-related. I also carried a small bottle of water with me so I could take the tablets whenever I wanted.

Even though I visited the porta potties twice before the race, I still felt like I needed to go as soon as the race began. I held on until about mile 4 when I saw a row of porta potties with no line. Since I was stopped anyway, I took a salt tablet and wolfed down a Powerbar ball. After that I took a salt tablet roughly every half hour.

Winding around the lake about mile 7 (?), I saw a bald eagle perched on a low branch. It helped to make my day. I thoroughly enjoyed nearly every bit of the race and only walked once up the ramp to the tunnel because the ramp was very steep and I couldn't get around the people in front of me who were walking. But as soon as I could get around them, I did and didn't stop.

One of the most fun parts of the race was coming down the overpass between miles 11 and 12 (that was the 8:52 mile). It was nearly a full mile of downhill. I knew I ran it too fast when I got to the bottom and had side cramps. I slowed down and ran through the cramps, especially since there was just a little over a mile to go. Then I was able to get back up to pace again, even speeding up over the last mile for a very nice negative split.

I had been looking for Kerri for the entire two hours, and I finally saw her just before the finish line. I came in about 4 seconds behind her.


Nothing. It was a perfect race.

Walked back to the hotel (about 3 miles away). Warm shower and got ready to check out. Ironically, the fire alarm went off when we were just about ready to leave, so we hurriedly gathered our belongings and took everything outside.


Just my own ability


Rock and Roll Marathon events are always well organized. The course is usually crowded, but that's what you're going to get at events of this size. Overall it was a very good race and I look forward to hopefully doing this one again next year (or maybe doing the full marathon!).