Seafair Half Marathon, June 29, 2008 This is my hometown half/full marathon. So I feel like I have to do it, even if there is a heat wave, which there was. Last year the course was confined to the streets of Bellevue, but this year they completely re-invented the course, so that it would be a point to point run, starting in Seattle at Husky stadium, going over the highway 520 floating bridge and meandering through Bellevue until reaching the main downtown park and finish line. If you were crazy enough to sign up for the Full (hi Arf!!), you got the additional pleasure of running 13.1 more miles of hills in Kirkland before returning to Bellevue. I guess getting to run over the floating bridge versus merely driving over it in traffic was a smart marketing move, because it resulted in an enormous boost in race registrants. Running the bridge held no appeal to me, primarily because this meant early morning shuttle bus transportation to the new race start over in Seattle, and correspondingly, having to get up that much earlier. My watch beeped at 4 am while I was still deep in a dream that included my watch beeping. I thought to myself in the dream, I am only dreaming that my watch is beeping, it actually isn’t beeping, so I can hit the snooze button and continue with my regularly scheduled dream. Somehow I didn’t fool myself and briefly woke up, but it could have gone either way at that point and I would surely have slept for another hour or two. I was tired. We had been having hot 89F weather for two days, and with no A/C that translates to crappy restless sleep. At 4 am the temperature outside was 68F, yikes! Then at 5 am when I left I checked it again and it had cooled to 67F. That would be the overnight low I guess. So it was already hotter than predicted. The race start was probably 70F or low 70’s and the finish after 2 plus hours was close to 80F. It read 80F on my car thermometer at 10:00 am. The bus ride over the bridge was very pleasant. I was savouring views of a pink streaked sky, an exceptionally glassy calm Lake Washington and a sleeping snow covered monster in the distance, called Mount Rainer. I never get used to seeing that thing, and every time I do, it appears to me all over again phenomenally larger than I expect. At the start, I saw 4 Kenyan-isk athletes sitting on the dusty curb, 6 feet away from the potties. No VIP tent, no pre-race masseuses, no scantily clad women serving them ice cold Gatorade or Gu’s on a stick. What is wrong with this picture! Aren’t these world class athletes? It is sad really that this sport is so undervalued in this country. It was cool though to see them up close, so petite and lithe and gosh, they must weigh all of 115 pounds. I wish I had had a pen and paper with me to get an autograph. I was on the look-out for Franc59 and she arrived early as well and I spotted her immediately. This was our first time meeting and we spent about an hour talking about everything under the sun. It was a great way to pass the time. We got in the queue for the potties about 30 minutes pre-race, and the lines were so long it was impossible to really see where they ended. At one minute to 7am (start time) we finally reached the front of the line! But there were still hundreds of people, if not a thousand people in line for the potties, so I knew they would have to delay the start by at least 5 minutes. I went to the starting line mob, stayed on the outskirts and spotted an acquaintance from the gym. Another great way to pass the time, chatting to people I know and also the surrounding ones I don’t! Runners are great… We were finally off after I think a 10 minute delay (meaning it would be that much hotter by the end). My first mile was fast, even though I felt, really felt like I was going slowly. 9:18. I figured this would be my fastest mile as the heat would get me soon enough and I was glad, actually glad I ran it fast. Each mile after that, well, I don’t even want to post the splits because they just got slower and slower. The bridge crossing was, you know, just like running along an asphalt road on a warm day, shuffle shuffle, looking at the ground or the person’s feet in front of you. I forced myself to look up once at the scenery (Mt. Rainer) but I heard other people saying they didn’t like running the bridge because it was completely sun-exposed and had a head wind, and I couldn’t agree more. At the end of the bridge, the signature Seafair ship (on wheels) sporting gnarly pirates was waiting and they were performing hilarious antics. One pirate was whacking his saber on the ground saying something about cutting our legs off if we didn’t run faster. This got me smiling and so I ran over to the side to high 5 all the handsome pirates and it was at that point that I made the decision that this would be a fun run. Running anything even remotely close to a PR in this heat would be absolutely impossible. I switched my Garmin screen to the one that displays distance and never checked the pace screen again. I was quite thirsty before the start of the race so I really took my time at the first aid station to down two or three cups of water, something I usually skip. It was clear that no one was in a big hurry to run fast, or push and shove their way through the aid stations. In fact, the aid stations were in such high demand that people often had to pour their own drinks or later, around mile 11, they ran out of cups. Here they were pouring the water directly into the runner’s mouths, the runners awkwardly crouching underneath the jugs. Other people opted to pick up used cups from the road (for the sticky stuff Gleukos, you kind of had to do this, or go without). I choose to cup my hands underneath the water jug (held by the volunteer) and drink that way. I wonder what the fallout of this will be. It appeared they had plenty of water, just not enough cups and not enough hands to dish it out fast enough, given the heat. I had moments when I wondered if this was a little bit like Chicago last year, but it probably doesn’t even begin to compare. In the residential areas, many people were out spraying the runners with their lawn hoses and I ran through all of them.. Approaching one guy, I said “please, please, right at my face”….Awwww….that felt good. Around mile 7 there was a huge hill. It was way steeper and longer than I expected. Everyone was walking, I mean everyone! I have never seen anything like it. And that is a lot of mid-packers, you know, like 300 people all around me walking that damn thing. It was here that I saw two yellow marathon maniac singlets just ahead of me, and I knew immediately it was Divechief and Arf. We walked up that monster hill together and chatted a bit. I think I eventually went ahead to talk to another runner I know, and she seemed to be having a bit of a bad day, taking a lot of walk breaks. So I went ahead of her too. But I was having my own problems. You know, to put it delicately, well I can’t put it delicately so I will just fast forward to mile 11, when I finally convinced myself I had to stop and use the port-o-let. I’ve never had to do this before. I blame the heat and some unwise food choices two days ago. There were two people ahead of me in line, but the wait wasn’t long and while I was waiting I got a chance to drink lots of water, from my cupped hands as I was also standing beside the volunteer with the water jug. When I got out of the port-o-let, I ran into Dive and Arf again! Arf was soon to split off for the full marathon route, and Divechief and I ran most of the rest of the way in, except his heel was really hurting and he had to stop to walk a few times. So I went ahead again. The second to last mile had another huge hill that, of course, everyone was walking up, but the last mile was a long gentle downhill that would have been great to book it down on a normal cooler day. In this last mile the full marathon leader passed us. He was looking a bit weary but had his big lead sealed and was probably just coasting. My Garmin measured the course short, a nice bonus. Still, I had a personal worst, Garmin time: 2:21:47 Gun time: 2:23:17 I placed 100/218 (F40-44), which blows me away when I think about all the walking I did, and the potty stop, and the socializing. I guess everyone was taking their time. I had a great time soaking (literally) up the whole experience. The miles went by way way faster than they ever have on a HM for me, even though I was out there longer. I absolutely attribute this to having great company along the course. And, my legs are so well rested today that maybe, just maybe my 5K on Friday will be a super fast one for me.

How cool that you got to meet Franc, Divechief, and Arf! Those temps are definitely too hot to be racing hard - good that you turned it into a fun run instead. Way to persevere!

It may have been a PW as far as time goes, but that just means you got to enjoy the whole experience longer which is exactly what you did - way to go on changing your perspective during the HM - knowing that a fast time just wasn't in the cards given the weather. So instead of dreading the heat and wishing this HM would just get over with it, you focused on the fun aspects - such as chatting with those around you. Well done! That does sound like a pretty brutal day out there, although the course (changing it to a point to point) sounds nice and scenic.

Sounds like you made a good decision and turned this one into a fun run. At the least you met up with some great RArs and enjoyed the view. Its hard to do the right thing sometimes but you did just that. Because of that decision you are looking forward to a fast 5k this weekend. Great job Larry

Hi Enke, I concur - great call to turn this into a more relaxed fun run, especially given the early heat. It sounds like Fun and Run were both the operative words, as you seemed to have a great time (except for whatever hit you between 7 & 11), and you placed pretty well for having partied so much along the way. So, good job of making a lemonade race out of what could have been a lemon! Jay

Well Done! Nice read!!

What a great report, Enke! I like the fact that you were able to make the decision early on that the conditions were just not right for a PR, and then you just switched into fun-run mode. Still, your time was pretty good considering the walking and delays at the water stations and all. Sounds like good warmup for that 5K in a couple of days!

You did great, Enke, especially considering the heat. Sounds like you ran smart and, thankfully, there are no ill side affects. Good luck on your 5k, as well.