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| I took this at our hotel room before the Seattle Marathon Expo. If you want a fun shirt to wear to an expo, this is it! You can get one at Skirtsports.com Use code FALL20WIN for 20% off before the end of Dec. 2017 |
Part 1
Cupcake Run Half Marathon.
It was part of the Sweet Quadzuki series, 4 halfs + 4 Fulls for 8 races in 9 days. Or if you prefer, 8 halfs in 9 days. I did neither of these. I did the one half, followed by the Seattle Marathon the next weekend. Would I like to have done more of these races? Well, I'm a bit wacky so, yes. I think it would be fun to do multiple races in a week but my life doesn't allow that at the holiday's right now. My family would shoot me. By family I mean my parents and mostly my mom. Well, and my husband. My kids wouldn't be happy either. So, to keep peace in the family I will abstain for now from such a crazy feat. But one day I'd like to at least do two of the fulls back to back or the last 4 halfs. But I digress...
Cupcake is put on by the non-profit group, Running To Give. Pretty much all of the profits go to help a local family in need. It's a great race and group! I actually spent last year with them as one of the directors and while it was an amazing experience, I realized I'm not a race director. This year I am back to supporting them by running their races and/or volunteering. Since it's called Cupcake there are, of course, cupcakes at the finish. And yes, I baked and donated cupcakes for the cause. I also ate a few of those cupcakes because I had to taste test! I discovered I can run really well off of cupcakes. Hello carbo loading! Ha ha.
The race is low key as it's on the small side (but growing) and the vibe is friendly and relaxed. We run along the Centennial Trail starting in Snohomish. There is also a 5K and a 10K. I ran with my BRF, Kristy. My husband, Chris, was also there but he ran his own pace. On course were also Skirt Sister's and fellow ambassadors, Kaeli and Jacquie (who is one of the director's). This meant fun photo time! I had to crack up because the race photographer captured us taking our pictures. I love how his shots turned out!
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| L to R: Kristy, me, Kaeli, Jacquie |
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| Me and my favorite running partner for life! |
And now for the photographer's photos of this moment in time!
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| My husband, Chris, knows how to take a proper Skirt Sports Ambassador photo - don't cut out the skirts! |
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| I love this one! It's different seeing us from this angle. For some reason, I think it really captures our affection. And Kristy has a great smile! |
The race started and we were off. Kristy and I were not in a hurry and kept reminding ourselves we were "on a long, slow, training run". This was good because Kristy had her pesky ITB issues flare up at the half way point and I had a weird calf pain from the get-go. Hers has been an annoyance on and off for forever and mine came on during my long run the week prior, I think, from wearing a pair of shoes that were ready for retirement. I wore them one run too many. Dang! We started out with a 1:00 run :30 second walk ratio but by the half way mark swapped to 30:30's and eventually, just running when Kristy's leg would allow. Despite my calf, which wasn't too bad, I had a ton of energy and felt great. Again, cupcakes appear to be good fuel. Well, not really but I certainly had enough sugar energy.
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| Race start! |
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| Chris is off and ahead of our group! |
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| Here we come! |
We ran along the Centennial Trail, which is our typical long run route, so nothing new or exciting but the simple fact that you're part of a race and something larger, makes the typical route more fun. Eventually, we came upon the finish and celebrated that we were done! It was a beautiful day for a supported long run! And I will add, I did not have a cupcake at the finish. I had my fill the evening prior.
Part 2 (A week later)
Seattle Marathon.
This one has become our annual Thanksgiving weekend tradition. Turkey Trots haven't worked for us as we are usually hosting or travelling on this day. Either way makes it hard to fit in a turkey trot. And besides, I like the Seattle Marathon. It's always been one of my faves! I prefer running in cool temperatures and you can pretty much count on cool or even cold days for this race. And sometimes we even luck out with sunshine! This year we had a little of all! There was rain before the race started, sun breaks and rainbows (I actually got warm) for the first half of the race, and a downpour of rain to finish. A pretty good day to run, actually.
We stayed overnight in downtown so we could have a leisurely start to our morning. My alarm went off around 5 a.m. so I could have my required "wake me up before you go, go" (yep, that Wham song just jumped in my brain) start to the day. My body does NOT just jump up and go. It takes time to slowly realize it needs to prep for a run. It needs coffee. After much debate over how the heck to dress for a race with such a variable forecast for the day, we made our way to the start for our Marathon Maniac photo and meet up. Apparently, many took advantage of the snooze button because it was a smaller crowd than years past.
We hit the porta potties after, then ducked under an awning to escape the rain. It was raining pretty good at this point and I was happy I had worn my Bolero and my Shoe Hoodies.
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| Keeping dry for the moment |
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| Pre-race anticipation |
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| Shoe Hoodies! Little raincoats for your shoes! They worked perfectly! |
Eventually, we made our way to the start corral to find familiar and friendly faces. We found them!
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| Skirt Sister, Marie! |
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| We found Carla and her husband , Eric, who we met at Columbia Gorge |
Time to start this baby! I was planning on using the same 1 minute run to 30 second walk ratio I've been utilizing lately. I had hopes that I'd be able to maintain that pattern for the majority of this race. Oh, ye of little course knowledge! In years past, this course took us through the I-90 tunnel and over the floating bridge. Due to transit changes the course had to be altered. They altered it a lot more than I counted on (I looked at the course map but maps don't mean much to my brain) and what was already considered a difficult course thanks to hills was just doubled in difficulty. Now, not only could we count on some doozies in the last 10K but there were doozies all throughout the miles. Up, up, up and down, down, down and pretty steep one's too. There were switchbacks, baby. I power walked the up and let my legs fly on the down. Until I couldn't. My lower back had been feeling rather tight the days prior to the race so I don't know if it was because of that issue, or if I stepped funny on a downhill but my knee decided to go all wonky on me. I couldn't run for longer than 30 seconds before it would hurt. Dang! My energy level was good and despite the hills, up until this point, my pace was on point for a 5 hour finish. This was frustrating. I was a little over halfway when I swapped my intervals to 30:30 which I could manage without too much difficulty. My pace slowed but at least I was still moving forward!
I think it was around mile 15 or 16 when I started talking to a woman running near me. She told me I was keeping her honest as she was pacing off me. We started chatting and I found out this was her last marathon as her body wasn't liking the distance anymore. She was having a disappointing time as her breathing was being weird (it eventually improved). I was a bit worried about her so as we leap frogged one another I kept checking on her, asking how she was doing. Eventually, as we were running more and more together and talking more, I told her she was welcome to join me in my intervals. She did and from that point on, we had a running partner for this race. No one should run their last marathon alone! Especially if it's not going as planned. It was great to have someone to chat with over the miles. I love this part of the marathon distance! It's so easy to make race friends! I call these race angels! They come along when you need them and help pull you through! And as happened here, often, runners act as co-race angels.
Being from California and running this race for the first time, her enthusiasm for how pretty everything was (even though it was hilly) rubbed off on me. She was right. It was a beautiful course! Hilly but beautiful. I'd had that thought during my solo miles but it was good to be reminded as my knee was bothering me more.
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| A bit of blue sky peeking through! |
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| Looking more ominous but still pretty |
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| This is when it was actually getting warm on course! Seriously blue skies! |
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| We were treated to so many views of the water |
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| Check it! That's a rainbow! I took it as God's promise I was gonna reach that finish line, hills be darned! |
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| Straight up rain clouds! |
It was around mile 20 on an out and back when I saw a very familiar form coming at me. It was my husband, Chris! I waved and said "hi". He replied that we were almost at the turn-around for the out and back. What? Since when is a mile almost there? I assumed he was at least that far ahead of me. A few seconds later we reached the turn-around. Uh oh. He wasn't kidding. It was right there. That must mean he's struggling. Sure enough, we caught up to him shortly thereafter and he admitted that while his knee and calf felt fine this time, the lack of running while it healed was rearing its ugly face in his endurance level. He was fading. He joined us in our run/walk pattern and we now had a group of three.
Having my new friend with me helped me to push harder. Like I said, my energy was great. My heart and lungs were really wanting to cruise down some of the hills and run for longer than 30 seconds but the darn knee would not allow it. Having her there, following my pattern, kept me going. I didn't want to slow her down. And sometimes, if the knee cooperated, I'd run a bit longer, like 45 seconds or a minute. That's all I could get out of it. We were also dragging Chris along. He hates the short run/walk intervals and also struggles to keep my walk pace, which I admit, is pretty fast so he'd run a bit longer but at a slower pace and we just sort of had him right behind us the whole time. As we approached the finish we kicked up the pace. This is where we lost sight of Chris. I've got to say, the shorter run/walk intervals leave me with enough energy at the end to push at the finish line. Even with the wonky knee I didn't feel like I was doing the shuffle. I feel like I have even effort the entire race and it's great! No marathon fade! Anyway, we picked up the pace and raced for the end! The entire time, I'd been telling my new friend (for the life of me, I can't recall her name now) that she should feel free to run on ahead at anytime. I was stuck where I was because of the knee but if she felt strong, she should go. She assured me she probably would at the end and when that finish line was in sight she did just that! So happy for her! I was just happy my knee let me run the last .2 miles so I wasn't walking as I ran into the stadium. I heard someone yell my name and turned to see Carla on the sidelines. She'd had a great race! Go Carla! I got my medal and was soon greeted by Marie, Sandy, and Karey who had finished a few minutes ahead of me. I got a picture with Marie and then Chris came through the finish. He stopped for a photo also and then made his way to the recovery area to sit down. Ever the race social butterfly (which is funny because I'm an introvert at heart) I stuck around to chat.
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| At the finish! |
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| This is the moment I see Carla |
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| See those steps behind us? That's what we get to walk up to retrieve our drop bags and back down again to reach the recovery area. Pure evil. |
After I walked up the stadium steps to retrieve my drop off bag, wandered through the recovery area twice looking for Chris, I finally found him sitting in a chair. He still hadn't gotten his bag and so since I was feeling pretty good I offered to get him his. Back up the stadium steps I went. This is pure torture for post marathon, I tell ya. I gave them his bib tag and they said I was not the only one getting a bag for someone who simply couldn't manage the steps. I get bonus points for doing it twice! When I got back to Chris he was sitting with Carla and Eric. I sat down to join them and that's when my body said, "Enough!" I went to stand back up to take a photo of Carla and Eric and my back almost seized up! That tight lower back was reminding me it hadn't disappeared. I'd just ignored it. I wasn't going to be ignoring it anymore. I stretched a bit and remained standing because I was afraid to sit back down! I made my way to the bathrooms so I could carefully change into dry clothes without my back protesting too much. Fortunately, by the time we had driven home and I'd rested for the night my back, while still tight, hadn't seized up. Thank goodness! Crisis averted!
All in all, the course was tough. Really tough. Train for hills. I didn't. Not like I needed to for this one. Now I know. Even though, somewhere on the switchbacks, I'd had the thought that next year I should only do the half course, I am pretty sure I'll be back for the full again. The old course is my marathon PR. The new goal will be to see if I can beat that PR on a harder course! But first, I may just need to beat my PR! That might have to be a 2018 goal. Or 2019. We'll see where my motivation takes me.
Okay, if you stuck with me through two race reviews then you deserve a medal! Good job and congrats!
*I am an ambassador for Skirt Sports and do receive compensation from them. However, this blog post is all my own opinion and I'd recommend them even if I weren't an Ambassador because I love their stuff! I mention any other products simply because I like it. I have no affiliation with any other company mentioned.
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