Any of my co-workers who read that title will smile, since it's something we hear a lot at school. Even though it's a school thing, it's quite appropriate for Mitzi's and my latest hare-brained scheme.
We did it! We finished the Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon last Saturday morning. We did it together - not only the 5 hours and 45 minutes it took us to run the race, but all the miles and miles of training and the ups and downs of raising more than $4,100 each.
Five months of Saturday mornings coming WAY too early, five months of sending e-mail after e-mail to all of our friends and family (thanks to all of you by the way!), five months of What Ifs? and How do wes? Five months of pounding the pavement in our trusty running shoes.
The above photo is deceiving because the light makes it look like it's in the middle of the day. That picture was taken about 4:30 in the morning when we got to the start line area. That's Mitzi on the left, along with other TNTers Jeanne, Melinda and Mary. You can see us all there with our various gear - water, Cytomax, PowerBars, sweatshirts, sweatpants, etc.
Mitzi and I woke up at 3:15 that morning, put on sunscreen, put on Body Glide (in hopes of heading off chub rub and blisters, at least in my case), put on sports bras, socks, singlets and shorts, and finally shoes, waist packs and hats. Each of us laid out everything we would need on Friday night, so we wouldn't have to look for anything on Saturday morning.
Even though we were far from home, in a different time zone, we tried to keep everything as routine as possible that morning.
It was anything but.
Up super early, bus to the starting line. We arrived there about 4:30. We brought bagels and peanut butter with us, so that we wouldn't have to start the race hungry. Usually we only have about an hour between eating and running, and this time it was much, much more because of the wave start.
Luckily, the coffee shop behind the girls in that photo had a $1 cup special, so we were able to have some coffee with the food, which is a BIG part of the morning routine.
We started in corral 25, so it took almost 50 minutes for us to cross the start line after the gun went off. If you look at our finish time, it looks like it took 6 hours, 28 minutes, but not really.
The first half of the course was nice - ran along the water, some nice downhills, saw a bald eagle perched low in a tree, lots of spectators.
The second half - not so much.
Adam took this photo of us as we passed him and our friend David around mile 15. It was somewhere near downtown Seattle. Here, we're still feeling mostly okay...
The second half of the course was much hillier than I expected, and most of it was running on elevated highways, so they wouldn't let the spectators up there. When the going got tough, it was tough to be up there. We had to dig deep to keep on moving. We told a few stories, played a few games, yelled "Go Team!" to all the other Team in Training runners. We took walk breaks (more than we typically would), since it was hilly and actually a little bit hot.
I know - it was like 110 in the shade in KC that weekend, and only about 75 in Seattle, but when running, it feels 20 degrees hotter, so it was a little warmer than we expected.
That's Mitzi as she crosses the finish line. Didn't Adam do a great job taking photos?
I still had some gas in the tank for the last quarter-mile or so, so I really kicked up my pace so I could finish strong. It made me feel great and proud to hear people saying "Go Jill, you're doing great!" but in all the photos after I crossed the line, my mouth is open since I am breathing so heavy!
I've now finished two marathons. I think if you'd have told my 18-year-old self that, she would say YOU'RE CRAZY - there's no way!
Thanks to Adam and Mitzi for being great travel companions and Mitzi for being an awesome training partner. I couldn't have done it without either of them.
I will put up another post later this week with travel-type photos of places we saw and things we did. I wanted this one to be mostly about the race itself.
