3.25.2012

Lake Sammamish Half Marathon

So, yeah, blogging...  I’ve thought about starting one dozens of times.  I love reading blogs and my Google Reader list is a mile long.  I nearly started one after our big move to Seattle, and after my children were born – then life just got in the way and I also second guess my ability to write.  Lately I’ve found that good things have come from changing things up, trying new things, taking chances...  So, why not?  I just started an Ambassador relationship with Oiselle running apparel and thought it would also be a good time to start the blog once and for all.  In addition, Oiselle inspired my blog name: 


FYI, it’s a bitch trying to find a good url that isn’t already taken.  Hopefully Born and Raced will serve me well.  So, to kick things off, I thought I’d do my first race recap!  Woot!


The Lake Sammamish Half Marathon on March 10, 2012 was my second 13.1.  After giving it a go for the first time in the Seattle Half Marathon, I had a good sense of my ability and what I wanted to get out of my next race.  Namely, LESS HILLS.  Lord have mercy, the hills in Madison Park were brutal.  Lake Sammamish was a good four months down the road and advertised as flat and fast.  I had time to work on getting out of total novice mode and try to increase my pace.  I worked pretty hard on not ever stopping to walk - something that seems to be encouraged for beginners, but I want to move on from beginner-hood.  And over those four months I've become pretty attuned to my pace, thanks to my OCD relationship with my gps app on my phone.  6.5/hr is comfortably pushing it, 6.2 or so for my favorite - long slow training runs. 


The week leading up to the race had some lovely partly cloudy days and highs in the low 50s - perfect.  Of course, race day, the rains came rollin' in.  We were bussed from Marymoor to Lake Sammamish State Park for the start.  One really get a sense of just how far 13 miles is when one follows the route in a vehicle.  Thankfully there were puh-lenty of people saying out loud what I was thinking: "uhhhh, are we there yet??" as we drove along.  And, let me tell you, no one wanted to get off the warm and cozy school buses. Thankfully, the bus drivers were all very nice and let everyone hang out as long as they wanted before heading to the start.  Once I did finally get off the bus I noticed that there were folks giving out 'spacers' to put on the back of our bibs to more accurately record our times.  This was the first race I've ever done where the chip was attached to the back of the bib.  Don't know if they're the best way to go, race organizers, because it took a good 3 days for us to get our chip times.  grrrr...  Anyhoo!  That was the only downside of the race. 


As was as promised, it was toootally flat and I was MUCH faster.  I was worried about how they'd fit 1300 folks on the inter-urban trail and it worked out really well, having us switch back a few times in the parking area at the state park.  There wasn't too much weaving to do, which is always nice.  I even had quite a few self-satisfied moments of passing people that looked way more hard-core at the beginning.  C'mon, doesn't everyone like to pass people?  I felt great most of the run; 'round mile 8, my energy started to wane, but thankfully a newer tune popped on my playlist.  (Ass Back Home by Gym Class Heroes)  I like to always keep it on shuffle so I never know what's coming up.


 Final chip time 2:02:56 as opposed to the 2:13 I did in November for the Seattle Half Marathon.


As for the event itself, the aid stations were perfectly spaced, GU at TWO stations - that is much appreciated, volunteers were awesome and it had a really festive and friendly close-knit feel with pizza and candy at the end (as well as bagels and bananas, of course).  I definitely want to run it again next year: it's easy-peasy parking, taking the shuttle, just a 10 minute drive from my house.  


And for the record here is the difference between the last mile of the race and the last .10 miles of the race.  Here's your laugh for the day, please to enjoy:

Next up, the Can Do 5K on Saturday!  Hopefully no 'house of pain' photos to add more self-mockery to my shiny new blog...

0 comments:

Post a Comment