Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle Half Marathon 2010

My family spent the last week and a half enjoying a vacation in Seattle.  Of course no vacation would be complete without running so we included the Seattle Rock and Roll Half Marathon in our trip.  My race report for this one is short because I pretty much ran the same race as I did last year in Seattle.

It was a great day for a run – cloudy and around 50 degrees.  This year my brother in law, Paul also joined us – running his first half.    The four of us – Mark, my sister, Manisha, Paul and I hired a car to take us to the start.  Traffic was better than last year and it seemed like the shuttles were taking a different route, eliminating some of last year’s issues.   We were seeing lots of runners getting out of their cars on the highway so we decided to go for it. We hopped out at the exit for Tukwila where the race began – ignoring motorcycle police yelling at us to get back in the car, we darted across the exit on ramp to gear check and honey buckets.   The lines were long and despite getting there almost 40 minutes early, we ended up missing our start times by about 15 minutes… pretty much the same scenario as last year.

Like I said, for me the race was a déjà vu of the 2009 race.  I finished in 1:53:49 compared to last year’s 1:53:30.  I felt great, enjoyed the lack of altitude.  I was a bit surprised my finish wasn’t a little faster because quick glances at my Garmin throughout the course showed me between an 8 and 8:30 mm.  I must’ve lost time at my water stops (which I jogged through) and I did have one quick stop when my sunglasses flew off my head and I stopped to back track and pick them up.

running Seattle

I will also say, I didn’t push the hills and unlike last year, I didn’t feel totally beat up when I was done.   I guess I could’ve pushed a bit harder but with TCR on my mind, I erred on the side of caution and I don’t regret it.    I ran the race I needed to run this year in Seattle – especially considering the summer running ahead of me.

my 2010 results

Mark did great, setting a new PR: 1:46:19.  Paul finished his first half in an impressive 1:47:18 and Manisha shaved almost 6 minutes off of her time from last year.

Manisha and me - done!

Next: Summer Roundup Trail Run 12K (2^nd leg of the Triple Crown), July 11, 2010