One Rockin' Race Report...Finally...

Almost two weeks later, I am ready to finally write my race report. My muscles are starting to get better, my knee is feeling OK, and I think I have taken enough showers in the meantime to finally get the stink off me.

The night before the race I wanted to make sure I had everything I was going to need for the next day, so after our bloggy meetup dinner, I headed back to the hotel and got my outfit laid out for the next day. There was so much crap gear I thought I might be mistaken for a creepy guy trying to sell stuff on the street corner.

The pockets are stuffed too!

The morning finally came after I woke up about every half hour thinking that I was going to be late for the start. I headed down for my continental breakfast. I grabbed a bagel and a banana and headed up to get dressed. After getting well lubed putting on lots of body glide, I got dressed and headed down to the race. Adorable wife and designated pusher sister dropped me off right next to the start and wished me luck before I headed down toward my impending doom the start line. I met up with the fast bloggy girls in corral 6 for a nice conversation and a quick couple of pictures and then headed back to corral 12. I downed a gel about 15 minutes before my corral was going to start as I was doing a bit of shaking getting ready for the race.

I was really worried about my calf at the start of the race since I hadn't run since I hurt it a week earlier. It did take a few miles for it to warm up, but after three miles I knew it would be OK and after the first 10K I could hardly feel my calf at all. My first 5K came across in 25:24 and I was feeling really solid. My 10K was 51:10 and by then I was flying and feeling good. My plan was to keep my pace around 8:40/mile, but at the beginning of the race I let my legs pick the pace and it just felt great passing people. Between miles 5 and 8 I think were my favorite as we were running along Lake Washington, it was nice and cool and there was a lot of flat and downhill and it was really nice. I was still feeling good at we hit the splitting point with the half marathoners. Maybe if I'd have known what I was in for, I would have thought a little harder about going left instead of right...

The rest of the first half marathon was pretty uneventful, I was just smiling and having a good time running along with all my fellow marathoners. I enjoyed watching all the people that had funny shirts and were out to have a good time. I spent some time running with a Korean Elvis which was an enjoyable experience until he passed me and left me in the dust.

My first half time came in at 1:51:06, easily on pace to go under 4 hours, which was my ultimate goal and I was still feeling really good. About the time I crossed the halfway point, I hooked up with a guy that I referred to as Colorado (he said he was from Colorado... original right?). He ended up being much better at hills than me and I was better at downhills, so we were a pretty good pairing, we helped each other with the other's week parts of their game.

Between mile 14 and 18 it seemed like it was just one big hill, good for Colorado, not so good for me. I made it through mile 18 and I was feeling the hills for sure. My 30K time was 2:43:53, definitely slowing down, but still not too bad. About mile 20 is when it all started to go down the crapper. My knee started to get a really sharp pain. I tried to run through it, but it was just too much. After walking for a little bit, trying to get some water and gels in me, I tried to start running again, but my knee really had a lot of pain in it and my legs started cramping...everybody say it with me now... BONK!!! Of the last 10K I was probably able to run about 2K of it... if that. 

I met some other people that were dealing with the same crap as I was, struggling to stay on their feet, yadda, yadda, yadda. I even tried to cram a ton of gel and everything else I could eat and drink to try to get some kind of energy back in my legs... newsflash... It didn't work. I saved a little something for the end of the race so I could at least shuffle across the finish line and do my best Aaron Rodgers "putting on the championship belt" impression.   



Not a very good impression... It looks more like I'm doing an impression of a gay rooster.



My final time ended up being 4:28:42... not the best time, but I'm still proud of myself for finishing the race. I'm thinking that my body was trying to tell me that I am not marathoner. It also pretty well knocked the desire right out of me to try to do an ironman. I was not even close to being able to run the whole marathon. Oh well, I still had a great time and I am glad that I did it. We met up with some friends that were also running after the race and then I gave designated pusher sister a break and pushed adorable wife over to Krispy Kreme to have some well deserved victory doughnuts.

This was Jason's (right) first half marathon

Adorable Wife and Stacey



Me, Adorable Wife, and Riley- Tressa rocked the wheelchair look!



To recap, and for those of you who didn't really care about the rest of the post and skipped to the bottom hoping I would just post my times, here you go.

5k- 25:54

10k- 51:10

9 mile 1:15:07

13.1 mile- 1:51:06

30k- 2:43:53

24 mile- 3:55:34

26.2- 4:28:42