Well hello there bloggy land!
Hope you all had wonderful weekends and got out and enjoyed the weather were you are. It is always strange to me that weather patterns are that extremely different across this great country of ours. Here in the PNW (I'm learning the lingo here -that's Pacific Northwest for those of you scoring at home), it was in the 40s in the AM, 60s in the PM and mostly sunny on Saturday, a bit rainy on Sunday. But my friends back in the MW (Midwest) were sweltering from near 90 degree heat and humidity. Yuck. And the poor folks who ran the Green Bay marathon were I'm sure thrilled when the race was canceled 2 hours into it due to heat. (Been there, done that during the 2007 Chicago Marathon - it sucks).
via Google
Anyway...all this weather talk does have a point. I swear. Although I did seem to want to forget about it, I did sign up for my very first 15k race on Saturday morning. I've never raced this distance and had no idea what to expect. My alarm went off at 5am so I could find my way to Gas Works Park in the Fremont part of Seattle and pick up my packet prior to the 7am start. Little did I know that there would be zero traffic, I got my packet in about .15 seconds and then sat in my car for an hour people watching! It was a chilly 45 degrees so I was happy to have the car and the heater.
It is so pretty in Fremont - they have tons of cute restaurants, shops, breweries, etc. And they're known for this guy:
via Google
This is the Fremont Bridge troll - he is this large statue that is under the Fremont Bridge and is a tourist attraction for some reason! I guess you're supposed to climb up and try to "poke out" his good eye (which apparently is a hub cap!) Go figure. I'll have to go do that sometime.
Anyway... so back to the race.
I was by myself (Rob stayed back to hang out with Julia) so didn't have a ton of photo ops since I didn't take my phone during the run, but here I am before the race:
Not a bad backdrop - that's Lake Union and downtown Seattle. Gorgeous!
The race had a very relaxed and a fun atmosphere. I, of course, met a fellow Spartan and we exchanged "Go Greens!" before we were off running. Love my Spartan family!
The first few miles of the race were along a great path by the water and I was feeling good. There was a short out and back between miles 2 and 3 so I was able to watch the race leaders fly by, and then started counting how many women were ahead of me. As I made the turn, I counted 10 women ahead of me. Not bad and I was determined to not let any women pass me!
The race was fairly small, only 369 people total (231 of them female - go ladies!) so most of the time I was running by myself. Only 3 or 4 men passed me the entire time and no women did - goal met!
We continued around the lake, enjoying the views of the city on my right, the boats and house boats on my left. It was awesome. I tried to not look at my Garmin too much but I glanced at each mile split and was happy to see I was consistently at 7:44 pace for almost every mile. I'll take it.
Then mile 7 hit.
As I was enjoying looking for the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat, the hills got me.
via Google - remember this from the movie?
I am pretty sure I ran past it but not 100%
We turned corners and had sharp, steep uphills to get back up towards the road and another uphill to get over the "U bridge" near the University of Washington, and my legs were just toast. I did not walk, but I was sucking wind and barely moving. That mile was almost a full minute slower than the other 8+ in the race. Yuck.
But once we got back on level ground, the last 1.3 miles were ok and I was almost back to my 7:44 pace. I finished strong and thanks to never running this distance before, got an insta-PR with a time of 1:12:49 (7:49 overall pace)!
That was good enough for 11th place female, 2nd in my age group and 46th overall! They had computerized results at the finish - pretty nice for a small race
They also gave out medals which was a nice touch, I got a nifty red ribbon for my 2nd place (just like my swim meet days when I was 8!) and I got to see my new friend Allison, whom I met a couple of weeks ago through my bloggy friends!
I really enjoyed this race and would do it again for sure! Well organized, very nice course (except mile 7 but I'll get used to the hills!) and overall a fun day!
After I got a bagel and headed home, Rob and Kevin were plotting out their bike ride for the afternoon, so Julia and I decided to head out and wander around the city. Our friend Kal called right as we were going, asking us to meet him at the Cheese Festival going on at Pike Market. Perfect!
We enjoyed the afternoon strolling through the market, sampling cheeses from local dairies along with some fresh bread, sliced apples and some wine tasting too! And if you know me at all, you know cheese is not my thing. At all. But I branched out and tried almost every kind they had! The really stinky blue cheese I skipped but I actually found several goat milk-based cheeses I liked!
Kal with his cheese barbells
A great spot to have a beverage and people watch!
We had dinner at a great Italian place called the Pink Door (highly recommend it) and then headed back to meet up with Rob. (He was toast after a 50+ mile bike ride!).
A fun, impromptu day thanks to Kal!
Sunday after a miserable 2 1/2 hour ride on my bike trainer (YUCK), Rob had to meet his boss to do some work so Julia and I headed to the indoor play place at McDonald's (thanks to the rain) and then to REI to get new bike shorts, socks, goggles and a North Face shirt that jumped in my bag somehow (it was 50% off!). I was exhausted by about 6pm!
And today marks my first official day in my new job! I'm very excited to get going and start this new adventure.
Busy week for me coming up too, including a very special day on Friday! (How's that for a teaser?!)
Have a great day!
Questions:
1) How was your weekend?
2) Did you race? If so, how was it?
3) Are you a hot weather or a more mild weather fan?
