Seattle 1/2 Marathon 2010

this week has been interesting. to start off, the "big" snow storm on sunday and monday caused the short work week to be more disruptive than normal. it was fine, i got a lot of work done, but now, with work looming again on the horizon, i wish i would have gotten more done.
wednesday night we headed to yakima to spend with the in laws. the drive was fine although dark and a little scary because of the snow, and it took a really really long time. once there we discovered that it was very very cold in yakima.
when i finally crawled into bed i realized i forgot my romance killer, damnit. i know all you ladies wish you had one, and ugh, i forgot mine. really, the romance killer is just a mouth guard to help with my jaw clenching i do at night time, but eric named it that because he knows that once it goes in at night, he doesn't have a chance in the world.
luckily i was able to fall asleep without it but slept terrible and wow, i really do clench my jaw when i sleep because when i woke up, my face hurt, and my neck and shoulders were killing me. ugh. the last time i did the seattle 1/2 I had just been diagnosed with too much romance and was prescribed the romance killer and was taking muscle relaxers because i was in so much pain!
on thanksgiving day we went for what was supposed to be a 30 minute tempo run. we headed out on a loop that turned out to be a 40 minute tempo run + 15 minute walk in the snow and freaking 14 degrees. burr. i had on some fancy hincapie gear that kept me toasty warm which was pleasant but running all geared up and in the snow is hard to do. it made me worry a bit for the race, although the website assured me that the weather would be nice.
after the run we went sledding some with the kids, ate way too much turkey and pie and then chilled out.
another night with no romance killer and in the morning we headed back home.
the passes were scary but clear, ok, not clear but the roads weren't bad. ok, they were bad but not un-driveable. it was crazy to see all the semi trucks on the side of the road putting in their chains. we managed without them but i was happy to be on the west side where the roads were just wet, not covered in snow.
we drove directly downtown to pick up my race packet and then headed home.
i don't know how eric does it but as i sat on my ass, he went right to work finishing painting sirus's room and installing the remaining trim work on the windows. have i mentioned lately how awesome the windows look? seamus's very pink room is very cute! and sirus's very blue rooms look great! no one is totally moved in yet, i think sirus is in for one more night sleeping in seamus's room. he keeps complaining that she keeps crawling in his bed with him but then last night when i went to check on them, he was in her bed all snuggled up next to her in her bed. silly.
when the alarm went off at 5, i was thinking hmm, it wouldn't be too bad to just bail on this race, right? maybe i'll just go pick up melinda, drop her off at the start and then pick her up after, letting eric and the kids sleep in and allowing myself to not run. i had prepped for this race a little differently in that i wanted to start out hydrated. i think i have been very dehydrated lately so i made sure to get lots of water the day before. i wound up pretty darn bloated in the morning, but maybe that is what hydrated feels like? ugh.
there was almost zero traffic and we got a parking space like a block away. then we sat there. eric and seamus walked over to the start, then eric and sirus took a trip to the potty. i decided to switch from long sleeve running shirt and light weight cycling jacket to short sleeve shirt, arm warmers and vest. knickers were the way to go and i tossed on a trash bag for good luck.
we headed to the start, stood in the very long and strange potty line. luckily i made my visit really count because by the time we were out it was like 5 minutes to start and there was no time for a 2nd visit.
i tried something else new which was that i took a clif shot right then and then jumped over the fence and looked around for the pacers. i saw the sign for 1:45 and was pleasantly surprised that my friend stephanie was the pacer! we hugged and chatted a little and then we were off! i had already taken off my trash bag and tucked it into my vest pocket but managed to toss it in a trash can somewhere in mile 2 i think. weaving in and out for those first two miles was tough, but stephanie did a great job getting the group up to pace. i held on until we started up on to i-90, and then watched the gap open until i totally fell off by the time we were in the tunnel. i was sorta bummed but man, according to my garmin, that 2nd mile was at a 6:56 pace and yeah it might have been a little too much for me heading into that I-90 hill.
but then i was also bummed because i was all excited that i set my garmin to show average pace, but then didn't unset it for auto pause!! so when i went into the tunnel it totally shut off!! so when i came out of the tunnel my average pace was 6:44 or something which i knew was not even close to what was going on. so i was sort of on my own then. i tried to keep track of each mile, and keeping splits and it seemed like it was all going to work out but still it was a bit of a crap shoot since really I had no idea and ya'lls know i can't do math when i run.
all along the lake was fine although i don't remember too much. there was a hill i remember riding on my bike but not running before and at one of the parks there were a bunch of people with big american flags which was kind of neat.
finally we got to galer and OMG i walked. ugh. just for a bit, because it flattened out then i had to walk a little more when it got steep again. ugh. i thought i had run it in the past, but just at that moment i totally thought, wow, the treadmill sure doesn't have many hills - need to run more hills!
madison was fine but i think i slowed it down quite a bit, but then down the arboretum. last time i was hurting pretty bad at this point but i was ok here. i really didn't start feeling good at this race until mile 5 or 6 or later, but by the time i was at mile 8 and 9, i was like, hey - almost done!
interlaken went well, it wasn't nearly as bad as in the past - seemed flatter and less as though it was going on and on which was a pleasant surprise.
i hit mile 10 and was surprised i felt as good as i did. every other time i walked, and pretty much gave up, not being able to do math and just almost throwing in the towel, but i was almost done, so other than a quick stop at the water station to wash down the 2nd clif shot, i kept on running.
again, i didn't remember that there was an uphill on lakeview but seeing the kids made mile 11 better than ever and off i went down, down to the finish. i even managed to run that horrible hill on mercer or whatever that is.
i was able to pick up the pace to the finish, although i almost had to stop to tell the girl in the bright, shiny gold ugg like boots that they were pretty bad ass but instead i kept on going.
they had soldiers in their army gear giving out medals which i thought was pretty cool, and then i met up with stephanie to chit chat about the run. she wound up finishing about 4 minutes ahead and had a good race as a pacer. she said i was totally under since she said it took 2 minutes to get to the starting line. still i wouldn't believe it until i saw it.
the kids and eric were awesome spectators, showing up at uwajimia, although I didn't see them there, but they were also down by leshi, up on interlaken AND at mile 11. i told eric that someday maybe the kids will run the race and i can be a spectator and see how he manages to be in so many places!
when i crossed the line the clock said 1:50:55. i was pretty happy but wasn't sure if that really meant i was under 1:50 or not. on the drive home i was able to look up the time and my chip time came in at 1:49:20. yahoo! i am pretty darn happy about that. i think some of it is sheer luck especially since i lost track of all my timing stuff, but still pretty good. i ran a pretty even race, 55:18 and 55:50 which i thought was pretty good since the 2nd half is so hilly. i think the first half was hampered by that first mile which was the 2nd slowest behind the galer and madison hill mile. but actually, those splits are based off of the *official time, not chip time, so it wasn't quite as even as i thought. hmph.
after the race, melinda and i chatted and walked together to the car. she had an awesome race beating her 2hr goal! its been a fun couple of months training together!
once home, i put on the compression socks, cleaned the house and then fell asleep!
other news, remember way back in february, around the same time that pawpi's face started falling apart? right about then i hurt my wrist. doing push ups.
so i stopped doing push ups. but then maybe i fell on it, or maybe i would push on the kids' car seats to get them in the car straight, or maybe i would push my bag into the locker at the gym, whatever it was, it continued to hurt like a mofo.
i went to the dr and she said to wear a brace for two weeks. i did, but it still hurt. i wore a brace every time i went mtn biking at every race. it still hurt.
i finally went to PT. i've got 50% of the mobility in it compared to my left wrist and my bones are stuck. so i've gone 4 times and the mobility is better but on tuesday night i was making pie and gosh darn it, pressing the dough down to get ready to roll it with the rolling pin totally hurt. so the PT suggested i go in for an xray. so next week i will go. hoping to get that taken care of!