I was staying with Snoqualmie overnight, and we decided to get up just before 3:00am and get down to the first shuttles by 4:00am. The shuttles were leaving from downtown Seattle near the finish line between 4 and 6am and would take us down to the starting line in Tukwila. I think we might have been on the first one! We got down to the start line with a longish wait ahead of us, but just kind of sat/stood around watching other runners show up. It was cool, but clear, so obviously it was going to be a really pretty day once the sun came up. We were talking to this couple from Texas who were pinning their bib numbers to the outside of their thick sweatshirts! They were so cold from the climate shock of Seattle, they were going to run the whole thing in sweatshirts. I wish I knew how that worked out for them; not very well, I think. My stomach didn't feel quite right, sort of like heartburn. I drank quite a bit more water than usual to try to feel a bit better, so visited the porta potties many times. There were, amazingly, plenty of them. About 6:20, I left Sno and went out on the empty road behind the porta potties and did a mile of jogging, followed by special warm up exercises and a few strides. I felt quite happy with myself for doing this by myself. Everything felt really pretty good. I was warm by then and the sun had arrived, so I took off my sweatpants and jacket and stashed them in my bag, took it to the trucks that would carry it to the finish and headed off to find my corral. I have never before run in a really big race, and had no idea about these corrals at all! On the way over to the corrals, I found a friend from my running group in Bellingham! She was in corral 7 and I was in 5, so we found our spots together. The rolling start went so smoothly! As soon as the gun went off, we all started moving forward, and were actually running at pace before we crossed the timing mat. Even though there were thousands of people, it didn't feel like I was slowed up at all. The first few miles according to my plan were supposed to be 9:00 or more pace, but OF COURSE I didn't do that. My first couple of splits were 8:26 and 8:06. But it felt easy. There were bands every mile, and the first few I noticed, and even waved cheerfully. After that, I'm not even sure I noticed them at all, except one about mile 6, where the band was playing Sade's "Smooth Operator". For some reason I found that a funny running song. I realized by about mile 5 that I was going to need to use a porta potty during the race! Never did this before, but I just drank too much water. I spotted one at the top of a longish hill, and figured I'd dive in, go fast, and then make up lost time flying down the hill. That's exactly what I did! I used probably less than a minute, and flew down the hill after. It seemed as if the entire 13.1 miles was water stations, with cytomax and water, so there was no problem getting hydrated. I didn't stop, just grabbed a cup if I wanted one, took a small sip and chucked the cup over. Miles 4-6 were faster splits, as planned, with the fastest being 7:50. At one hour into the race, I used my inhaler as I had planned. I didn't want to wait for the asthma to kick in, because I thought it might take longer to recover if my breathing was already compromised. Right choice here, and my breathing never became wheezy. Another big hill and we turned left and headed down I90 towards downtown Seattle. The full marathoners went right and ran out the floating bridge and back, which looked really pretty! There is a really long tunnel on I90, I think between miles 10 and 11. Here's where things started to go not so well for me. As soon as I got into the tunnel, I recognized some lightheadedness which is the negative reaction to the asthma medication. Being in the tunnel seemed to exacerbate the feeling, and I consciously tried to just slow down and get through the tunnel. Even though I felt I was slowing down, my split here does not reflect that. I ran that mile in 8:21. Near the end of the tunnel, the "light at the end of the tunnel", I realized that some idiot had put a really loud, terrible band at the end of the tunnel. I will never again run a race with a band in a tunnel. The only way out was to run right through it. Horrible. With just a few miles left to go, I could not tame the lightheaded feeling; it just kept getting worse. But I was really determined to stay as strong as possible to the end, and knew my legs could work just fine. I reminded myself constantly of where I was and what my goal was to stay aware, because I have heard stories of runners who forget where they are. So I was OK, but wondering if I shouldn't have used the inhaler at this point. Anyway, last few miles were pretty rough, a few short walk breaks, which brought my split times down to 9:03. In the last 1/2 mile, my friend Karen came up behind, catching up to me and said "you OK?" As soon as I heard her, I said "yeah, I'm good" and picked up the pace a bit. Crossed the line I don't know how; and started walking crooked as soon as I stopped running. Funny, I felt like I was running in a straight line, but couldn't walk in one to save my life. Remembered to push the stop on my Garmin timer, and guessed that I'd come close to my goal time of 1:50. Karen was there, and medics were trying to wrestle me into a medical tent. They kept asking me where I was and what I was doing, which was easy because I'd been practicing the answers to these questions while I ran! So I passed that test, but there was a general feeling that I should lie down for a minute, so I went along with it. Didn't feel too bad really. My coach from my running group was apparently there as well, but I don't remember that. Kind of embarrassed about finishing so dramatically. After maybe five minutes, I wanted to sit up and get out of there, so they let me. I kept saying: "Look, I know this looks bad, but I'm really strong, and I recover FAST". And of course I did recover fast. Felt perfectly well, and walked around eating bagels and oranges for awhile. Then went out and found my husband in the nightmarish crowds, and wandered around for an hour or so trying to figure out where exactly the car was. Was going to wait for Sno to finish, but our car was at risk of being towed, so we left and stopped near Queen Anne Hill in Seattle and walked around for awhile shopping, which felt really great on the legs. Legs felt pretty fresh, and not tired, but a wanted to stretch a lot. Got home, went out to a party and celebrated by birthday! Dropped into bed at 11:00. Slept a long time. Edit: I forgot to say, I'm happy with my time, even though I didn't quite achieve my goal. Its still a big PR, I placed 24 out of 794 women in my age group! So this stuff is all good, and I think I have so much room to improve still. I'll be working on other solutions to the asthma nonsense right away! Its holding me back.
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