Last weekend Katie and I went to Seattle to visit friends and for the Seattle Rock’N’Roll half marathon. While we love the Pacific Northwest (and visit once or twice a year) we generally fly to Portland, much to the chagrin of our friends in the big city to the North.

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Seattle Skyline

Last weekend Katie and I went to Seattle to visit friends and for the Seattle Rock’N’Roll half marathon. While we love the Pacific Northwest (and visit once or twice a year) we generally fly to Portland, much to the chagrin of our friends in the big city to the North.

The flight out was shared with the rather boisterous Fort Collins Force soccer team. Katie and I were seated separately, though both surrounded by soccer players. The best moment of the flight was when one player said to another “$20 bucks says that guy gets Shay’s (the woman seated next to me) number by the end of the flight” to which Katie responded “$20 bucks says he doesn’t; he is with me”. When we landed our Pennsylvania contingent, consisting of Emily Furia from Bicycling Magazine, joined us. We then met up with the Galloway clan, Jon (recruiter/team building god) and Willi (organic gardening goddess) for some pizza before everyone fell asleep.

The next morning we met Willi’s chickens; I strongly suggest chicken chasing as agility training. We took the water taxi (note to self, massive amount of jellyfish in the sound makes for poor swimming) across to downtown Seattle for the packet pickup and Expo. Jon, who had not thought he would be in town for the race, successfully acquired a bib outside the expo though his name and gender changed… After a four seater bike ride, we returned to the car. That evening we went to the Marymoor Velodrome for some racing; the track was really long and the racing was great. Next time Katie and I are going to sponsor one of the $10 perms.

Saturday morning came around and it was time to race. Willi was unfortunately unable to race due to an injury but she volunteered to be our driver. Traffic was horrible; we were supposed to start in wave 8 but actually got to the line with wave 22. I failed to do a good job of emptying my system and had to sprint ahead to use the ‘Honey Bucket’ (apparently in Seattle they are not called a Port-o-Potty) just past mile 1. I passed Katie and Emily to catch Jon and then spent the majority of the race with him. Seeing as we started so late this meant we were the jerks talking then entire time while passing people nonstop. Including a shocked looking guy in a suit (he was not running, just confused as to why thousands of people were running through his residential neighborhood so early in the morning). Jon and I chatted with a number of people along the way, including a foursome wearing grass skirts, coconut tops, and leis. We made a couple of comments about the skirts and leis, leading to an argument amongst the three guys and one girl as to why the guys only wished they would get ‘leied’; wisely Jon and I picked up the pace and moved past. Being part of the Rock’N’Roll series, there was a fair amount of music. I seem to remember the Portland marathon having a lot more music, or perhaps just better amplifiers. Our favorite band was a young kid who made his own renegade music station; he played his only two chords nonstop!

During long races I have a problem; I cannot drink while running. Jon does not have that problem. I had to sprint to catch him every mile after the aid station. To make matters worse, for me at least, Jon is training for the Ironman Canada and in far better shape than I. About mile 10 I was unable to really talk anymore (we had been increasing the pass nonstop since the race started). Then in the last mile, Jon pulled away. Really. I didn’t slow down. Much. Jon put almost a minute into me in the last mile. I finished in 1:45 and we found the girls shortly thereafter. After some slow and awkward walking, we all went to a barbecue and consumed far more calories than we had expended during the race.

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