My Seattle Half Marathon Report 2006
Short version: 1:27:52, 5th woman, 2nd master behind former Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson.
Long version:I was "training through" this race. I need to focus on speed for Club Cross Country Nationals on December 9th, without totally giving up my long run training for the Rock and Roll Marathon in Arizona. That meant that this was not a week for me to rest up and race fresh. My very achievable goal was a sub 1:30.
Before leaving my house, I noticed that it started snowing and blowing outside, so I left 15 minutes earlier than I had planned. On the way, it turned to snow mixed with rain, then a cold, lumpy rain. I got to the race in plenty of time to get good parking, see Angela, Jodi, and Shaun, warm up, use the bathroom, and decide what to wear.
As I was having a Gu at the start, about 5-10 minutes before the gun, a KING 5 TV guy asked if he could ask me some questions. I agreed, and he asked me my name and home town, then he asked about the weather conditions and such. I didn't think they would put me on TV, because many of my answers were one or two words. They apparently liked one of my answers, and I was on the local NBC affiliate for every newscast that day. Basically, they took a quote where I said that this was my ninth consecutive year, and we had had nice weather for the last few years, so it was time for something like this, but that it would be fine. My little 15 seconds. :)
Once the race started, things sorted out early. I don't think I passed, or was passed by, a woman after about the first 5K. I saw Joan Benoit Samuelson go by me in the first mile, and I knew I wouldn't make first master - darn. There isn't prize money at Seattle, but one year for being the first master, I won a very nice set of stainless steel barbecue tools and utensils in a briefcase that was engraved "First Place Women Master Seattle Half Marathon 2004" or something like that. They don't seem to announce the overall prizes in advance, so it's always a surprise. Age group awards go 10 deep in 5 year age groups, and they are acrylic paperweights with this year's logo - a nice momento.
I didn't think the weather was as bad as it could have been. I didn't have any trouble with wind, which could have made things miserable. I wore shorts, a short-sleeved Underarmor, long-sleeve light weight running shirt, vest, gloves, and beanie. I was glad to see that Joanie was very similarly attired. I saw one gal in a singlet and gloves, no hat even.
I hit the halfway mark in 45:15 or so, and thought I wouldn't even break 1:30. I ran the Yakima River Canyon Marathon last spring with a friend who was pacing me. With 10K to go in that race, I needed to go under 45:00 to achieve a sub-3 hour marathon. He said that I could run a 45 minute 10K in my sleep and that I might as well hurt a little. Those words reverberated in my head, and I decided to "hurt a little" and picked it up.
The last 5K, I was thinking that given the conditions, it was good practice for cross country, and with no other women in sight, I pushed it for the training value. I even quit trying to avoid the puddles after a while and splashed right through them, enjoying the fact that at the age of 45 (yikes), I can run in the rain and splash through puddles with abandon. What a blast! I finished in 1:27:52, a little slower than last year, but I placed higher. I was the 5th woman, 2nd master, a minute and 5 seconds behind Joan. I changed into a complete set of dry clothes soon after the finish and hung around watching the marathon finishers and visiting, then five friends and I went out for beer and pizza.
I love the Seattle half. I have run it for 9 consecutive years. It has become part of my Thanksgiving tradition, my reward for all the housework and cooking. The weather is usually pretty nice, although the official forecast is sometimes iffy. Even this year, I expected more wind. It was not my favorite running weather, but I dressed appropriately and was fine. What a great way to wrap up a four day weekend, especially one that involves some extra eating. :)
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Monday, November 27, 2006
Seattle ½ Marathon 2006 Race Report – Angela Meeks
Raise the Bar loves to publish the race reports of our athletes. This latest installment from one of our newest members: Angela Meeks. Angela recently wrote a report from the Danskin that you can read here: http://www.weraisethebar.com/meeksdanskin.html
Her story is inspiring and incredible and continues....read on.
Well Yesterday marks another first for me. I ran the Seattle ½ Marathon. Yes, in the snow and rain and man it was cold. This was not in my plans for 2006 but after finishing the Danskin this last year I knew I needed another event before the next season of Tri’s to keep me moving and motivated and someone (thanks a lot Jodi) asked me to do this. I decided to do it. Up to that point I had only ran two 5K (3.1 miles) without having to walk (in my entire life). Shaun I found a web site with Hal Higdon's running plans for ½ marathons. I printed it off and decided to take it one week at a time. Every time I looked farther than that I would panic. Week by week I continued to increase mileage and completely followed his twelve week plan. Every week I was amazed that I could run that far and thought how will I ever do farther than that. My goal was to be able to do the 13.1 miles without walking. So during the last 12 weeks I ran 252.5 miles. The Wednesday before at the Raise the Bar running class with Mary Hanna she asked for out goal times, I said my fasted training time for that distance was 3 hours and 26min – she said lets say 3 hr 15min. I said okay, wondering if that was possible.
Back to the race: We got there around 6:00am – it snowed all the way there and then stared turning to rain and snow. We checked in our change of clothes and our coats in the stadium for after the race. To try to stay dry we put on garbage bags. We did a warm up and stretched and headed to the start line.
A few minutes before the start, I ripped of the garbage bags and an extra sweat shirt and disposed of them. I waited for the count down and at 7:30 we were off. It took about 4 minutes just to get to the start line. By mile one my body felt warm (finally), at mile two I disposed of my gloves, mile 3 and mile 4 were good as well. I meet up with someone I knew at mile 4 and we ran together for about ½ a mile – that was fun. I would pick something different to think about every mile and someone to do it for – I would dedicate each mile to someone and what I wanted in their life and that would be my motivation to not quit. Mile 5, I felt good and strong and knew and was surprised I was right on with my goal and a little a head, but 13.1 miles is a long way – could I continue the pace with all these hills and this weather.
Mile 6, Mile 6.6 (1/2 way) – still felt good and was so happy to be half way done. Mile 7 – tried to eat part of an energy bar. And then the hill – I knew it was short so I just looked in front of me and kept going – reached the top and turned the corner and more upgrade of a hill – Made it to the top and tried to recover on the down hill. At mile 10 - I was starting to struggle, my legs were so cold and feeling numb in the quads. I tried to rub them to warm them up, my hips were hurting and so I tried to concentrating on being loose and relaxed. This mile marked the race changed in my head and now it was time to use mental strength as well as physical strength. I concentrated on my goal of not walking and. I repeated things over and over. I have trained, My body is strong, I can do this, I have done this distance before I know that I can do it(once), My big heart tells my little brain what it can do, and my favorite Lance Armstrong Quote, Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever." And my favorite Jodi quote – if it was easy everyone would do it.
About this time I round the corner and they have chariots of fire theme song playing and I started crying –Don’t Laugh the lady next to me did too. I realized I am doing this and two years ago walking up a flight of steps was a lot of effort. The next few miles they had lots of people encouraging us and lots of people with music playing and that was very helpful.
At Mile 11 you can see the space needle, I was so tired but just kept thinking keep going don’t quit, and tried to remind myself how short two miles is and how I wanted to be a good example to my family and other people – when things get tough you win if you just don’t quit.
Mile 12 finally came – one short little hill left. Then finally the sight of the stadium – I knew I had less than .25 mile, I was so tired then I saw, Mary and she was cheering me on and that helped me, I round the corner, then I saw two other friends Foster and Liz, then the most wonderful moment – I saw the finish line and knew I had done it. I ran the last 100 yards and wow what a wonderful moment to cross that line. It was an emotional moment, I had done it, something I thought I could never do, I did not quit, I was so happy. I had done it without walking, I beat my goal by 1 min and 5 sec – so it was my fasted 13.1 miles and it had more hills and was more miserable weather than ever.
I learned something through this. The power of your mind is just as important as the power of your body; it has to be trained too. It was amazing to me that when I was doing a 5 mile run that my body was tired at 4.5, if I knew I was doing a 8 mile run it was tired at 7. I realized that a part of what I can do is based on what I think I can do, and thinking positive. And that sometimes you just have to tell your head to shut up.
Thanks a lot to Shaun, for running all the training runs, Jodi (for begging me to do it), Mary, for all the great Wednesday training runs, and encouragement, and for making me set my goal for faster than I thought I could do, and to Patti for all the great opportunities and great people I have met through We raise the Bar. And of course to my biggest fan club, my husband, son and daughter – who were wonderful in encouraging and supporting me and I love them so much.
Her story is inspiring and incredible and continues....read on.
Well Yesterday marks another first for me. I ran the Seattle ½ Marathon. Yes, in the snow and rain and man it was cold. This was not in my plans for 2006 but after finishing the Danskin this last year I knew I needed another event before the next season of Tri’s to keep me moving and motivated and someone (thanks a lot Jodi) asked me to do this. I decided to do it. Up to that point I had only ran two 5K (3.1 miles) without having to walk (in my entire life). Shaun I found a web site with Hal Higdon's running plans for ½ marathons. I printed it off and decided to take it one week at a time. Every time I looked farther than that I would panic. Week by week I continued to increase mileage and completely followed his twelve week plan. Every week I was amazed that I could run that far and thought how will I ever do farther than that. My goal was to be able to do the 13.1 miles without walking. So during the last 12 weeks I ran 252.5 miles. The Wednesday before at the Raise the Bar running class with Mary Hanna she asked for out goal times, I said my fasted training time for that distance was 3 hours and 26min – she said lets say 3 hr 15min. I said okay, wondering if that was possible.
Back to the race: We got there around 6:00am – it snowed all the way there and then stared turning to rain and snow. We checked in our change of clothes and our coats in the stadium for after the race. To try to stay dry we put on garbage bags. We did a warm up and stretched and headed to the start line.
A few minutes before the start, I ripped of the garbage bags and an extra sweat shirt and disposed of them. I waited for the count down and at 7:30 we were off. It took about 4 minutes just to get to the start line. By mile one my body felt warm (finally), at mile two I disposed of my gloves, mile 3 and mile 4 were good as well. I meet up with someone I knew at mile 4 and we ran together for about ½ a mile – that was fun. I would pick something different to think about every mile and someone to do it for – I would dedicate each mile to someone and what I wanted in their life and that would be my motivation to not quit. Mile 5, I felt good and strong and knew and was surprised I was right on with my goal and a little a head, but 13.1 miles is a long way – could I continue the pace with all these hills and this weather.
Mile 6, Mile 6.6 (1/2 way) – still felt good and was so happy to be half way done. Mile 7 – tried to eat part of an energy bar. And then the hill – I knew it was short so I just looked in front of me and kept going – reached the top and turned the corner and more upgrade of a hill – Made it to the top and tried to recover on the down hill. At mile 10 - I was starting to struggle, my legs were so cold and feeling numb in the quads. I tried to rub them to warm them up, my hips were hurting and so I tried to concentrating on being loose and relaxed. This mile marked the race changed in my head and now it was time to use mental strength as well as physical strength. I concentrated on my goal of not walking and. I repeated things over and over. I have trained, My body is strong, I can do this, I have done this distance before I know that I can do it(once), My big heart tells my little brain what it can do, and my favorite Lance Armstrong Quote, Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever." And my favorite Jodi quote – if it was easy everyone would do it.
About this time I round the corner and they have chariots of fire theme song playing and I started crying –Don’t Laugh the lady next to me did too. I realized I am doing this and two years ago walking up a flight of steps was a lot of effort. The next few miles they had lots of people encouraging us and lots of people with music playing and that was very helpful.
At Mile 11 you can see the space needle, I was so tired but just kept thinking keep going don’t quit, and tried to remind myself how short two miles is and how I wanted to be a good example to my family and other people – when things get tough you win if you just don’t quit.
Mile 12 finally came – one short little hill left. Then finally the sight of the stadium – I knew I had less than .25 mile, I was so tired then I saw, Mary and she was cheering me on and that helped me, I round the corner, then I saw two other friends Foster and Liz, then the most wonderful moment – I saw the finish line and knew I had done it. I ran the last 100 yards and wow what a wonderful moment to cross that line. It was an emotional moment, I had done it, something I thought I could never do, I did not quit, I was so happy. I had done it without walking, I beat my goal by 1 min and 5 sec – so it was my fasted 13.1 miles and it had more hills and was more miserable weather than ever.
I learned something through this. The power of your mind is just as important as the power of your body; it has to be trained too. It was amazing to me that when I was doing a 5 mile run that my body was tired at 4.5, if I knew I was doing a 8 mile run it was tired at 7. I realized that a part of what I can do is based on what I think I can do, and thinking positive. And that sometimes you just have to tell your head to shut up.
Thanks a lot to Shaun, for running all the training runs, Jodi (for begging me to do it), Mary, for all the great Wednesday training runs, and encouragement, and for making me set my goal for faster than I thought I could do, and to Patti for all the great opportunities and great people I have met through We raise the Bar. And of course to my biggest fan club, my husband, son and daughter – who were wonderful in encouraging and supporting me and I love them so much.
Seattle Marathon events - Congratulations!!
I enjoyed the start of the 2006 Seattle Marathon while eating a bowl of cereal on the floor of my family room in front of my TV and a gas fireplace.
By unofficial count, 15 members of our team did either the 1/2 or full marathon in probably the worst weather for that event in the last 5 years or so. Good for you!
One of the morning news channels had a cameraman out at the start and captured a smiling Mary Hanna, humbly telling Seattle viewers this would be her 9th consecutive tour of the course. She was quite positive - giddy almost. Mary went on to take 5th place overall in the women's 1/2 marathon. A great display of how a positive attitude can impact a race result.
Athletes' stories are trickling in. I've heard of a few personal bests, seen evidence on the results page of first-time finishers at that distance, and that a few of our athletes managed to cross the finish line together. Good stuff.
Our congratulations to the collection of runners and multisport athletes from Raise the Bar and beyond that braved the coldest conditions Thanksgiving weekend has dished out in quite a few years.
Patty
By unofficial count, 15 members of our team did either the 1/2 or full marathon in probably the worst weather for that event in the last 5 years or so. Good for you!
One of the morning news channels had a cameraman out at the start and captured a smiling Mary Hanna, humbly telling Seattle viewers this would be her 9th consecutive tour of the course. She was quite positive - giddy almost. Mary went on to take 5th place overall in the women's 1/2 marathon. A great display of how a positive attitude can impact a race result.
Athletes' stories are trickling in. I've heard of a few personal bests, seen evidence on the results page of first-time finishers at that distance, and that a few of our athletes managed to cross the finish line together. Good stuff.
Our congratulations to the collection of runners and multisport athletes from Raise the Bar and beyond that braved the coldest conditions Thanksgiving weekend has dished out in quite a few years.
Patty
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
The Changing Faces of Raise the Bar
We often go on about how much we like people at Raise the Bar. Truer words were never spoken. Well, this week brought a couple of new people into the extended Raise the Bar family.
One of our coaches, Toby Mollett,his wife Susie had their 2nd little kiddo this week - Landon Russell. Weighed in at an impressive 9 lbs 3 oz. From his picture, I'm thinking they might have underestimated that a little....you'll have to judge for yourselves!
And the grandpa of the team, Jim Hutter (who, frankly, looks less like a grandpa than you might think) welcomed his 4th grandchild into the big beautiful world. Elijah Grant Hamlin at 6lbs 8 oz. Congratulations to Jim's daughter Jessica and husband Quinn.It strikes me that often the best part of working out is who's waiting for our return on the other side of the door. While I'm all mushy and philosophical, maybe a famous quote....
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."- Ferris Bueller
Here's to our families!! And welcome Landon and Elijah!
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Unpredictable Weather and Whether or not athletes are predictable....
It's sunny out right now and I've been content staying inside during all of today's daylight hours. (I did run with Mary Hanna's group at 6AM). I let the dog out once and stood in the doorway, but otherwise, I've been here at my desk clicking away at the keys of my Compaq.
The last two days,however, while the Seattle area has been showered with...showers....I had a hard time staying in. I ran a fun 8 miles in a constant downpour - soaked through before I got to the end of my street. I've done 2 cyclocross rides with my studly son and neighbor on trails that had far more standing water than dry land. The whole time I was wet and dirty (and warm) through every layer. It'll be a long time before I forget those workouts.
I've been asking around to my friends and fellow athletes about their workout adventures the last couple of days. There have been a lot of the usual fall reports of spin classes and treadmill runs and trips to the pool. Good for them for staying at it. An occasional story has surfaced, though, about knee-deep wading on the Lake Youngs Trail, or a Bike ride through a flooded stream. These stories are told by athletes who's eyes and inflections tell a story of adventure realized in their near-flooded neighborhoods.
The Seattle area soil is slowly taking up all that water, and I find myself a bit sad about the lack of rainfall today - but there's sure to be more and I'll be looking for some friends to train with!!
Now let's get out there.....
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Raise the Bar Scientists report......
I like the concept of a blog - I like visiting blogs - we've even had a blog of sorts at Raise the Bar the last year or so. We're streamlining operations, though, and looking to make our lives a little easier and so it goes with the blog. This is where you'll find us blogging from now on.
After exhaustive research into bloggage, our Raise the Bar scientists have determined that blogging need not have much to do with the business at hand. Apparently, the blog-viewing public doesn't really require relevance or significance - just odd entertainment that can be viewed in 1 minute 14 seconds or less. (I'm guessing most have you have already moved on).
If, however, you are still with the Raise the Bar blog, treat yourself to this little puzzle passed on to us by an RTB coach and wise-guy, Brad Williams. It's a bit of a test of your powers of observation, and apparently only the sharpest of minds can get this. There are two identical pictures that will appear on the screen. Almost 8000 people were tested to see if they could find the 3 differences and only 19 got it. Let us know how you do.... we're confident in the intilleckchual kapabilitees of our clientell.
http://members.home.nl/saen/Special/Zoeken.swf
Till next time..... Get out there...
After exhaustive research into bloggage, our Raise the Bar scientists have determined that blogging need not have much to do with the business at hand. Apparently, the blog-viewing public doesn't really require relevance or significance - just odd entertainment that can be viewed in 1 minute 14 seconds or less. (I'm guessing most have you have already moved on).
If, however, you are still with the Raise the Bar blog, treat yourself to this little puzzle passed on to us by an RTB coach and wise-guy, Brad Williams. It's a bit of a test of your powers of observation, and apparently only the sharpest of minds can get this. There are two identical pictures that will appear on the screen. Almost 8000 people were tested to see if they could find the 3 differences and only 19 got it. Let us know how you do.... we're confident in the intilleckchual kapabilitees of our clientell.
http://members.home.nl/saen/Special/Zoeken.swf
Till next time..... Get out there...
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