RnR Seattle 2009

Well friends, here we are at the end of another race! A few weeks ago, mom, dad, Sean and I headed to Seattle for the 2009 Inaugural Rock and Roll Marathon. It was an awesome trip, which will get it's own post, but right now we'll get down to the important part, the race!!

37000 runners. 13.1 (or 26.2) miles. 2 major hills. A million slightly less major hills.
3 awesome people cheering me on. 2 ice packs for 2 swollen knees. One medal!

We started out the race weekend at the Health and Fitness Expo, held at the Qwest Center in downtown Seattle, which is also the finish line:

Talk about a HUGE expo!!! Loved it though, going through all the merchandise and all the race info was so much fun! It's always so motivating to go to those!!

After a fabulous night in Seattle (that's another post... someday!) and scouting parking spots for the next day it was off to bed so we could get up SUPER early for the race.

Here is my fabulous cheering squad!!! And thanks for the rockin poster Dad!!


Before the race:

This was the biggest race EVER, and getting 37000 people ready for a race of this size seems SO crazy, but the Rock and Roll Franchise did an amazing job! You never felt like it was that big and they handled everything excellently! There was a "wave start," meaning that you lined up in corrals based on your estimated finish time, and each corral waited their turn to start. It must have taken an hour for everyone to start, but it was still great!! Here they are waiting for me:

And we're off!!!

with my new race friend Jared...

ready for a chat break!!

I'm so attractive when I chat!

Love him!!

Finally eying the finish line!!

Done!!!

Here's the recovery area (my favorite part!!)

This race was brutal and really took a lot out of me. Tons of hills, a mile and a half in a freeway tunnel, not enough hill training, it all added up to a pretty miserable experience and there were definitely times I wanted to quit. But I made it through the heat and the tears and the sweat and the blisters for this:

idea for photo stolen from the super talented Marianne Walker

Thank you so much to my parents and Sean for continuing to travel around and cheering me on no matter what!! I love you guys and definitely would not have finished without you (and the thought of that finishers shirt I bought the day before!). You guys are the best!!!