My race day started at 5:15 am. From my bed I could hear the rain pounding my window and resigned myself to the fact that this was going to be a wet race. I had my usual pre-race breakfast of plain oatmeal with honey and a banana. When I left my apartment to catch the bus down to Seattle Center it was snowing. It almost never snows in Seattle. I was off the bus at about 6:45 am by which time the snow had changed back into rain.

There were 45 minutes until the start so I headed right to the gear check area. Gear check wasn?t exactly indoors but it was at least in an area covered from the rain. After standing around for a few minutes I finally worked up the nerve to take of my extra warm layers (wind pants, polar fleece jacket and rain jacket) and strip down to my racing gear. I wore almost the exact same outfit as in Vancouver in May. It was a few degrees cooler here so I added warmer gloves but that was the only difference. I then jogged over to the porta-potty line for a quick pit stop, took a gel and a few sips of water and joined the thousands of runners at the start line.

I was surprised that there were no pace signs at the start. I had planned to either line up just behind the 9:00 min/mile sign or find the 2:00 hour pacer but now I had no idea where to be. I stood somewhere around what I thought was the middle and hoped for the best. The snow that had turned into rain had now, thankfully, turned into a light drizzle. The race started on time at 7:30am and about 2.5 minutes later I crossed the starting line.

The course was absolutely packed for the first mile. I could tell that I was running below my target pace but since I knew that I wanted to start slow I wasn?t too concerned. At each mile marker there was a volunteer on a megaphone calling out the race time. Having the actual time called out wasn?t that useful because I wasn?t sure how long it had taken me to cross the starting line but I did appreciate that this meant I never missed a mile marker. The markers were also on the side of porta-potties so they were very easy to pick out.

Mile 1: 9:57.5

Mile 2 continued down 5th Avenue through downtown. The field had thinned out a bit so I made my goal for this mile to hit my target pace of 9:09 min/mile just to see how it would feel. I came in a few seconds under that and felt as though my sub-2 hour finish was a real possibility. I took some water after mile 2 and walked for 30 seconds or so.

Mile 2: 9:02.5

I hit crowd troubles again in mile 3. This is where the course moved from 3 lanes of traffic through downtown to a single lane up the I-90 express ramp. This is also where I first encountered the full marathon walkers who had started 15 minutes before the half marathon. It was a little frustrating trying to maintain any sort of pace with so many people around and of course it didn?t help that the whole mile was uphill! Thankfully I didn?t loose two much time and I figured that the crowd problems would be mostly over after this mile.

Mile 3: 9:31.8

Mile 4 was gloriously flat and wide as we continued along I-90. Most of the mile was in a tunnel so it was actually dry. Once again I decided that I would just try and hit my target pace and worry about making up time later. I took a brief walking break at the mile 4 water station for a gel and some water.

Mile 4: 9:08.1

Mile 5 took us out of the relative comfort of the tunnel and back into the rain along Lake Washington Blvd. I was now on familiar territory since I?d run the rest of the course in training.

Mile 5: 9:10.9

I?d completed the first five miles of the course in 46:51 which was 1:03 behind an even paced 2 hour half-marathon. To be honest, throughout the race I had a lot of trouble figuring out how far behind pace I was. I had a pace band and the cumulative time showing on my watch but the face was hard to read in the rain and my ability to do mental math quickly declined as the race progressed. At this point I knew that I was only a little bit behind pace and I remember thinking that mile 6 was one of the last easy miles for a while so now might be a good time to test the legs and make up some of the time lost during miles 1 and 3.

Mile 6: 8:35.2

One third of the way into mile 7 there was a steep incline with a water station waiting at the top. I muscled up the climb and took a walk break through the water station. At this point I was experiencing some minor cramping and decided that I should take some Gatorade too. I?ve never trained with Gatorade so this probably was not a great idea but luckily I didn?t suffer any ill effects.

Mile 7: 9:30.0

Mile 8 was the killer mile and not surprisingly my slowest mile. First came the short but steep climb up E Galer. I ended up walking up part of it because I wasn?t convinced that running was actually much faster. Then came the climb up E Madison. I managed to run up the whole thing but I?ll be honest, it hurt. Other than the finish, this was the stretch with the most crowd support and I really appreciated the cheering.

Mile 8: 10:04.4

At this point I was starting to seriously doubt I could finish in less than 2 hours. The hills had taken a lot out of me and I wasn?t sure if I?d be able to make up the time. I was supposed to take a gel at the mile 8 water station but when I got there the idea of ingesting anything solid didn?t really appeal to me. I decided to stick with water and hope for the best. This was probably my lowest point along the race. I started to think about changing my goal to 2:05 but then decided to re-assess the situation after mile 10 and just try and run the next two miles on pace. Mile 9 was mostly flat and downhill and I managed to hit my target pace on the nose.

Mile 9: 9:08.9

Mile 10 was had a few inclines and I felt myself slowing down again. I have to say that I think mile 10 was a little long. Since mile 5 I?d been passing both marathon and half-marathon mile markers. Because the courses used the same finish line I knew the half-marathon marker would come 0.1 miles after the marathon marker. I really think there was more that 0.1 miles between marathon marker 23 and half-marathon marker 10. This is probably because at that point along the course there?s no shoulder on the road and I?m guessing they couldn’t put the porta-potty for mile 10 at the exact place it should have been.

Mile 10: 9:51.3

At mile 10 I was 2:52 behind pace. I?m not sure what my mental math told me in the moment but I knew that sub 2-hour was looking more and more unlikely. There were only 3 miles left and a lot of it was downhills and flats so I decided to just give?er.

Mile 11: 7:53.0

I made up some serious time on mile 11 (even if the mile was a little short) but at this point my legs were screaming at me. I started trying to pick people off one by one. I?d sight someone about 50 feet in front of me (usually another women who I could tell was running slightly slower than I was) and work on passing her. Then I?d move on to my next target.

Mile 12: 8:39.5

I checked my cumulative time after mile 12 and I knew I had less than 10 minutes to reach the finish line. I think this was the first point where I truly believed that sub 2 hours was again a possibility. In truth I only had 9:27 to get to the finish line. There was no way I could compute what pace I needed to run over the last 1.1 miles so I just put my head down and tried to finish strong. I kept thinking about how disappointed I?d be if I didn?t make my goal and felt as though I hadn?t given it everything in the last mile. I kept picking off runners, counting 50 steps at a time and trying not to give into the temptation to slow down. The final climb up Mercer nearly killed my legs. When I finally entered Memorial Stadium I decided to sprint to the finish because I knew that ever second counted.

Mile 13.1: 9:23.3

I hit my stopwatch right after I cross the line and it read: 1:59:57. I would eventually find out that my official chip time was 1:59:56. I couldn?t believe how close I?d cut it or how much time I?d made up at the end. I ran the last 3.1 miles in 25:56, an 8:22 min/mile pace. There were definitely points in the race when I really didn?t believe I?d get to the finish in less than 2 hours and I was so proud of myself for pushing it at the end. There?s nothing like setting a goal and achieving it!

I got my medal, a fancy reflective blanket and made my way into the recovery area. I picked up some water, fruit and then a bowl of clam chowder. The steaming hot clam chowder really hit the spot and seemed like the perfect way to end a very wet Seattle half-marathon.

Finally here?s a summary of the race, strictly by the numbers.

Results from http://www.seattlemarathon.org/2006Results.asp