Seattle

Conditions were perfect for the Seattle Marathon this year. The Space Needle looked almost alien in the morning, with fog circling it, and the temperature sat arond 50. My time was 3:59, and I think I ran poorly, for where I’m at right now. No big deal, but still, it's hard to get too far away from the clock. The reasons were several---I think my pre-race eats were off—no more Teriyaki combos the night before; my shoes were a half size too big; and I ran a bit too much the days before, though not marathons like some. Notably, I just hurt, a bit in the hip, some in the feet, and I was never inspired to push through the pain. I’m a trail guy--roads beat me up. All that said, my main issue was I didn’t really focus on how I wanted to run in the first place—I just went out and ran, and figured I’d see how it went. Hoping for the incidental good time.
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This is a mistake--if I want to be completely satisfied with my race day efforts, I should prepare better mentally. I know this. Visualize success, and all that. The four C’s: Commitment, Compsure, Confidence, Concentration. (: That's from a sports psychology course I took a while back. (: I have a number of phrases I’ll repeat to myself when I’m on. I didn’t do any of this, which usually isn't a big deal, but now and again I leave a bit dissapointed, and that was the story with this year's finish at Seattle. I know I could've pushed through the pain, changed my tempo, but I wasn't mentally prepared to do so. Life is still good--no big deal. Live, learn, live some more. This paragraph is breaking the cheese meter.
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My first half was totally lame, roughly 1:58, for all of the above reasons. Somewhere around mile 16, I decided to try to keep it under 4:00, which required sub 9s. I did it, but I had to work for it a bit, because the course is much harder in the second half. This wasn't that lame, although even here I could've ran faster, and was going just fast enough to come in under 4:00. I was totally geared for something longer. One thing I noticed was that when I thought about running faster, I was able to speed up considerably, but if I just ran, most of the time I wasn't kicking too hard. Age. If only I had more commitment, composure, confidence and concentration. Oh well. I finished strong and feel good now--obviously, something went wrong.
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My favorite thing about this year’s Seattle had nothing to do with the run. I totally dialed it in for getting in and out of the race. I left MV at 6:20, sort of late really, and then stopped at Marysville McDonalds for coffee. I took the U. District exit, hopped onto 99, and parked immediately at the Seattle Center for $8. The whole trip took less than an hour. In past years, I’ve sat for endless minutes coming off I-5, worried about missing the start, or had trouble locating parking, or waiting in line to pay for parking at a machine. Also, leaving the race this year was a snap, with the garage sitting across the street from the finish line, and then one right turn out of the garage, and from there a straight drive on to I-5. Hassle free marathon!
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Also, of note, this was my 8th Seattle, going back to the old Burke Gillman route in the 90s; my 6th in a row! what’s going on there?; and I’m pretty sure this was my 50th marathon. I might also say that I thought this year’s version of Seattle seemed a bit better organized than in some recent years, with lots of GU on the course, great volunteers, nothing to complain about. I do miss Ivar’s clam chowder not being at the finish. That’s a good Seattle tradition—there ought to be some distinctly Seattle touch. Maybe it was there and I missed it.
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Up next—well, my calendar’s pretty open. I expect I’ll do the Fairhaven Frosty 10k next week with some friends, which is becoming a bit of a tradition for me in its own right. After that, maybe the Lake Samish half in January, probably the Bridle Trails 50k, and almost certainly the Honeywagon half in Everson in February, definitely a tradition. I’m tossing around all sorts of longer distance things for 2009, but nothing’s inked—it’ll be a challenge to match this year, which has been great.