I didn't realize what a SMALL race it was. I think there were only 355 runners running the full marathon. I think about 4x as many running the half marathon, and more walking than running. Probably because it's a very walker friendly race, since the course is open over seven hours.

I ran the first three miles on my own, chatting off and on with people. Then hooked up with a lady named Marie who was doing walk/run of run a mile, walk a minute. I decided at the last minute to do 5:1 (5 run, 1 walk) and when I hit the 5k mark was running sub 10 minute miles, which is great for a long run. She decided to join me with my 5:1 and we ran together just yakking away. It was awesome! She's 44 and a marathon maniac. I'm working on becoming a maniac. We had tons in common.

Anyhow, we did 5:1s up to the last 6 miles then moved to mile/minutes. At one point she said, "Hey, aren't you doing pretty well? Maybe you'll PR?" I said, "Hmm, I don't know. I haven't looked for awhile...oh whoa! Yeah! I am doing pretty good!" So she said any time I wanted to take off, go for it. When we had three miles left I told her I wanted to run it in but I'd wait at the finish line for her.

When I realized I really WAS heading for a PR I was so psyched and really picked up the pace. It had obviously dropped by that point, but my last two miles were under 9 min miles. I finished with a clock time of 4:39, which is 2 minutes better than my best which was last year in Eugene!

I waited at the finish for Marie and gave her a HUGE hug. We kept thanking each other because honestly, with no music allowed (and none on the route except some nice people with loud car radios), I was not thinking I'd do as well.

We also met this great 14 year old kid and his dad doing his first marathon (the kid's). Talk about inspiring! After the marathon we were in Olive Garden and I hear, "Hey marathon lady!" and I turn around, there he was! He came in 5 minutes after me, which is pretty damned good for a kid! He's a short kid too. We talked for a bit and it just left me feeling warm and gooshy inside. His dad was totally cool, too. When we passed them I turned and said to the kid, "Now you ARE going to wear your medal on Tuesday to school, right?" He said he would. I said, "Good! Because I am too and I'm the teacher. I make ALL my kids look at it!" His dad asked me what I taught and I told him, then he said, "Do your students know how awesome a teacher they have?" (We'd talked off and on throughout the marathon.) "I tell them every day, but I'm not sure they're fully aware!"

What a nice family! Met a poor 18 year old girl doing her first with tummy problems. Gave her some advice. Sad And another girl on her first whose hips were killing her, so we gave HER some advice. (Having run 23 marathons between us, we had lots of advice.) Plus lots of others. It was really one of the most social marathons I've run.

And like Eugene last year, when I PRed, it was just a training run for a bigger marathon.

After we ate and then went to Silverwood and rode coasters and had cotton candy. I am amazed at how good my legs feel, but honestly I think walking all over the theme park actually helped. Stopped at Wendys for dinner (Roy was adamant that he needed to eat a potato in Idaho). Haven't come CLOSE to eating my calories, but I'll make it up tomorrow.

Got back to the hotel and sat in the hot tub for half an hour. Ahhhhh....

Some neat moments on the route:
-Meeting Marie. She kicked ASS! What a fun lady. I hope to get to know her better on our side of the mountain.
-Chatting with LOTS of people about all sorts of things!
-The family of geese sitting on the beach.
-Chuckling at seeing the water so high on the lake that the picnic tables were under water.
-Running past a lady and cheering her on in mile 25 only to have her say, "Looking good! Wait! How old are you?" "I'm 43!" "Oh good! Well run strong!" "Let me guess, you're hoping to place in your age group!" "Yup! It would KILL me if someone passed me now!" "Ha ha! I do the SAME thing on triathlons! Good luck!"
-Passing, but barely, a guy who had run all 50 states, all 13 Canadian Territories, and was all hunched over, but was still running.
-Seeing Mel and Bob Dolphin out on the race. These guys are LEGENDS in Seattle! Both are older men who started running in their 50s and do many MANY marathons every year! What role models!
-The beauty of the lake. Wow, it is really a gorgeous lake.
-This totally cool house in this neighborhood full of cool houses. In fact, this house was so amazing that we were afraid that it would hurt the self esteem of the other houses around it.
-Seeing my honey at mile 25 and telling him that I was on the way to a PR and just watching his face BEAM with pride. Man, who can ask for anything more?

I don't know that I'd do anything differently. I really did the run/walk quite well. I pushed it on the run and slowed just enough for recovery on the walk. It bothered me at first to see so many people passing me in the first four or five miles, but I reminded myself that I'd probably pass a lot of them in the last four or five.

I crossed the finish line and kept walking. When I realized I had hit a PR I started to choke up and suddenly couldn't breathe. All I could think was, "Oh no! I hope Roy has my inhaler!" (I was prescribed it for bronchitis, but I think I'm going to ask for it to be extended because I often do this at the end of hard races.) I was suddenly feeling like I was going to drop, so was really trying to talk myself down and get some water in. I couldn't see Roy because my vision was dimming (!!!) so I walked toward the medical tent, figuring I'd either be fine by the time I got there, or not and that would be a good place to fall. I was fine. It cleared. So I went back to the finish line to wait for Marie. She came in and we hugged. I met her family (Roy went back to get my inhaler). We walked together for awhile.


I did stop for pictures a few times, and of course now I think "That could have been 1 more minute off my PR!" but oh well. I will appreciate those pictures!


The race itself really suffered from lack of organization. The race packets literally had NO information about the race. There was a blurry map, but it was useless as it had no street names and no mile markers! No start time. No where to park. Nothing. So I came back to the hotel to check the website. It had two different places for the start line. I finally decided that I'd just forget it, show up to the Riverstone area and hope for the best.

The race started late because two buses were pulling out of the hotel at 7:00 a.m. The strange thing is, that was in mile 2 and the race was starting at 7:00 a.m. so I'm not entirely sure why we waited. Even the fastest runners would hit that at best about 10 minutes in. But I guess better safe than sorry.

The course was EXTREMELY confusing in some areas. Sometimes there wasn't anyone to point the way, but we figured it out. However those course support who WERE there were wonderful. Very nice people who ever encouraging. Thank you course support! Thank you!