Mission Accomplished

Back from Seattle after a quick trip.  Bottomline, mission accomplished, 3:09:31 was the official time, so met the goal of sub 3:10, and get the ability to register for Boston 2012 early as I am more than 20 minutes faster than the qualifying time for my age group (M45-49 3:30).  Not a whole point reading on, but for those that like details......

Start was south of Seattle (the lowest part of the route above), so we shuttled out there.  Shuttles ran 4-6am for a 7am start so I figured I'd get there at 5, wait 30 mins for shuttle and then get to start about 6:15, hit the loo and be in the corral around 6:30.  But for once, everything went really smooth, no lines, no waiting anyway, quick trip and I was sat at the start line at 5:20am.

We started on time at 7 and the first 9 miles went smoothly - mile markers were accurate, pacing was good, weather was perfect.  There was a hill in there but overall I was running just around 7 minute pace and felt good.  At that point I started feeling that a stop in a bathroom was going to be a good thing to avoid an embarrassing side of road #2, as dinner/breakfast weren't sitting too well.  We hit the bridge to Mercer island at 9 and it was about 1.5 miles out and the same back.  After 5 minutes of that I knew I was stopping somewhere, so was crossing my fingers they had a portapotty at the turnaround.  Luckily they did, and I happily gave up 1 minute 8 seconds of time.

After leaving the bridge we went into a long tunnel around mile 12ish.  This obviously messed up the GPS but I kept a steady effort.  From that point on though, everything was off.  Mile markers started appearing at odd places - previously they'd all be 1.00 or 1.01, now they were 0.89 or 1.2.  someone must have been drunk who was placing those.

Then we headed North from Seattle on a raised viaduct, which was all concrete, no crowds, really boring.  Then another tunnel, then a big hill.  I was slowing but tried to keep the pace around 7:15 average.

At mile 20 I did the math and knew that if I could keep under 7:30 pace I'd be in under 3:10, but given the uncertainty of the mile markers I decided to push a little.  Pushed the pace down to 7:05, but mile 21 and mile 22 were both long, so despite the effort, each mile tool 7:30.  Uh-oh, this might be close.....

Mile 23 + 24 were better and I managed to do them in 7:15.

At the mile 24 flag, I had just 2.22 miles togo, time was 2:52:44, so I had 17:15 to cover the distance.  If distances were accurate that's 7:46 pace, although my math at the time wasn't that accurate.  I figured 7:30 would just about do it.

Mile 25 had a climb and I pushed hard.  This mile was short (.89) and I got through in 6:32.  Of course, a short 25 likely meant a long 26 so I had no idea where I was.  Finish was down by Qwest field and made a bunch of turns, couldn't see the where the finish line was. Mile 26 went on forever (post race analysis shows it was 1.2 miles!), I spent 8:56 on that mile despite running under 7:30 pace and was now in serious risk of missing my goal time.

Finally I could see the finish line so I kicked in for the last (hopefully) .22 miles.  Managed that part in 1:19 (6:23 pace) and crossed the line with 29 seconds to spare.

Overall it was an OK effort, I was undertrained and was definitely working hard from about mile 18. My legs got pretty thrashed from all the concrete (combined with very light shoes) and the hills in the second half.

I definitely wouldn't recommend this race.  Despite being in a great city, it was not really an interesting course, not great crowd support (despite their being bands every mile) and the mile markers were a trainwreck.  I know that mile markers/garmins etc are never going to agree exactly, but to have the 25 mile marker almost a 1/4 mile off in a marathon is a very lame thing.

Here's a few photos I found online from the race....

This captures the true glory of running thru a dark concrete tunnel...

This one, the excitement of running on elevated freeways...

Here, the thrill of taking offramps at high speed...

And this one shows the start, where I was still in contention for the win...

And this is me at about 15 miles, when the wheels were still on (plus I deliberately sped up for the camera guy in attempt to get a good photo for once)...