Flying to Seattle

Nothing left but to run it. If all goes as planned, by Thursday afternoon, Sue and I will be having lunch with my son and his girlfriend Kalena at one of the fine seafood restaurants in or near Pike's Place, then off to the Expo to pick up my race packet and look for bargains. (That's a photo of Alex and I taken when we visited him in Seattle last year.) We'll find something touristy to do on Friday (I am thinking about riding one of the ferries), and try to avoid too much walking to give my legs a rest. Once the marathon is done, we'll probably head to Pike's brewery pub, which is right in Pikes Place Market. We don't leave Wednesday, so there will be plenty of time to spend with Alex and Kalena, and see more of the city.

The marathon starts on on Saturday at 7:00 AM Pacific Time. It is a point to point race, so I'll have to catch a shuttle bus around 5:00 AM to Tukwila, south of Seattle. In contrast to the Boston and Cleveland courses, this one has some early uphills. Between miles 9 and 10 though, there is a nice break as we go out and back across the Mercer Island floating bridge, which has a long flat stretch in the middle. From there, we go right through downtown, then head north. Real hills between miles 15 and 20 will make this the toughest part of the race, and should be a nice filter, dropping the runners who went out too fast. Good news after mile 20, the rest of the race is downhill or flat. Assuming I have run a smart race, taken care of my hydration and nutrition, I have enough left to take advantage of that and run a fast last six miles.

Training Week Review
It wasn't a big taper week, with total mileage at 59. I did have some really fun trail runs. After work on Wednesday, I went to Jaite Wayside and ran the leg of the Buckeye Trail from there to the Boston store and back. About a mile into the run, the sky turned dark and rain began falling hard. It did not let up until the end of the run. It did not take long for the trails to be filled with run-off from the hills. Running was tricky because I could not see the roots, stumps, and rocks that the water was hiding. It was exhilirating to be in the woods, running alone, with the storm crashing down. After about four miles, the insoles of my Humaras began bunch-up, so I took them our of the shoes. It turned out to be a good idea, necause I immediately noticed that I was much more naturally inclined to mid-foot strike. It was a great fun run.
On Thursday, I meet up with the group from Vertical Runner and we did about 8 miles, the first three just Steve Hawthorne and me. We ran a loop following a horse path, and with all the rain we had, this was about as muddy a course as I have ever run. The mud was soft and deep, so we were really working. By the end of the run, I was caked with mud. Another great fun run.
On Sunday, I ran with the SERC group, just the basic 12 mile route. At mile three, Kam came up from behind and flew past us. At first, I let him go, but then I thought it would be good to run a few miles at marathon pace, so I took off after him. I ran the next three miles at 6:17, 6:18, and 6:20 and did catch him at the water stop. From there, we fell back to a 7:30 pace for the rest of the run.