I didn't take a flat!Ali picture the night before because the change in the weather threw me off. That ended up being a mistake, because I was a little unhappy with my race outfit, and I know if I had made myself think about it more ahead of time, I would have opted for something else.
Anyway, Nick picked me up at 7:15am for our trek out to Snoqualmie. We arrived earlier than planned, but still opted to park in the overflow area at the local middle school just to be safe. We hung out in the car as long as we could to avoid getting wet until absolutely necessary. I decided to wear my rain jacket over my tank top. Around 8:30 (when the half marathon had started), we walked the ten minutes up the road to Tolt-MacDonald Park, where the start line was.
The first half mile was crowded, but we kept a pretty easy pace. Then, Nick found some open ground and picked it up, and I followed. This was my first mistake of the day; my training hasn't been consistent and I was cold—I really needed a full mile warm-up. My legs were already feeling pretty stiff and tired in mile 1.
That first mile was over a dirt trail that wasn't quite as hard-packed as I'd have liked. We spent most of the time dodging puddles, but as soon as we crested the only hill up to the first of many pedestrian bridges, we saw it was all in vain: the entire bridge was flooded, and we had no choice but to run right through the ankle-deep puddles.
Around mile 2, I started to feel better. The photographer caught Nick and me talking and laughing; I have no clue what we were going on about, but I love that these photos exist! There's over a dozen from this spot and we're laughing our faces off in every single one.
Nick did keep telling me to get in front of him during photos, and I thought he was just being camera-shy. At the end of the race, he reminded me that I was behind him in all our Hot Chocolate 5k pictures, and he wanted me to get some good ones this time around. What a mensch!
As we neared mile 3, I was beginning to flag again. I told Nick I'd like to walk at the turn-around, but in the interest of not walking on a narrow bridge with divided traffic and causing a bottleneck, I held on until mile 3.5
Although I told Nick to go ahead without me (multiple times, I think), he refused. I guess for some people the race is less about racing and more about the experience, and I guess he wanted to truly run it together.
From there, I felt much better. The walk helped me recalibrate my breathing and find some equilibrium in my pace. We continued on without incident, splashing back through that flooded bridge at mile 4.5. The half marathoners were starting to pass us, and they were muddy.
At mile 5 I took one more little walk, and then we started our final mile to the finish line. Although I felt like I was working hard, I don't think our pace was very impressive around this time.
As we came to the final stretch, I told Nick we should try to sprint the end. So we did, crossing together at the 1:02 mark, just barely squeezing in under a 10-minute mile.
We went to the timing tent to get our results (Nick's were under someone else's name, so it took awhile to get that sorted) and check out the post-race offerings, but soon decided we were ready for brunch.
At the car, we changed into dry clothes and headed to Bellden, where we met Steve for brunch. The waffle and coffee were delicious, but this was a definitely a cute little artisan brunch place and after a race, I really like to gorge myself.
Was this my best 10k? No, but it wasn't my worst, either. I wish I'd gotten back on track with training after the cruise because I can't help but feel I let Nick down but having to walk a couple times, but I can't wallow in regrets. Instead, I want to focus on the positives: we ran a respectable race, Nick has an official 10k under his belt, and we had a great time together. And now we've got a half marathon on our calendars!
This race was absolutely gorgeous (I wish I'd taken photos during the walk breaks!) and I'll happily run it again. I feel like I need a little redemption on the route next year.
Ali
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