The Orca Half Marathon 2025

There is really nothing quite as fulfilling as running a first race with a friend...unless it's successfully indoctrinating them into the cult of running. Which I think I've successfully done with Nick, now. Spoiler alert, but at the end of this race, he told me he'd definitely run a half again...just not right away.

And less than 6 hours after we finished, he sent me a link for a 12k he wanted to do. So yeah, I think my work here is done.

I set my alarm for 5:15am and woke without an issue. For all the times I slept through long runs this training cycle, I was grateful to start on such an auspicious note. I had a banana and espresso and was out of the house by 6am.

The weather called for high 50s and rain, and it was drizzling steadily during my drive to Nick's. I hoped the radar was correct and the rain would taper off by 9am, at which point we'd be about an hour into the race. I did not want to run 13.1 miles in steady drizzle.

By 6:30 I was at Nick's. His husband drove us to the start so we didn't have to worry about parking and shuttling. We got to the race venue by 7:10 and had tons of time to debate what to wear (ditch the rain coat or not?) what to pack (bring both bottles or just water...or just Nuun?) and go to the bathroom (I made sure to take half an Imodium). I ended up running without my jacket and with just my Nuun, both decisions that served me well.

At 7:40 we stowed our bags at the bag drop and got ready to run. At 7:50, we were off!

Mile 1 was fairly uneventful. I tried to rein our pace in and keep us at a conservative jog. There were a few puddles to dodge and a few crowded spots, but mostly it wasn't bad. My legs felt cold, but that's to be expected. The longer I run, the longer it takes for my legs to warm up.

I took off my gloves before we'd even hit 1.5 miles. Then came the first hurdle: an unexpected hill around mile 1.5-1.75. I was under the impression that this race was flat, but I should have realized that based on where we started—by the water in Lincoln Park—we'd need to climb a hill or two to eventually get into West Seattle and Alki.

I thought the photographer was mean for this angle but actually it's pretty cool to see my muscles work like this.

Not even two miles in and I was ready to give up! This hill was intense. It burned. And I had not trained on any hills during my spotty training. But we conquered it, and I only needed to walk for a second at the top to shake out my quads.

Around mile 2.5 we found ourselves running downhill in the park, and I worried the return route would really sap me, but that hill ended up being not so bad! And then we were just shy of 3 miles and were finally done with Lincoln Park. 

I think I said, "Look like you're dying!" and Nick said, "I AM!"

We enjoyed a drastic descent into West Seattle and then, finally, my legs felt warm and I started to feel good.

Managed to snap this one without pausing!

We followed what had been my long run strategy this training cycle, walking at 5, 7, and 9 miles. I was hoping we could hold out until 11, but around 9.8 Nick requested another walk. This part of the race was mentally challenging—at mile 9 you run past the finish line, continue on to mile 11, then finally turn around for the final straight shot to the finish. Running past the finish line and seeing so many runners who ran the 8 mile race make their turn to the end was not easy.

It also didn't help that there were lots of cheeky signs along the way reminding us of how much pain we were in and how far we were from the finish.

I knew by now Nick was feeling the pain and was subtly (or not so subtly) trying to get me to leave him behind. I wasn't having that. I intended to run his first half with him, and that meant sticking together. We began to walk about every half mile or so. We didn't have a set plan, really just a "walk when you feel like it" agreement. Nick had had covid about 3 weeks before the race and I think his breathing and heart-rate were impacted by it. When I looked back at our stats after the race, I saw we had ended up walking a total of 25 minutes.

Anyway, we took our time and walked as needed until around mile 12.3, at which point Nick wanted to run for two songs and walk for one, which was the method he'd found success with during his training. By the time we'd done that one time, we were at 12.6. With half a mile to go and the finish line in sight, I glanced at my watch to check the time and saw that we could squeak in under 2:25 if we picked it up a bit.

I urged Nick on, telling him we only had half a mile, that I could literally see the finish! I picked up the pace, and he followed suit. We crossed the finish together at 2:24:19.

As we stopped to catch our breath, I was overcome with emotion. I got a bit choked up. Maybe it was just the endorphins, maybe it was that I hadn't felt confident in my training, or that I hadn't felt so good while running a half in ages, but I had to bite back tears for a second.

I told Nick that running his first half meant he'd automatically PR'd it, and he should ring the PR bell. He shocked me by actually doing it! One quick ring, but still, I knew in that moment that he was really proud of his accomplishment.

We picked up snacks, our bags, and checked our official results. I grabbed my R-Pod medal for completing three Orca Running races this year.

Steve picked us up for brunch at Portage Bay, then I went home and took a hot epsom salt bath and rolled my legs with a frozen cryo-roller. While I was dozing on the couch, Nick texted that he was signing up for another race at the end of October because he really wanted that R-Pod medal!

That is proof that my work here is done—Nick may not want to admit it, but he's officially a runner, and I think he even likes it.

Ali