My Quest to 50+1, 16
Down 34 to go
June 9-10, 2018
Seattle Rock N Roll
Half Marathon & 5k
This weekend I completed my 16th state race toward
my Quest to 50. This was my first runcation that I traveled by myself and was
also my birthday weekend. Can I tell you that Seattle is super hilly, didn’t
realize how much it was until I had to run or walk some steep streets and it
was about every other block. Oh and what I also noticed was the homeless situation which is everywhere but in Seattle they sleep in tents, you see tents all over the city in parks.
Day 1- I arrived Friday morning, I checked into my Airbnb,
had lunch and went to check out Pike Place Market which by then had started to
drizzle. You don’t go to Seattle and not expect rain, it wasn’t too hard that I
needed an umbrella. The Market Place was cool, lots of different foods and
produce and just fun to people watch. I saw the infamous Gum Wall also and
watched the Fish Mongers toss the fish.
Day 2- The race weekend started with a 5k on Saturday on my
birthday, we ran through the Museum of Flight and the course took us running
under planes, which was pretty cool. I
did really well in this race and after I toured through the museum. After the
race I was a bit stranded because the buses weren’t running, after waiting for
over 40 minutes I ended up calling an UBER to get back to town. I went for breakfast
and tried Biscuit Bitch, which is a place I had on my list. I am a big time
foodie especially when it comes to traveling. The 20 min wait on line and 15
min wait for food was totally worth it. I then took the bus back to my Airbnb which
I was greeted by their dog Gus with lots of barking then he was good lol. The
bus systems over in Seattle are so slow, google says its arriving at one time
and 20-30 min later I’m still waiting
Day 3- Sunday morning woke up at 5am for my half marathon that
started at 6:30am, took an Uber to the start since buses weren’t running. It
was a bit chilly at first but then the sun came out and no rain which was good.
There was a wave start because there were so many people and they wanted to give
runners some space, by the time I started at 6:45 the course still felt a bit
congested, I had people walking up the first hill at mile 2 in front of me and I
was constantly zigzagging. By mile 4 it was a bit better than mile 6 it became
crowded again. Mile 9 was a big hill and everyone including myself started
walking half way through, after that hill my legs became a bit tight and had to
stop and stretch. At mile 12 was downhill on a street full of construction, was
hard to go fast when you had to watch your footing because I saw a couple of
people fall. After the race I stopped in the park to take pictures and stretch,
tried to get an Uber and non-available and waited about 40 min for the bus. I
went back to my room, took a quick power nap and met my friend for lunch and we
went to another place on my list Marination Mai Ka in West Seattle which was a Hawaiian
place. When we go to the restaurant there a bit of a line and started to
drizzle. We got our food and sat outside since it was still nice weather
despite the rain, eventually it stopped and were able to enjoy the view and our
food which was delicious by the way. Afterwards we did some touristy stuff,
went to check out Ballard Locks which was pretty cool although we missed the
passing of the salmon and then we checked out GasWorks Park and started to rain
again.
Day 4- I knew when I came to Seattle I wanted to plan a
hike, since it was still early June a lot of the trails were closed due to
Snow, yes snow in June. The day before my hike it was 22 degrees and snowing in
Mt. Rainier which is where I hiked. I went with a tour group and drive was a
couple of hours, we arrived at Mt. Rainier national park , we stopped to see
Narada Falls on the way up the mountain, when we arrived to the top we put on
our snowshoes and hiked up, this was a lot of fun. The cloud coverage was
covering the peak of the mountain so every time we got a glimpse we took
pictures, the scenery all around was just breathtaking. I am so glad I did this
tour and was able to enjoy nature. We all sat for lunch afterwards which was delicious
and then we made our way for a short hike in the forest and learned about the
trees and had some edible plants also, which was pretty cool.
Overall my Seattle Birthday Runcation was great and another
state closer to my goal. Next state is Illinois where I will be running the
Chicago Marathon in October.
Until next time Happy Running, Biking, Hiking, Swimming
Boxing!
