ready or not, here I run

The Kirkland Half Marathon has come & gone!  I'm happy to say that I survived in one piece :)
The weather was beautiful and I loved the route.  This was my second half marathon - the first was the Seafair Half Marathon in June 2008.  I liked this one much better!  That route was on a lot of arterial streets, so it wasn't very scenic.  The only cool part was that we started at Husky Stadium and crossed the 520 Bridge.  This route was much nicer - it went along tree lined streets and residential neighborhoods, and then the last few miles was along the waterfront and through a park.  The other thing I liked better is that there were a lot less people - I didn't feel like I was going to get run over, and I wasn't having to weave in and out of groups of people.

Here are the highlights:
Starting line - there were two groups: the slower group started at 7 a.m. and the faster group started at 7:30 a.m.  I went with the slow group, partially because I was anticipating having to walk some of the course, and partially because it was FREEZING cold and I wanted to get moving as soon as possible.  Right at mile 5 the lead runners began to pass me.  That was pretty incredible realizing how fast they were running to make up the half hour head start I had.

Mile 8 - I saw a woman running while pushing a stroller.  I was impressed - that's a lot of extra work especially since there were a lot of hills!  A minute later I saw a guy running barefoot.  I've heard about people doing that, but seeing it in person was shocking.  It made me laugh at any thoughts of foot pain I was having.

Mile 9 - I was getting tired and my left knee was hurting pretty badly.  We turned a corner and the waterfront & mountains came into view right at the same time a man with a prosthetic leg passed me.  I was so inspired that I literally started crying!  Here I was thinking about my knee pain and along comes a guy who didn't even have a knee and he was leaving me in his dust.  Sure puts things into perspective - so cool!

Mile 10 - I ran into my father-in-law.  He lives in downtown Kirkland so he came out to find me.  I didn't know he was going to be there, so I was pleasantly surprised.  It gave me a little boost of encouragement for the last 3 miles.

Mile 12 - On the last big hill I saw a woman running up with two huge dogs.  No fair - they were pretty much towing her up the hill!  I laughed thinking I might have to borrow some dogs next year.

The finish line!!!  Yay, I made it!  I grabbed a bottle of water and some food, and then overheard the name of a friend over the loud speaker (they were announcing names as people finished).  It was a friend I hadn't seen since high school, so I ran over to say hi to her.  So fun to see her after all these years!  (12 to be exact)

All in all it turned out to be a great day!  I'm so happy that I did it :)