A 15 Mile Long Run & the Seahawks 12k!

Have you seen my Nuun Hood to Coast Application yet?!  If not go check it out RIGHT NOW!  And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

I'm so proud!  Sunday morning I pumped out my longest run in a long long time (since October 2010) - 15.11 miles!  Let's back up a bit.  We had a busy weekend planned (recap about that coming tomorrow) and I sadly was looking at long-running alone, which I was dreading.  At the last minute though we were able to come back home Saturday night and long-running with Jordanne and Lisa was back on!  I was ecstatic.  The plan was 15 miles including the Seahawks 12k Run.  A 12k is about 7.4 miles, so we would need to get about 7.6 miles out of the way before the race.

I tried to do this run right.  I ate a big carb-tastic dinner the night before (some delicious Pad Kee Mao from our local Thai place), had oatmeal and coffee for breakfast in the morning, carried Nuun in my handheld, and ate 3 Gu shot blocks during our mini break before the race.  I think I could have eaten a bit more during the run but other than that it all worked out well.

We met up at 7:20am (ugh, I hate when my alarm goes off before 7 on the weekends!), and our pre-race run was fairly uneventful, except for being scared to death by a squirrel (yes I screamed again, two runs in a row with screams from animals).  But the wind, oh the wind.  The way out was great, the way back was a really really ridiculous headwind.  Since we ran on the route of the race we were not looking forward to the last 3 miles of the race!

We got back to the start with perfect timing, met up with Katie and Amy who did this race too, and headed to the start.  I randomly saw my friend Marie who rocked this race (way to go!) amongst the thousands of people, which is always shocking when that happens. 

And then we were off!  It was pretty congested at the beginning.  Jordanne and I were just trudging along for the first few miles.  I felt surprisingly good for the first 3 miles (miles 8-10) or so.  It didn't seem like so far to go based on how far we'd already gone.  Of course running with the crowds made it so much easier, I want to do ALL of my long runs during a race.

The course was fairly scenic - running along the sound and past really ridiculous houses on the water.  It was an out-and-back, with the turn around involving running around the Seahawks training facility:

You couldn't really see inside except for the weight room - no one was working out. 

Someone said real live Seahawks were supposed to be handing out water but I didn't see them!  At this point I decided to turn it on a bit.  A progressive run seemed like a good idea and plus, then I would be done sooner.  This is into the headwind and up hills!  Check out the splits from the last 6 miles:  8:57, 8:42, 8:20, 8:23, 8:24, 8:14 

Then we finished!  I was really happy when the watched beeped 15.  I felt pretty good!  Certainly not like I could run 11 more but like I could have run a few more (unlike last week when 14 was the very last step I could possibly take). 

Three Seahawks were signing autographs at the finish.  I'm an idiot and don't know who they are.  Does anyone know their names?  

The two words of the day were headwind and hills.  In the whole scheme of things the elevation map doesn't look that impressive and with only 248 feet of elevation gain across 15 miles, that's not that much.  But it felt hilly at the time.  Maybe it was just emphasized by the headwind.  You can at least see how the second half (the race part) was way hillier. 

But 15.11 miles in 2:19:43 (AP 9:15) - I was proud!  My stomach started growling at 13 so I went IMMEDIATELY to Panera and ate a delicious egg sandwich and a coffee.  Then we book-clubbed it up and celebrated our accomplishments with more bagels and coffee.  A perfect morning if you ask me!

 

 This is the farthest Lisa has ever ran!  I'm so proud of her (and all 3 of us!)!  Lisa and I are twinsies.

How far did you run this weekend?  Did you race?  What's the furthest distance you have ever run?