Half of Training and a Half Marathon DONE!

Jono and I

Labor Day weekend was week 9 of 18 weeks of training for the NYC Marathon. I was supposed to run 12 miles, but noticed there was a sale on the Rock 'n' Roll Washington half marathon on World Running Day. After texting my brother-in-law (Jono) who lives in Seattle to see if he was around that weekend, I impulse registered for the race. Luckily plane tickets were not too bad, and I had a $200 voucher for Delta. Washington here I come!

Megan at Métier

Jono picked my up at the airport and we went straight to west Seattle to eat an early dinner at Il Nido and it was DELICIOUS. Afterwards I was pretty tired and headed to bed early. On Friday we went to the race expo so I could pick up my bib and then we got some take-out tacos. After a nap Jono, Megan (Jono's girlfriend), and I walked to the local farmer's market and picked up some things to make dinner that night and on the way back we stopped for a beer at local Black-owned brewery Métier Brewing Company. 

Jono and Megan both had to work on Saturday so I was on my own to do whatever.  I first went to the farmer's market that Megan was working at to get something to eat for lunch and to check out the lovely produce. I then went to see one of my good college friend's from U.C. Santa Cruz that lives in Seattle. Unfortunately she was sick so I could only hang out with her for a few hours (originally I was going to hang out with her all day Saturday and spend the night). I capped off the day hanging out with Megan at their apartment. We got some take-out Ethiopian food and just chilled out and until I went to bed early since the race was at 6:30 am and I had to be up by 5:00 am (which is not as bad as it sounds for me since that is 8 am Atlanta time).

Sunday morning went smoothly and I was able to Uber to the start line. The race was not too big, so I started shortly after 6:30 am.  I took photos at every mile, but they were mostly boring since the course wasn't too pretty and I only felt horrible when there were uphills. And let me tell you there were some serious uphills which can be seen from elevation map from my Garmin. I did really appreciate that steep downhill, people were hauling ass...plus there was a special guest which I will post a photo of later.

After steep uphill at mile 5

Thank you to all of my mile sponsors from the race:

1 Savanna Blair

2 Shell

3 Julie Kuipers

4&5 Amy King

6 Emily Peterson

7 Jane and RJ

8 Deb Arora

9 Kita and Kai

10 Lolly and Maple

11 Amy McMinn

12 Anne Whitney

13.1 Renee Galloway

So, as I mentioned there were a lot of hilly parts with some slowly climbing and others were STEEP. We were rewarded with a long, steep downhill at mile 10. Overall mile 10 was by far the highlight of the entire race because of a special appearance by Sasquatch. The last 3 miles were a little miserable. I got a second wind at mile 11 but it was gone for the last mile and then the last turn for the 0.1 of 13.1 miles was a steep hill. NOT COOL. Megan was awesome and woke up early to cheer me on at the steep finish. After she drove me back to the apartment and then she and Jono made me delicious breakfast before I had to head to the airport to fly back to Atlanta. Megan also made me the sweetest painting of Endo and I running in front of the mountains of Washington! Side note: I sat next to Chili from TLC (T-Boz was in the row behind us). 

So now I am back in Atlanta and starting the second half of training, which will be much more difficult than the first 9 weeks. This weekend I have to run 14 miles. Wish me luck! Oh and thank you to everyone that has donated to Back on My Feet!

A Megan Fisher Original of Endo and I