Race Recap: Lake Union 10K

This past weekend I ran the Lake Union 10K in my Seattle "backyard". Lake Union holds a special place in my running heart since the first time I ever ran 6 miles at once was around this lake with my Team Flying V gal pals over 4 years ago.  I can remember feeling like we were going to "die" more than once and absolutely starving after...oh how naive we were about running and nutrition back then :).

Since then I have ran around this lake more times than I can even try to remember but have never "raced" it so I was excited to sign up for this particular race and even more so when it benefits Girls on the Run Puget Sound. I managed to recruit 4 of my NuunKOTB ladies to run it as well...we missed all the rest of you!!

Packet Pickup and Pre-Race Dinner

Packet pickup was at REI all day Saturday so Meghan, Stacie, and I decided to meet there before dinner.  No expo of any sort just grabbing our stuff which included a pretty good looking tech tee!  Arielle from Nuun came over to say HI to us since she lives around the corner and we got to hear all about her upcoming Ironman Canada trip...GOOD LUCK Arielle!!

Meghan, Stacie, and I headed over to Pesos where we met Becky who drove up all the way from Tacoma just to sit in the presence of us ladies for some food ;).  On the recommendation of Arielle I had the butternut squash enchiladas and they did not disappoint...yummo!!

We were all terrible bloggers and took no photos of each other...when will we ever learn?

Race Day!

I went to bed at a decent hour, set my alarm for 5:45AM and dozed off to a good nights sleep.  I woke up in the morning, looked at my clock and saw it read 6:15AM!!  It took me a minute to register what was going on and I bursted out of bed disregarding all usual pre-race routines and raced out the door in record time.  My phone had died overnight even though it had a full charge when I went to bed...WTF!

The race started at 7:30 and I wanted to make sure I didn't have to walk 5 miles to the start and luckily I still got there early enough to get a decent parking spot and hit the porta-potties before the line got long.  The race started at South Lake Union Park and the morning was a perfectly cool and cloudy 65...slightly muggy but very comfortable!  After a stretch of hot sunny days I was happy to see some clouds.

Small but organized well!

Other NuunKOTB ladies in attendance were Megan and Dawn who couldn't meet us the night before for dinner :(.

pre-race (minus Dawn)...me, Megan, Stacie, Meghan

Note to self: NEVER wear such boring colors around such amazing, colorful ladies again :).  I'm going to blame my alarm failure!

The race started on Westlake Avenue and I lined myself up to be with the 9:00/mile group not really knowing how I would race that day.  We started off running straight north on Westlake Avenue and then taking a turn to go over the Fremont Bridge.  Once we hit the Burke Gilman Trail (mile 2ish) by Gasworks I was feeling like I went out a tad too fast and when a guy next to me told his friend he was running at an 8:30 pace my suspicions were confirmed.  I slowed it down a tad until we went over the University Bridge and ran alongside Eastlake.

I was feeling pretty good after the half way point and decided to just go all out for as long as I could.  I realized I was on track to finish in under 55 minutes (previous 10K PR is 57:36) so I made that my goal!  When were about .5 mile from the finish I went to pass this girl but she would NOT let me pass her and she began to speed up and slow down along with me. After we cruised through the finish line we looked at each other, gave each other a high five and thanked one another for pushing each other...running ladies are awesome!

I crossed the line of the Lake Union 10K in 53 minutes and 45 seconds, a new personal record by almost 4 minutes!

I saw Megan and Meghan immediately after and we re-fueled with Great Harvest Cinnamon Chip buns and some water of course - they really should have had some Nuun though!  We cheered Stacie, Dawn and Meghan's parents (who are ridiculously cute BTW) in to the finish and I think we were all beat from the early start time and went our separate ways shortly after for more sleep or brunch.

post-race (minus Meghan)...Megan, me, Stacie, Dawn

I would definitely recommend this 10K to anyone in the Seattle area. It was smaller, well organized (there was water on the course twice and even GU!), and parking isn't too terrible in that neck of the Seattle woods.  Of course we chatted about the next NuunKOTB race and some mumbling about the Fairhaven Runners 15K in Bellingham on September 8 were rolling around...anyone want to join?

After the race I promptly went home, made a huge breakfast and passed out for about an hour!  I spent the rest of the eventually sunny Sunday at Hempfest (I did not participate in any of the "activities" BTW) with my brother and probably walked another 10K to and from my car and around the festival...my legs are TIRED today!

Question: Who else raced out there this past weekend?  A big congrats to Ricole Runs and Hiker Mom for completing their VERY FIRST triathalon over the weekend!