Race Recap: 2013 Seattle Seahawks 12K

Yep, this race was totally unplanned.  I knew it was coming, I heard twitter rumblings of people I knew running it, but I didn't really decide to participate until late last week.  I'm not gonna lie, all the Boston bombings happenings have really lit a fire under my running shoes and I feel the urge to run and race a lot more lately.

So...with some encouraging from my twitter friends I registered for the Seahawks 12K and then convinced Meghan to do it as well and carpool with me...win win! Plus, I finally got the chance to wear my Nuun singlet for the first time.

Now, I'm no dummy and I know how to do math. I know a 5K is 3.1 miles and a 10K is 6.2 miles but for some reason in my racing brain a 12K equaled 9 miles...NOT TRUE.  I actually didn't realize this until the morning of the race so I was insanely excited to only be running 7.46 miles instead of 9, especially considering the most I have run since the Sedona half was 6 miles.

I picked Meghan up bright and early Sunday morning and we got to the race start in Renton pretty early to pick up our packets.  We both immediately agreed...BEST RACE SHIRT EVER! Also, another dumb moment when I realized why the race is a 12K...the 12th man...the fan...DUH!

We basically sat in my car to keep warm until right before the race start.  We stopped by the Nuun tent to hang out with Oiselle sister birdies Nolana and Morena and met up with Lindsay and Nicole.  Then we literally went through the crowd control barriers to take a spot near the front since we knew the race would have a good amount of walkers.

Nuun and Oiselle representing!

At 9AM the race started with a slight drizzle to keep us cool.  The first mile was pretty boring and wound through the industrial part of Renton until we made our way onto Lake Washington Blvd.  We followed this all the way north to the Seahawks training facility before making our way back.  Evidently, Seahawk players handed us water...totally lost on me. I had also assumed it was a rather flat course, NOT the case.  But for every uphill there was a downhill and I like the challenge a short hill provides.

Just imagine this photo is of us together because that is my arm in the right side of Meghan's photo :).  I like that they cropped individuals but if it obvious people are running together it would be nice to have a photo together...just sayin.

I felt pretty strong most of the way but my quads definitely let me know they haven't run more than 6 miles around mile 6.5.  Luckily, I knew I could push them for one more!

Meghan and I ended up running all the way up to 7 miles together, which was awesome and we kept around an 8:40 pace the whole time...hey consistency! She had more juice her in tank than I did and sped off to the finish.

Look! A decent race photo!

I ALWAYS looks like death with horrible form in race photos so this one really surprised me!! I actually bought it, the $12.99 price tag was actually quite reasonable in my opinion. Be certain I'll be overusing this photo in the months to come on this blog ;).  I hope Nuun is proud I actually made their singlet look semi-decent...I tried really hard!

I finished in 1:06:04 which was an 8:51 pace according to the official results.  Meghan said the course was about .2 miles long which would make sense since her watch indicated we were doing 8:30-8:40 the entire time.

Thanks for pulling me along Meghan! This girl is running her first marathon this weekend, good luck in EUGENE!

Meghan and I proceeded immediately to Panera Bread to warm up with coffee and soup.  I am most definitely not in racing shape right now because I crashed hard the rest of the day and my legs are still a little tired...oops!

So, what is next for these running legs? The immediate future is not yet known but I need to start piling on the miles because I'm running the Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage as part of an ultra team...SCARY!

QUESTION: Have you ever run a 12K or 15K? I think I might like this distance...longer than a 10K but not as challenging as a half marathon...perfect in the middle.