Race Recap: Beat the Bridge 8K

Happy Monday all!  I ran the annual Beat the Bridge race here in Seattle yesterday...it starts down the street from where I live and the price was very right at only $25 without a t-shirt so I decided to incorporate it into my long run for the day.

Before we dive into the race let's recap my week...the plan was:

putting this sticky note on my coffee table acted as good motivation!

What happened was:

Monday - Barre class - CHECK
Tuesday - 6 miles with Molly - CHECK
Wednesday - NO check, but I ended up doing a tabata circuit at my gym with some short treadmill sprints and left a sweaty mess so still exercise success!
Thursday - 8.3 miles with Carol - it was warm and sunny and these miles were hard, I need to start fueling better on runs longer than 6 miles

Beautiful Gasworks park and downtown Seattle

Friday - REST I did
Saturday - REST and Girls on the Run 5k (post about that coming soon!)
Sunday - 11 total miles with Beat the Bridge 8k - CHECK!

So, Sunday morning rolls around and sleeping in sounded like the best idea ever but the weather looked decent and I paid for the race so I better just suck it up and go.

Could that bib BE any bigger? I modified it (see pic below) ;)

I ran the 2.5ish miles to Husky Stadium area to meet up with Rira (newest member of my Ragnar Ultra team BTW!) and some of her friends.  Rira and her friends are SUPER speedy so we lined up around 8:00/mile sign and I was already nervous that was too fast for me.  Oh, but no worries, there were people running 12:00 miles in that group which made it REALLY fun to navigate for the first two miles.  But I shouldn't judge I suppose since I was in the wrong group too..oopsie! 

I wasn't trying to "race" the 8k but of course putting on that bib and lining up at the start pretty much amps you up to try your hardest.  We were off right at 8:30 and made the 2 mile trek to the University Bridge which is the "beat the bridge" part. They open it 20 minutes after the last runner so I knew I would have NO problem beating it.  And I found out why all the slow runners were up front...they were determined to beat the bridge because after they did most people starting walking which I thought was pretty odd.  

The rest of the 8k winds you around the edge of the University of Washington campus then out and back on Montlake Blvd.  They take you into the stadium areas and you finish on the UW practice football field. There was a terrible bottleneck curve right before the finish so any sprint to the finish was completely out of the question.  

8K RESULTS - 45:41 for a 9:12 pace

It was a fun race and a good course, most of which I run pretty regularly, but the crowds were just too much!  The finish line area was CRAZY and it took me almost 25 minutes to be herded back to the main parking lot where I would start running again.  

I really had no fuel minus some plain water and half a banana and those last 3 miles home were really really tough! I did see Mason from Nuun on the Burke Gilman trail so that brightened my spirits a bit, he was on mile 14 of his long run and looked like he was out for a walk in the park :).  

Rira and I before the race & 11 total miles for the morning!

After I hit 11 miles I walked the rest of the way home and stopped for some much needed chocolate milk at 7-Eleven.  After showering, eating and passing out for a couple hours I went out and stocked up on long run fuel so I don't feel depleted ever again!  With many many long training runs in my future I need to get back in the habit of fueling during runs. I even bought some gels to try...which I usually gag at the taste of but I really want to try and see if I can handle them again since they are just so darn easy to eat!

And the plan for this week so I actually stick to it:

Monday - Walk with the pup - the weather was just too nice to do anything else!
Tuesday - Tabata Boot Camp class in the AM, 6 miles in the PM
Wednesday - 9 miles with Jessey (another fellow Ragnar team member)
Thursday - Tabata Boot Camp in the AM
Friday - REST
Saturday - long hike with Jessey (location TBD)
Sunday - 12 mile long run

Anyone want to run 12 miles with me Sunday morning?? Pretty please!!