{"id":208,"date":"2009-02-16T22:23:33","date_gmt":"2009-02-17T05:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/?p=208"},"modified":"2009-02-16T22:23:33","modified_gmt":"2009-02-17T05:23:33","slug":"i-heart-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/?p=208","title":{"rendered":"I (heart) running"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forget flowers, diamonds and boxes of chocolates; when it comes to celebrating the Hallmark holiday that is Valentine’s Day my darling and I do what we like best: we go running.<\/p>\n

First up was the Valentines Marathon on February 8.\u00a0 We had no intention of running it, but when we saw several of our Maniac friends were signed up, we figured we might as well too.\u00a0 (I never imagined I’d be at a point where I could sign up for a marathon at the last minute).\u00a0 While I intended to run it extremely slow, my darling offered to pace one of our Maniac friends to a 3:30 PR.<\/p>\n

This race, along with other “holiday” themed races put on by the same race director (Halloween, Christmas, Leprechaun, Easter) has quite the reputation among the Maniacs.\u00a0 It’s basically a love-hate relationship; while many appreciate having such races available, the organization leaves much to be desired.\u00a0 Although most are touted as being Boston certified, apparently the director has been known to change the course at whim.\u00a0 There are no road closures, so runners must be on the lookout for cars whizzing past at 50+ MPH.\u00a0 The t-shirts are old-school cotton and the timing at the end is suspect (there may or may not be a teenager there to mark your time; typically you have to hunt down the director to record what your Garmin states).\u00a0 While this wouldn’t be a problem if the race was inexpensive, for $65 I expect more.\u00a0 Still, we decided we’d have to run one and form our own opinion.<\/p>\n

The race begins in Millersylvania State Park in Olympia, a little over an hour and a half south of Seattle.\u00a0 It starts late — 10:30 a.m. — but most Maniacs choose the early 9:30 start so as not to waste the entire day.\u00a0 In addition to the marathon, they offer half-marathon, duathlon, 10-mile, 10K, 5K and 1-mile races, which adds to the confusion and congestion.\u00a0 We arrived at 9 a.m., picked up our bib numbers and mulled around talking to fellow Maniacs until the director called us to the start line at 9:30.\u00a0 Given the race is supposedly a Boston qualifier, you would think some note would be made about those choosing the early start.\u00a0 You would be wrong.<\/p>\n

Because I wanted to take it slow I decided to stick with Marie and Tory, who typically run together, chatting and shooting photos along the way.\u00a0 I figured if I felt like picking up the pace at any point, I certainly could.<\/p>\n

After a half mile on park roads the course turns onto Tilley Road.\u00a0 Immediately I understood the caution to NOT wear headphones as a couple of cars zoomed by.\u00a0 While the road was relatively flat, the shoulder was narrow and canted in several spots.\u00a0 Fortunately we turned off onto less busy side streets after six miles, although we were still on our own when it came to avoiding traffic.<\/p>\n

Although Tory, Marie and I brought up the rear, I think we had the most fun.\u00a0 We took a walk break every half mile and chatted continuously.\u00a0 I’ll be sharing a room with Marie for the Yakima River Canyon Marathon, and I’ve known Tory for a couple of years through her blog.\u00a0 She’s quite an inspiration — once carrying 220+ pounds on her petite frame she lost more than 100 pounds and has completed several marathons and triathlons (including a half Ironman last summer).\u00a0 Eager to share her enthusiasm for fitness with others, she’s also become a personal trainer and opened Journey Fitness<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

Because we took the early start aid was limited for the first hour and a half.\u00a0 While Tory and I each carried water on our fuel belts, Marie did not.\u00a0 However, she kept refusing our offer to share, saying she’d wait for an aid station.\u00a0 Fortunately there was one just before mile 11 and we all filled up.\u00a0 Soon after I saw my darling and Nic, the Maniac he hoped to pace to a 3:30 finish.\u00a0 The Valentines Marathon was Nic’s 13th in 12 weeks (he’s raising money for the Leukemia Foundation), and he was hoping to make it his fastest.\u00a0 They both still looked strong, so I blew my darling a kiss and we soldiered on.<\/p>\n

\"vdmatt4\"<\/p>\n

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Just as we were nearing the halfway point we started getting passed by folks who took the regular start (we were averaging 11 1\/2 minute miles).\u00a0 We stopped again at the aid station at the turnaround for water and strawberry Fig Newtons (our stomachs were starting to growl by then and the cookies tasted like Heaven).<\/p>\n

\"vdamigas11\"<\/p>\n

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The next several miles were a slog, and I was grateful to have Tory and Marie there to pass the time.\u00a0 However, I kept thinking I’d speed up and run off on my own, but then I’d have to ask myself, “Why?”\u00a0 I wasn’t looking for a particular time, and I was having so much fun with them.<\/p>\n

By the time we hit mile 22 or 23 we were all ready for the race to be over.\u00a0 We had a slim chance of finishing in under five hours, so we decided to skip every other walk break.\u00a0 By doing so we started passing a couple of other Maniacs, as well as another runner dressed in black.\u00a0 I could tell he wasn’t thrilled to have the Three Amigas pass him, as we kept leapfrogging him for several miles.<\/p>\n

After our walk break at mile 24 I decided it would be my last one.\u00a0 I SOOO wanted the race to be over, and I feared I wouldn’t be able to start up running again if I took another.\u00a0 Fortunately Tory and Marie felt the same way and they didn’t mind that I sped up.\u00a0 Mind you — I was still slow; I ran mile 25 in 9:57 and mile 26 in 9:25.\u00a0 When I saw the entrance to the park I really sped up, and lo and behold who do I see?\u00a0 Mr. Black!\u00a0 I passed him again (he was taking a walk break) but I could tell he too tried to speed up.\u00a0 HA!\u00a0 By now I was a woman driven and I ran the last .44 mile at an 8:35 pace.\u00a0 My darling was at the finish line with his camera; while I tried to look like a strong, focused runner chick, I think “slack jawed doofus” is a better description:
\n\"doofus\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As advertised, there were two teenagers at the end who apparently were recording times.\u00a0 After grabbing some chili and chips I went over to the table to see what time they had for me: 3:52:xx.\u00a0 That’s right folks — a BQ!\u00a0 Okay, so my Garmin read 5:03:37, but remember what I said about no one taking note of the early starters?\u00a0 My darling’s recorded time was 2:33:xx; not quite an Olympic qualifying time, but certainly a BQ (his actual time was 3:43:xx).\u00a0 I’m assuming they’ll eventually sort things out, but I’m told it takes weeks before results are posted.\u00a0 (Given Nic and my darling both had run a 50K the week prior, they didn’t mind missing their 3:30 goal).<\/p>\n

I do have to give some credit, though — my medal was pretty cool (although no one was there to place it over my neck; I had to ask one of the time takers for it).\u00a0 The food was plentiful, as promised, although it had been pretty much picked over by the time I arrived.\u00a0 Tory and Marie were just a couple minutes behind me, and we managed to get a final photo before we left:<\/p>\n

\"vdamigas21\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For Valentine’s Day we had a 16-mile run on the docket and my darling suggested we make it a bakery run.\u00a0 Brilliant!\u00a0 First up was Essential Bakery, where my darling had a cinnamon roll and coffee and I had a broccoli & cheese quiche.<\/p>\n

\"vdcinnroll\"<\/p>\n

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\"vdquiche\"<\/p>\n

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\"vdbetsybite\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We then headed downtown to the Pike Place Market and Le Panier for espresso and a chocolatine for my darling and a couple of macarons for me.<\/p>\n

\"vdlepanier\"<\/p>\n

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\"lepanier\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We then ran north along the waterfront toward Ballard and the Locks.\u00a0 By now my quads were feeling the pain (we had run almost 13 miles, plus I had run 11 miles the day before), so I took a quick break to rest.<\/p>\n

\"vdtired\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We had a couple more miles to go before reaching Larsen’s Bakery, and our route took us up the steep slope above Golden Gardens.\u00a0 While I chose to walk, my darling powered up it.<\/p>\n

\"vdstairs\"<\/p>\n

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Even though everything looked delicious at Larsen’s, neither of us was particularly hungry.\u00a0 Still, we each had a chocolate milk and a couple of heart-shaped shortbread cookies.<\/p>\n

\"vdlarsens\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While our final destination wasn’t technically a bakery, we still consumed things containing yeast.\u00a0 It was by far my favorite stop!<\/p>\n

\"vdbd\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forget flowers, diamonds and boxes of chocolates; when it comes to celebrating the Hallmark holiday that is Valentine’s Day my darling and I do what we like best: we go running. First up was the Valentines Marathon on February 8.\u00a0 We had no intention of running it, but when we saw several of our Maniac […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,3],"tags":[89,88,87],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fuel","category-race-reports","tag-seattle-bakeries","tag-valentines-day","tag-valentines-marathon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}