Mercer Island Half Marathon

On Sunday March 25 Jenny and I rode bikes to meet at the I-90 tunnel 8am sharp. Upon meeting we both commented that if we hadn't committed to each other, neither of us would have been there. Typical Seattle March weather, chilly and drizzly. We crossed the windy I90 bridge and kept convincing ourselves that bikes were the way to go; we wouldn't have to fight traffic or find parking; but the comfort of a car may have been nice. After gathering bib number and chip, locking up the bikes and switching shoes we headed over near the start to see the sponsors. Hot decaf Starbucks and a couple of Clif shot bloks made for a good prerace snack.


After warming ourselves in the local Rite-Aid we scooted over to the start of the Mercer Island Half Marathon with only a few minutes to spare and decided that our Patagonia shells were too much and ran them back over to our backpacks as the gun was going off... we were THE last two people to start the race. It made for a fun run though, working my way back up through the field of 2,000+ runners (there was a 10k & 5k as well). The windy, hilly loop around Mercer Island was entertaining (for a road race) and trying to maintain a speedy race pace challenged my heart rate and hamstrings. It was fun to get back to a road race, feel the "runner energy" magnified (because there are so many more people there) and and be done with a tough effort in just under an hour and a half.

The best part was running back out on the course to meet friends Jeanne, Jenny and my spin instructor Eli, cheering runners on as I went. The funny smiles I got and looks of relief when I told them it was "all downhill from here" were entertaining and spirit lifting, "runner energy". Jenny and my results don't reflect the late start, but experience is what we were after, not the time. The sun came out right as Jenny finished so our bike ride back into Seattle was much more enjoyable and it was another experience where we were much happier to have done it, even when initially turning off the alarm sounded more enticing.