During my race recap for the Rock and Roll Seattle half marathon I had mentioned that I was able to take part in a Seattle blogger opportunity and that it actually deserved it's own post because it was so great. It was hosted by OnlineShoes.com and featured Brooks Running.
So let me give you a little back story first. Both OnlineShoes.com and Brooks are local businesses to the Seattle area. Brooks sponsors tons of local events and has a HUGE presence in the running community in the greater Seattle area. OnlineShoes.com is an online resource for all types of shoes and has their headquarters in downtown Seattle where they have a gorgeous view and equally lovely offices (I got to stop in there!). This year for the Rock and Roll Seattle marathon races, OnlineShoes.com hosted a blogger after party event that featured Brooks to be held after the race in a location just a block away from the finish line and they invited a number of local bloggers to attend. I was one of the fortunate few that got to take part in this event! I was SO excited.
A year ago I watched my friend Danielle complete her first half marathon at the Seattle Rock and Roll race. I was so inspired and motivated by what I saw around me that day, that I went to the registration tent that same day and signed up for the next years race. Never having run a distance longer than 5k, I knew that I had a lot of training ahead of me, but I was excited for the challenge.
Fast forward a year, I've completed a half marathon already and I ran plenty of double digit training runs to feel comfortable with the distance of 13.1 miles. And it was time to run the race I had signed up for so long ago.
It began with the expo on Friday, it was quite impressive and the bib pickup process was quite easy!
I signed up for this race less than a month before the race date, it was definitely a knee jerk registration. The reason? I needed a 10K time to submit for corral placement for the Disneyland Half Marathon and since times have to be submitted no later than July 1st, I needed to get on that and fast! So I saw this community race that was pretty affordable and thought I would give it a go!
I went to packet pick up the day before and got my bib and timing chip. Then did my pre-race ritual of pinning my bib onto my outfit and getting it all laid out the night before.
Hello Thursday and why are you so brutal? Anyone else have trouble sleeping last night? I was tossing and turning all night and could not stay asleep to save my life. I blame the greek food I had for dinner. The hummus had SO MUCH garlic in it that it actually burned my palate as I ate it. No bueno.
Yesterday I went for a run for National Running Day at Greenlake with about a hundred other people. It was sponsored by Brooks Running, Road Runner Sports and Rock and Roll Race Series. We ran the lake and had a prize drawing, as well as a photo booth. Didn't get to take a picture with the crazy gear they brought!
Brooks was also there with Glycerin 11's for people to "test run". You signed out a pair of shoes and got to run with them around the lake! Pretty cool concept to have the ability to test out how a shoe will perform on a run longer than down the block (distance you usually get at shoe stores). I wanted to try a pair of the Glycerin 11's (especially that awesome blue color, I die!) but they were all out of my shoe size so I couldn't take them for a run. I wear a VERY common size it seems, 9.5, Brooks shoes are almost always out of my size when I go shopping.
I wasn't going to race this past weekend. I wasn't going to get involved in any runs in the area around here, and there were quite a few being talked about. Though as the week went on and friends were tweeting and Facebooking about the races they were going to run during St. Patty's weekend, the more I started to rethink my decision.
Then I got a Twitter message.
So to have the ability to run with these guys and pick their brains a bit was too good to pass up. So I signed up, the Thursday before the race. I never sign up for a race this late, but I did and I'm not sorry about it.
I kinda wanted to run this race to be honest. I had a great outfit planned for it already if I did decide to run, so I was glad when I finally caved, because I got to wear all this great gear!
