Hello, Seattle

I made my (probably not) grand entrance into the world at the Naval Hospital in Bremerton, Washington, and thus the Seattle area has always occupied a special place in my heart. My last visit to the Pacific Northwest was about 14 years ago on a family vacation. I remember thinking Seattle was so beautiful--all fir trees, pines, mountains, and water.

My sisters and I in Bremerton, maybe? Circa 1999. NO on the hair. Oh my God.

Ronni, of the bleached blond hair streaks, completely disregards the sign on the sample box. This picture aptly describes our enthusiasm of free things.

This past week I made a return visit to the place where it all began, for QT with my friend Amanda and a half marathon, which is my favorite way to see a city. This was my last half for a while, but much more on that later.

Expo time! We planned an early trip to the expo, but our plans were thwarted when the computerized lock thing to our hotel room door decided to stop working after breakfast. After 2 hours of idling in the lobby while the building engineer disassembled the door, we got a new room plus half our stay was comped! So it was worth it, but I remember thinking all the free samples would be gone by the time we got to the expo. Wrong! You better believe my lunch consisted of power bars, organic corn chips, Gu, yonanas, and electrolytes.

After the expo, we did some exploring around downtown and the Space Needle area. Seattle is as beautiful as I remember it to be.

Pike Place! The city is surrounded by water, which means lots of fresh and tasty seafood. I'm sure the prices are marked up at Pike Place, but it's still impressive.

Of course I had to take a picture with One Direction. The green sunglasses were free at the expo. Never would've snagged them if we hadn't gone early. It's true! The early bird catches the free sunglasses! 

Beecher's Cheese. Cheese makes everything it touches delicious, in case there was any doubt.

The famous Gum Wall. I'm unsure of the back story of this wall, but it's pretty famous. I personally thought it was kind of disgusting.

The first Starbucks.The line was out the door, so we opted to skip. Although Starbucks locations get sleeker by the minute, this one seems to have retained its original feel. I guess if you are the OG, corporate will give you a pass on the major renovations. We happened to drive by corporate headquarters, which looked like a college building with a ginormous Starbucks logo affixed to the clocktower.

We took the monorail to the Seattle Center, where the race started and finished. If you go to the Space Needle during off-hours, the price for admission is half off.

The view from the top of  the Space Needle is pretty darn amazing.

It wasn't my first trip to the Space Needle. See: a high school-aged Christina. I love film cameras!

Seattle seems to have grown exponentially since my last visit. Lots of shiny, sparkly skyscrapers.

Lots of boats! The city has a Scandinavian feel to it. Obviously, I've never been to Norway, Denmark, or Sweden, but Seattle seems close to what I imagine those countries to be. Trees, water, boats, mountains, smoked fish. It's really beautiful. I don't think we got an accurate sample of Seattle weather though, because it was sunny and mild the entire trip. We lucked out big time!

My first MLB game, the Mariners vs. The A's. As? Anyway, baseball is more fun when you watch it in person, eating garlic fries and looking at the incredible sunset. Also, the Mariners won. Just for me, obviously.

On Sunday I met my buddy Aaron and his family for lunch. It was so great to catch up with him and his wife, and meet their hysterical 3 year old son. We went to one of their favorite restaurants, right by the water (which body of water, I'm not sure. Lots of water in Seattle). This was my view. Phone cameras do not do any justice to the Seattle landscape. I could see mountains.

They also took me to a place called the Locks, where Puget Sound and Lake Washington are connected. Private and commercial fishing boats are docked there, and the tide is raised and lowered to get the boats into the water. The Locks also help with salmon spawning by helping them move upstream. I am doing a horrible job of explaining this place, which was really, really cool. I actually had no idea what was happening until I got home and Googled it.

Sockeye salmon, which is delicious when smoked and served with cream cheese.

Oh yes. The half marathon.

I wasn't planning on doing another half marathon this year due to some nagging injuries. (Hip, piriformis-aka, my butt, left knee, plantar fasciitis. Hey, mom.) Amanda, who is super awesome, signed up for the Rock and Roll tour pass, which meant entrance to as many races as she wanted. Earlier in the year she asked me to consider meeting up in Seattle to hang out and run. Honestly, I didn't pull the trigger on the race until the Boston Marathon bombings. Literally, I was in an emotional, "terrorists can't keep me from running" state when I registered. 

It's in my eyes: fear, terror.

The other factor which played into this trip was deciding to take a break from running after this half. I love to run, I love the half marathon distance, the preparation, the training. It's been my refuge for the past couple of years. However, the injuries, the constant tiredness, planning my entire week around runs...it was becoming too much. I need time to recover, to let my body rest, and to do something else. I miss doing yoga. I would like to eat breakfast on Sunday mornings. I would like to go for a walk. After this race, I planned a running sabbatical.

We cannot resist a staged photo op!

BUT since I knew it would be my last for a while, I wanted to go big or go home. Because I'm insane, I set a (probably unrealistic) time goal for myself. I ran in the sweltering Memphis heat with a camelbak. I made peace with my old nemesis the track, running intervals at 7 am during my summer break. Why? Because I'm insane.

My strategy was to break the race into quarters and see how I felt after each 5 kilometers. Also, I would not activate the GPS on my watch. It seems counterintuitive, but I cannot handle running and doing math at the same time.

Basically, I ran the exact race I wanted...for 10 miles. When I hit the 10 marker, I realized I needed to run  the last 3 miles in 24 minutes or less to reach my time goal. I knew I could do it. My body, however, had just run its fastest 10 miles ever. I left nothing in the tank for the last 5K and really struggled the last two miles. My time was about 20 seconds off my best. It's bittersweet. I am disappointed to not meet my goal, but I'm also relieved that it's over. One day, I will learn to hold back, to not get caught up in the excitement and to reserve energy for the finish. When and where? I don't know yet. It's kind of nice. 

Things I will do when I'm not running:

• Go to brunch on a Sunday morning. Wait in line with people instead of running past them and getting annoyed that they are about to eat.
• Blog (no, really. I mean it this time).
• Start and not finish projects I find on Pinterest.
• Cook my husband dinner instead of taking him out to eat because I feel guilty for not cooking.
• Fold laundry.
• Yes, wanting to start a family was a factor in deciding to take a break. Probably not smart to put it on the internet, but I'm being honest.
• Perhaps go to Seattle again, this time with my husband. I know for certain he would fall in love with it. I was planning on getting coffee wasted in Seattle, but it just didn't work out this time. I can't imagine getting coffee wasted in coffee mecca with anyone other than Zach.
• Build up my personal travel account again. Yes, I have a separate account solely for my trips. (Proof I can be organized with money!) Traveling for races gets pretty expensive, and I'd like to take some non-running trips soon.
• Run a 5k. I know I said "no more running," but really. When fall rolls around, I'll want to run. Just not 20+ miles a week.

One more anecdote about these boots!

I obsessively checked the weather reports leading up to the trip, and it forecasted rain every day except race day. During an off-campus work meeting (I am working a little during summer) I wondered if I should get some rain boots. The meeting location was near this close-out store a friend had told me about, so afterwards I swung by just to check if they had any rain gear. The store (Bargain Hunt) is kind of junky and crazy, but I wandered around until I found the shoes. Lo and behold, sitting on a shelf was a pair of Hunter rain boots in my size. In real life Hunter boots are about $140-$150, which I think is an absolutely obscene amount to pay for rain boots. These were marked $50, with an additional 10% off because they'd been sitting on the shelf for a week. (For every week an item stays in stock, it's marked down an additional 10%). Clearly, God wanted me to have these rain boots, right? I couldn't pass up the deal. Of course, the weather was pristine while I was in Seattle, and didn't rain until I boarded the plane to come home. Haha. Love when the universe puts me and my materialism into place.