Sunday, July 1, 2012

Seattle - Before & After

Obviously I LOVED the Rock'n'Roll Seattle half marathon. For someone that doesn't like to repeat races, the fact that I proclaimed possibly a threepeat shows it was a lot of fun! But the fun certainly wasn't limited to just 13.1 miles after all. So now a short photo look at what happened before and after the race!

I was petrified to drive to Seattle. Do you realize there are points where it is 8 lanes of traffic going in the same direction?? That's insanity! I live where we have TWO lanes on the freeway. BUT!!! I did it!! Getting to the expo was pretty simple and I was very relieved to park and just leave my car there for the day and get around on foot instead.  We got to the expo within a half hour of it's morning opening. Oh the free stuff! I brought in a MUCH bigger haul in Portland though. But still, I went home with gobs of tuna fish ... I'm a vegetarian. But I also got 3 different pairs of sunglasses, and you never know when you'll need an emergency pair of neon green glasses! Man Friend had never been to an expo before, so he was pretty impressed. After all of the expos I've been two, RnR's are consistently the biggest and the best!

Lesley!!
For those of you curious about the shopping... I went home with the RnR medal pin, a pink RnR hat, a blue Seattle RnR t-shirt, hot pink arm sleeves (which I wore in the race), oodles of Power Crunch bars and the coolest iPhone case from Run Pretty Far. And of course the free stuff like a t-shirt, key chain, yada yada yada and tuna fish...

Jennifer & I finally met!
I bailed on the expo to go get some yummy food at the Hard Rock Cafe. So delicious! I wanted to eat all the things (and I did!) so we started with a big plate of nachos. I opted for the twisted mac & cheese with a side of fries, of course. The mac & cheese is spicy! At the Hard Rock store I ran into this guy. Last year at the same exact spot I saw him there, so this time I had to introduce myself. He is George - from Louisiana - also there to race. So two out of staters met each other two years in a row at the same spot. Small world!

Stacie :-)
Then the texts came from Lesley. Pretty sure she called me a loser and a bitch in her quest to get my slacker ass back to the expo.  So I hurried back and met up with the bloggers AFTER the blogger meet-up. Fashionably late?!? Not only did I get to see my dear Lesley again for the first time in over a year, but I also got to meet Jennifer for the first time, see Kim (haven't seen her in a month?!?) AND 2/3 of Team Jam were reunited again when I got to force Giraffy to give me a hug! Yay!! It was exactly a year ago in Seattle that I last saw Stacie, and so I was thrilled to see her again and quiz her all about this enormous bridge I have to run over in Portland. She eased my mind a bit, thanks!!

Giraffy, Kim, Fruit Fly and Jennifer
Giraffy and I spent expo time together just wandering around and getting some more free stuff before parting ways for the night.  Man Friend and I then went to check into the hotel right by the Space Needle. Our room was awesome! We had so much free room for foam rolling AND a couch! I needed to make an emergency run to Macy's for my dinner cruise outfit. I felt so poor.  I found all of these cute dresses ... for like $200. Eek. Eventually found my outfit and was ready for dinner. Being exhausted we just ate at the restaurant at our hotel. OMG so gross. I'll just share the photo:


Is that white water? Blech. And I'm pretty sure everyone working there was stoned. Giraffy and Becka showed up - I promptly warned them about how nasty it was there and they chose to go elsewhere for their pre-sleep beer. Soon I crashed, woke up, raced ....

Post-race! AKA TRAVIE MCCOY!!! I was all about the concert for me. He is so freaking cute!!! At one point when Travie asked where the single ladies are at I believe I jumped in the air and waved both arms. Sorry, Man Friend. ;-) It is very possible I stood up and danced through the entire concert and took 80 photos. No more, no less. 80 photos!!

Mid concert I had such a treat! We have done so many of the same races, and finally I got to meet another Disney runner ... Emily! *She's doing the Tower of Terror 10 Miler, too!

Emily and I -- sparkling in our skirts!
And now ... you know the song .... We have to take our clothes off, to have a good time .... LOVE! And so this happened....



Travie McCoy + Fruit Fly 4eva??

After the concert I wanted to make one last attempt at winning something other than tuna fish. Dammit. No luck, but when I was appeared to be cold and wrapped myself in my space blanket the tuna kid took pity on me. Guess what I went home with!

On the way out I glanced over and saw Jennifer just heading out with her running posse. She clearly had a blast during her race and was a bundle of energy! Good thing we all left when we did. The rain and wind really kicked in. The space blanket became a rain poncho. I walked over one of the tunnels on the way "home" and cheered on the marathoners coming up to the end of their run. Sadly I never saw my friend, but after their race I did get to hang with them one last time in my room and hear all about what it was like to run a first marathon on the crazy Seattle hills. Good job, Giraffy! You're my running hero!

And that's that. One more Seattle post left, and then I guess I'll get back to "real" life?!? 

5 comments:

  1. Goodness! Looks like you had a blast! A major blast!
    And tuna fish.... Tuna fish... Tuna fish ....

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  2. Fabulous time by all accounts, well done :-)

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  3. Sounds like you had the Seattle experience I had last year, which is why I'm totally willing to fly cross country again for it!

    I remember cheering on the full marathoners last year. It was crazy to think if I ran one, I'd be one of those runners and everyone was leaving. Boo!

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  4. AnonymousJuly 05, 2012

    Look at us in our fab sparkle skirts!! :) Yay!

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