Rock 'n' Roll Seattle - quick recap

Before I let too much time get away, here's a quick recap of Rock 'n' Roll Seattle last weekend. I did the half marathon during the inaugural event in 2009. Now that I'm a better runner and with the course change, I decided to do the full marathon this time around. It was my second time running a marathon.

My main goal was to finish in under 4 hours, which I would have been happy with. My secret goal was to set a new PR.

Just like at RnR Portland, I thought the event was extremely well organized. I liked the new start and finish at Seattle Center. There was so much room that even though it was a huge event, it didn't feel crowded at all. The bands, cheerleaders, and volunteers were great and there was plenty of water and GU. I liked the course and overall it wasn't too hilly. The run by the lake and in the park was the best part. Aside from the novelty of running on an Interstate, I didn't really like the out and back on I-90. The Rock 'n' Roll team did a great job setting up cones and maintaining separate lanes for the marathoners and half marathoners after the course split and met up again. I would have been extremely frustrated if I had to dodge and weave through all walkers for the last 6 miles of the race.

I ran a strong race and was very pleased with my overall performance. I fueled with GU Chomps/gel about every hour, and I took water at every station. I did my best to take it easy during the first half so that I would have energy left at the end. I could probably have held back a little more and tried for more even splits, but I'm not confident enough yet for that. I feel better having a little time banked.

I was so focused on the sub-4 finish goal that I didn't even know what I had to aim for to get a new PR. Once I started looking at the stats afterwards, it turns out that I have a new official PR, although it's not a distance PR. The thing is that during my first marathon, I ran 26.2 miles in 3:54:22. But the Route 66 Marathon has this unique .3 mile optional detour to earn an extra medallion, so since I took the detour my official time for that race was 3:57:07.

My official finish time for Rock 'n' Roll Seattle is 3:54:27, and I'm very happy with my results! 

608 out of 3089 overall

156 out of 1434 females

30 out of 270 in F25-29 age group

Right now I don't have any firm plans to do RnR Seattle again in the near future. I think I also said this in my review of RnR Portland... even though it's a terrific race, there are so many other events around this time of year that I'd like to try that I probably won't do any repeats for awhile. But I give the race a 9 out of 10 and would definitely recommend it to others.