Ghost of Seattle

Seattle Triple, Day #2

Due to messed up sleep schedule, have been awake since midnight doing nothing but eating (and blogging). Bowl of cereal, 5 egg omelette with Tabasco, vanilla pancakes, banana, leftover stuffing, gatorade. Still managed to be late for the early start of the Ghost marathon.

Luckily it was in my backyard, the Lake Washington Blvd/ Seward Park Loop, i.e. the flat part of the seattle marathon, done twice. Luckily they let slowpokes like me do an early start so they can finish and party with the fast people before all the post-race food runs out.

Found parking a block away, but kept forgetting stuff in my car so missed the early start and took off on my own, about 16 minutes after the early start folks, 44 minutes before the main pack. Then I started running in the wrong direction, had to start over and restart my watch. Hey, the arrows were only pointing in one direction, and I had no one to follow.

The first 5 miles I was amazed to be moving at all, and by mile 10 I started to think I could actually do this. I got to Seward Park and passed all the early start people going the other way, could feel them mouthing, "you're going the wrong way". Had I entered the park backwards? Geez, I've only run here like 50 times. I finished the Loop and started following the arrows, which not surprisingly, led me back for a 2nd Loop as I had erroneously done my first loop backwards. I found another runner wearing Maniac gear and decided to follow.

Ran most of the race with Maniac #122, whom I'd met before and was doing his 316th marathon, but only the double this time. Hearing tales about the local running scene as well as a lot of classic races passed the time quickly, and made me forget my stiff legs. His advice for doing triples? Eat little afterwards, stretch a lot, and don't run again (but do bike and cross train) for 3-4 days after the race. The rest stops were awesome- there was Coca cola, red bull, boiled potatoes with salt (as far as I'm concerned, the BEST rest stop food ever, marathoners can learn something from cyclists!), PB&J sandwich wedges, orange wedges, cookies, muffins, pretzels, water, gatorade, even gummy bears (though this last is a terrible race food, I think it was there just to make the Portlanders happy). Most everyone either knew everyone or at least gave high fives to fellow Maniacs.

I saw EatDrinkRunWoman ahead of me, she had already BQ'd earlier this year, and done the early start so she could meet her husband, "Thing 1" who was trying to qualify for Boston (yes, the Ghost is now a USATF certified race). I caught her around mile 23, but then she smoked me at the end. Sadly, Thing 1 missed BQ by 48 seconds. I would have to either PR by 15 minutes, or repeat my current PR 6 years from now to qualify. I recall lamenting this fact to a fellow Maniac at a pasta dinner once. His reply? That the only way he'd qualify for Boston was to have a sex-change operation.

I wanted to beat 5:00 today and met my goal at 4:55:25. Steve "the Prez" Yee (Maniac #1) was at the finish line handing out medals. Must say, the Ghost medal was even better than the actual Seattle marathon medal. Then the post-race food- hot chili and grilled hotdogs (your choice, regular, beef, or veg) with all the toppings, while other Maniacs sat in front of a fire.
I was anxious to get home to my ice bath and post-race meds (which today consists of Wild Turkey and Advil). I'm a little stiffer and my chafage is significantly worse (believe me, chafage is worse than any blister), but my legs actually hurt less than yesterday. Of course my stated goal is to just finish tomorrow. I'd love to beat 5:00 again, but realistically? It's a pretty hilly course. We'll see.....