DreamBig 2013 - #16 Washington

STATE #16 - Seattle, Washington
Rock N' Roll Seattle Half Marathon
Finishers: 12,439

June 21, 2013
After my year in NYC, I was having some good luck with flying and getting upgraded to first class. My hopes for Seattle were all but lost but, of course, with my luck I got upgraded at the last minute and was pumped because this was the first (and only) time I ever had a lay down bed in first class. You would have thought I had never reclined a chair before based on how I was playing with my seat. I ended up watching movies the entire flight instead of sleeping and landed in Seattle midday.

Cooper was meeting me in town later, so I decided to just start my public transportation trip up to the hotel. One of the many fun parts about traveling all over is find the most financially responsible ways of getting around. After boarding the LINK which took me to downtown Seattle, I then boarded the the Seattle Center Monorail which took me from Westlake Center up to the area by the Space Needle. From the space needle, our hotel was only a scenic 3-4 block walk to the hotel past the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Our room had an awesome view of the Space Needle. I went out to wander around while waiting for Cooper and ventured down to a Mariners team store to pick up some fan apparel for the game later in the weekend. Since I was already down in the central city area, I went ahead and met Cooper at the Westlake Center and then ventured back to the Four Points with him so he could put down his stuff and change. The team was finally in Seattle!

We wasted little time before we started out on our Seattle adventure. We needed to pick up our race packets at the CenturyLink Center so we decided to just going on our own personal walking tour around the city. We went back to the Mariners store so Cooper could pick up a t-shirt as well and then head down to the Public Market so we could see what things looked like without the crowds. We stumbled upon a very large piggy bank along with the famous gum wall.

The Football stadium from the conference center

Gum Wall

Sunset Ferris Wheel

Just being local - sightseers...

Piggy wants a penny

We grabbed dinner down near the water before heading back to our hotel to get some sleep for the night.

June 22, 2013
Race Day! I wasn't used to having Saturday races so this was different for me. The start wasn't all that far from our hotel so we had no issue just wandering over to the start line festivities with plenty of time to spar. After a few quick photos, we were off!

PreRace!

The race started near the Space Needle and then headed south through downtown Seattle for the first five miles into south Seattle. I remember Cooper turning to me at one point around Mile 4 and both of us thinking, "Where are we?" It wasn't the nicest part of town or very scenic but that was all about to change.

Normal Rocker on the course

By Mile 6, we finally turned north and started running along the coast of Lake Washington for Mile 6-8. This part of the course was gorgeous but also very challenging and hilly. Mile 7 was very narrow but it was also the memorial mile that was lined with American Flags and ribbons and pictures of soldiers who have died serving our country. We were both a little tired but seeing this demonstration of patriotism gave us both the energy boost we needed. I think Cooper started first and I just followed his lead, but we just started crushing the hill powering past people and using any and all bit of inspiration we could to get through this challenging stretch.

We finally made it to the top and were greeted by a nice shadey tunnel that led us onto the highway! For real, we were running on I-90! It was really cool because although we still had a long way to go, we could see downtown Seattle on the horizon which gave us a good visual to focus on. To be more specific, we could see the CenturyLink Field in the distance and just aimed on getting there which would be a little past Mile 10 and past the biggest climb on the course.

Once we passed CenturyLink, we had about 2.5 miles to go! This is actually where I-90 ends so we exited (using our blinkers of course) and headed back into downtown Seattle. We were running parallel to the street we had started on so my visual memory was in overdrive "counting down" the streets we had run earlier.

Alongside the coast for the final stretch

There was one turn at Mile 11 that took us straight uphill to another highway type road that overlooked Pike Place Market, the Ferris wheel and the harbor. These last 2 miles were no joke the longest miles. We were both trying to keep up a decent pace but at the same time the ups and downs in the course on this final stretch was getting to us. As we passed the market, in my mind I feel like we started running in circles when really I'm pretty sure we only made one more turn. I just remember going under a tunnel and sort of recognizing we were by our hotel and then all of a sudden we were at the finish line. Woo hoo!

Medal for a beer?

OFFICIAL RACE PIC - 16 states down, 34 more to go! #DREAMBIG

As always, I don't typically enjoy the beer garden when I'm alone but with Cooper I always make an exception. We went and got our free Michelob Ultras and played around the finishers area and took some photos before going back to our hotel and getting ready for brunch. To treat Cooper for flying up to Seattle to run with me, I made reservations for brunch at the top of the Space Needle! The restaurant in the observation deck actual spins so we had a lot of fun. People will write notes and put them on the window sill and as the restaurant rotates, other people write comments on your note and if you are lucky your note comes back to you! I wrote one that said "War Eagle" .... and got no replies. Some people just don't know.

Brunch at the top of the space needle 

War Eagle - anyone? Anyone?

We finished up our brunch and went out to the observation deck to get some photos before our second tour of Seattle. Once we were changed and decked out in our Mariners gear in preparation for the game later that evening, we went about walking again to explore some of the places we breezed past the day prior.

Original Starbucks!

We spent a lot more time at Public Market where we went to the first Starbucks as well as Pike Place Fish Market and saw them doing the whole fish throwing show. It was pretty cool to see live. We then made our way down to Safeco Field for the game! They were playing the Oakland A's (funny because Cooper was living in Oakland at the time) and we had gotten tickets through a deal with Rock N Roll. So decked out in our Mariners game, we got a few earned beers and then somehow found the moose mascot of the team and got some photos before enjoying the game.

We had a fun time exploring Safeco and seeing what all the stadium had to offer in comparison to Busch Stadium and Turner Field. No clue what the score was - but super cool stadium!

It had been a long day so we didn't stay out too late as we had a few activities planned for the next day as well. We made our way back up to the hotel ready for a good nights sleep.

June 23, 2013

With one more day left to explore in Seattle, of course we were welcomed with a wonderful drizzly morning. It actually worked out perfect because we decided to book a duck tour of Seattle. If you have never been on one of these, yes they are a little tacky but they are an awesome way to see the city.

The ducks picked us up near the space needle and gave us little duck quackers. We were then given a tour around town on a land and sea tour of the city. Pretty fun way to end the trip!

16 states down, 34 more to go!
#DREAMBIG