Day 28 – 4 miles

       29 – 1 mile

       30 – 2.5 miles

       31 – 12 miles

That’s a total of 104.3 miles for the 31 days….Whew!  

Oddly, I feel like this is the only challenge I’ve ever given myself that I have been 100% without a single doubt successful at.

And a much as I wanted to keep my streak going, I decided not to run today.  It’s March 1st—the first day in 31 days that I haven’t ran.  I felt kinda weird, like I should’ve been doing something important.  But I restrained myself and realized that I deserved a little break.   

Ok, mostly it was because I needed a break.  Not because I’m injured or exhausted, but if I keep going, at what point will I ever stop?  I would keep pushing for a lengthier goal—100 days, 1 year, 1000 days…— and the only beneficiary of it all would be my orthopedic surgeon, requiring weekly visits while we figured out how to do a double shin transplant.  So I delved into my seldom-used left brain and rationalized that I should stop this before it becomes an addiction or injury.

No rest for the weary, though.  Superfab right brain tells me that I love running and can’t stay away from it for too long, no matter what the costs are.  Plus, I just registered for this little puppy:

Let the real running begin.

Positive:  The weather was awesome, hitting almost 60 degree temps, and allowing me to soak up some Vitamin D.  Don’t want to become too deficient now, do I?  

We took a walk down to the Market and through Belltown on Saturday. Everybody and their dogs gets out and enjoys Seattle on sunny days.  

Negative:  Neglecting to carry sunglasses and walking westward for about a mile, into this…

We drove our car to church on Sunday and put the convertible top down on the way home.  I enjoyed a warm, Sunday afternoon 4 mile run, my route taking me above Lake Union for a gorgeous view of the numerous sailboats and seaplanes that were out and about.

That makes my weekly mileage at 6 miles.  Apparently I’m getting back in the running groove at a snail’s pace

The sun.

During the winter months, the sun doesn’t like to visit Seattle much.  Or, at all.  

We had friends from Denver visiting last weekend and they commented on the lack of sun.  And I realized, I hadn’t thought about the sun until that moment.  I guess its something you just get used to when you live somewhere for long enough.

Like dealing with the chilly wind in Chicago.  The humidity of the South.  The dryness of Albuquerque.  Or the daily presence of the sun in Denver.  

I haven’t seen the sun since we were in Idaho for Christmas.  And yet, I don’t miss it.  I don’t notice its absence.  I welcome the grey skies, daily drizzle, and mild winter weather temps with a smile.

While some might find it hard to deal with not seeing the sun for so long, I’ve come to embrace it.  The cloudy skies create a unique beauty that brings out the vivid colors of the city against its grey background.  I love grey.  If you choose to classify it as a color, then its my favorite.  

Sure, I’ll soak up the sun when it makes its appearance.  But I won’t miss it while its gone.

And by ‘fierce’, i mean the equivalent of a minor Midwest snow. Nothing that would’ve ever caused much excitement or chaos in most parts of the country, but here—it’s different. 

The city pretty much shuts down.

Schools, stores, offices and streets are closed.  People ski down the streets or slide on the sidewalks like they’re ice skating.  You won’t see many cars or buses attempting to drive without chains.  

Apparently snow is rare here, even though we are the northernmost major city in the U.S.   But as a result of not being accustomed to snow, the city is under equipped to deal with conditions.

I don’t mind…..I love it.

Todd was working remotely from a downtown Microsoft office so we met for lunch.  And I was able to take advantage of the quiet streets and empty stores and get some Christmas shopping and snow trekking done.

Oh well, I quickly get over my sadness when I think about all the other exciting things I had going on in the past year that made me a little bit ‘distracted’ from entering any races. 

With our recent move, I also got a bit distracted from doing any quality runs and/or gym visits during the week prior to the race, so I was a tiny bit concerned about my performance in the half marathon.  I told myself not to really set any finishing goal, but would be happy as long as it was under 2:00.

The 1/2 marathon started at 7:30 on Sunday morning, so I rolled out of bed at 6:45, ate some oatmeal, put on my gear and headed out the door at 7:10, walked the mile to the starting line and found a spot in the pack as they were finishing up the National Anthem.  Stood around for 2 minutes and then we were off!  I don’t like showing up early only to wait around and get anxious (or perhaps I just wanted to sleep in as late as I could).

By the time I got to the start, I was already warm and wishing I had worn a t-shirt or tank top instead, as it was unseasonably muggy & humid for a late-November race.  But I won’t complain, because it was 53 degrees and great for running.  

Todd cheered me on at mile 1, and after a quick stop for a kiss, I enjoyed the next 12 miles just running by myself and enjoying the atmosphere.  

As I mentioned, I wasn’t aiming for a goal—and certainly not one that would require me to actually push myself. But I was feeling great, and since the first 7 miles were relatively flat, my pace was averaging around a 7:45 mile. So I figured, why not keep it up and push myself up the hills and maybe surprise myself with a nice finish time?

I’m proud of myself.  I ran smart.  I knew when the hills were coming and I tried to conserve my energy as people were flying by me.  

I smiled.  

I knew….I’d pass them on the incline.  And I didn’t start getting excited when I saw the Space Needle 2 miles before the finish, because the silly race organizers put a not-so-pleasant hill about 1/2 mile before the finish and that killed me last year.  Not this year.  

I kept my eye out for Todd, who was just around the last corner, did a little leap and headed to the finish line.

1:46:09  (i think maybe the leap cost me a good 9 seconds….)

That’s a personal best for me.  Who would’ve thought?  

Certainly not me, but I was very excited because there weren’t very many runners inside at the post-race food stations yet, so I was able to avoid the annoyance of a hungry, sweaty, tired crowd of people.  I met Todd back out on the stadium infield and then we walked home, stopping along the way to cheer on runners and see the marathon leaders head towards the finish.

It’s nice having the Seattle Marathon so close and convenient to our apartment, it’s not very often you can head out for a race with only your house key and the clothing on your back.  I’m already excited for next year. I’d like to do the full marathon, but when I enjoy the half so much, I figure ‘why let go of a good thing? ‘

I. got. soaked.  

I knew it’d be wet, but silly me forgot to wear a hat, so I feel like I got extra soggy sopping up all the rain via my head.  I’d mapped out my route, choosing to torture myself with a start up Capitol Hill and then run the last 6.5 miles as the same route the half marathon will run (except for the finish).  Despite the rain and soppy shoes, it was a lovely run and by the time I reached Lake Washington, the sun had broken through the clouds and the rain had stopped. It was lovely.  

Not so lovely was that I managed to find what I’m pretty sure is the steepest hill in Seattle at about mile 4.5. I had to walk up it.  I will be certain to avoid that on any future runs.  All-in-all, it was a great run, I held a good pace and ended up running just shy of 13 miles in 1:53:55.  

Check out that elevation change.  Perfect for turning quads into Jell-O. 

I’m feeling good for the half marathon, being that this time was slowed down due to rain, traffic lights, and stopping to take some pictures on my phone.  Also enjoyed a quick chat with my mom during my run  I think she thought that was odd, but my husband insisted that I carry my phone with me.  Though I’m not convinced that he would even be awake to answer it if I needed to call him.

One of our favorite little neighborhood coffee shops, Kapow Coffee, has been forced out of its home by greedy landlords. I don’t know the full story, of course, but we’re super sad to see them closing shop.

Kapow was more of a little garage than a cafe, but it was our first choice for stopping in for our morning caffeine before work and on Saturdays.  The two co-owners knew us and our regular drinks, even about our recent wedding- I felt like we had a special espresso friendship.  Genuinely nice people.  And in my opinion, Kapow had the best Americano anywhere I’ve ever been.  We’re hoping they’re able to find a new spot for their shop. Even if it’s a hour away, we’d still go visit once a month.  

Farewell, Kapow.  We’ll miss you.

I’ve wanted to go to the Olympic Sculpture Park with him, but our weekends have always been busy with other things.  And everytime I’ve been there, it’s just been me running through, so I’ve never taken the time to stop and enjoy the park.

He got home at 5:00 (after an hour on the bus) and we headed out for our field trip.

First stop: Uptown Espresso.  

Next stop: 

We spotted an open bench on the edge of Elliot Bay and sat and watched the sun set behind the Olympic Mountains as we discussed our days.

The park closed a 1/2 hour after sunset, so we’ll have to make another trip back to take time to look around at all the art.

After a couple more stops browsing furniture stores and trading in old video games, we walked back home for dinner, which ended up being ‘make your own meal’ night.  Beef & bean burritos for Todd, spaghetti for Katie, ice cream for all.

He gets to sleep in until 10:30.

I decided to go back to my old ’stomping ground’. Its been awhile since I’ve ran the Lake Union Loop and up through UW on the Burke Gilman trail. It was nice, the sun came out and all the vibrant leaves made for a colorful start to the day.

We’re off to tour several apartments today. Should be fun.

The annual Seattle Marathon is coming up quickly at the end of November, and since I enjoyed the 1/2 marathon last year, I really wanted to run it again this year. This will be my 7th half marathon, but the first one that I’ll be running a 2nd time. My training won’t be as gradual as I would like since I just basically started training about 8.5 weeks out, but I’ll make it work as long as it doesn’t kill my legs.

So far, so good.

This past weekend was sunny and lovely, we got to drive the convertible with the top down 2 days in a row!–- A rare statement for October in Seattle.

But I especially took advantage of the wonderful fall weather to do a long run yesterday afternoon. I’d planned on going 6 but decided to just push it a little further and run to meet up with Todd at a coffee shop he was going to be doing some work at. I like to call it the ‘lake-to-sound-to-steep steps-to coffee’ run.

It ended up being 7.7 miles, surprisingly at an 8:28 pace. And that was including all the annoying stop lights along the way and the painfully steep stairclimb through Pike Place market you see there right before mile 7.

Ugh.

But those stairs are so worth it after running along my new favorite spot. This is the second run I’ve taken down through the Olympic Sculpture park and along the Puget Sound through Myrtle Edwards and Elliot Bay parks.

It humbles and amazes me each time–- that we live in such a beautiful city and yet are just a quick run away from nature’s grandeur. The sun was hovering just above the Olympic mountains and lit up the water like fire. It makes a long run so much easier when you can watch the boats sail by and the waves crash on the rocks. I wish I’d had my camera.

I finished up at Uptown Espresso where Todd was, then we walked home, stopping at the grocery store for a couple items so I could make tacos for dinner. What a great way to finish out a lovely weekend.