Rock and Roll Seattle (From Jason’s perspective)
I am writing this insert for the blog. This will be my only contribution to the blog because I am not a writer nor do I want to be. I also assume no one cares about anything I say. I am only doing this because my friend Jordan asked on facebook for one. This was my experience of the ½ marathon. Since the race has already passed, you will realize that I did not die during the race (at times during the race I was not sure this would be the case). Before I go on about the race itself I think it is important to give you a quick background of myself and my commitment to excellence. I am many things: friend, husband, provider, confidant, role-model, hero, and all around good guy. Notice in my description I did not use “runner”. I have always viewed running as punishment for below average effort in other sports. A basketball coach has never been so proud of his team that he would make them run laps after practice.
Jennie is a runner. I feel her sense of self accomplishment every time she wakes up at 5:00 am and jogs 5+ miles. I usually feel this when she gets home after her difficult run and I am still in my underwear deciding if I should eat a third bowl of fruit loops(it has to be good for you…It has “FRUIT” right in the name). After Jennie’s 1st half marathon in January she tossed around the idea of running another one and if I would be interested. Because I was such an amazing fiancée, I agreed that she should and that I could even train with her and we could do it together. Well wedding plans took over for the next few months and the talk of this next marathon was not discussed. Well it wasn’t talked about until Jennie started to plan our Honeymoon (three months before we were leaving). Since we waited until June to embark on our own version of a Lewis and Clark expedition up the Pacific Coast Highway, Jennie calculated that we would be in Seattle at the exact time of the Rock and Roll marathon. Again being a great, great man I agreed.
Our fairy tale wedding occurred at the end of March and Jennie’s marathon training schedule required 3 months of training, so we were right on schedule. The week after the wedding, Jennie started waking up again for runs, but me, being a model employee, concentrated on work and sleeping. Days passed by and soon the days turned into weeks and weeks to months. The next thing I knew it was the beginning of June and I had not partaken in any of my training regimen. Determined, I started waking up and going for brisk jogs. I started off slow, but after I had gone a mile or so I started to get warmed up. Most of the reason I got warm was because I was already home taking a shower. I found out that talking about running was much easier than just doing it. Running sucks. Jennie started to worry about me. I always responded back with my canned answer of, “Don’t worry it is only 13 miles”. Really though how hard could 13 miles be? I drive about 15 miles every day to and from work and that doesn’t take that long. About a week before our honeymoon, I decided it was time for me to go for a distance run and prove to Jennie that I was ready for this. After a grueling trek through 4.5 miles of the toughest terrain the city of Tempe had to offer I finally silenced her and had proven to myself I was ready.
Our honeymoon started 2 weeks ago and we decided that it would be nice to go for a little run together every morning before starting our journey for the day. Our first morning in San Diego was a great and breezy2-3 mile run next to the ocean. This paragraph is going to be short because that was the last time I got up and ran during the entire honeymoon.
This morning’s race day was finally upon us. I felt that I had done everything humanly possible to get ready for this. The day before while Jennie insisted on carb-loading(because she loves carbs) I figured I would jerky-load (well I LOVE jerky). To be sure we got enough rest for our legs the day before the race we decided to walk around Seattle (even though Jennie said it was bad idea). The next morning, after having a small heart attack when our alarm went off at 4:30 am, we prepared for the race. I threw on my basketball shorts and cutoff shirt and was ready to go out the door. We got to the stating a line a cool 2 hours before the race began. I thought to myself, "this would be a perfect time to not stretch or get warmed up.' Even though I knew I should not stretch, I went against my better judgment and tried to touch my toes knees. Boom, that was easy. I am ready for this!!!
Jennie and I are located in corral 29. For those of you who don’t know, runners are often thought of as cattle or other livestock. They corral you into groups and then send you down a maze to the slaughterhouse finish line. Usually the lower the number the faster the runner. This results in the Kenyans all being in corral 1 and everyone else in the others. Now corral 29 is nothing short of an attack against me. I am still mulling over sending them a strongly worded letter expressing my anger.
The race started promptly at 7 am. Luckily we had AJ and Floorwax from the 97.3 KSTP wacky radio morning show emceeing this thing. After 45 mins of waiting in line and listening to bad jokes, corral 29 was ready to roll. Normally warming up before a race and then standing around for an hour before a race is not recommended. Luckily I have the foresight to realize this and never warmed up at all.
And they're off!!! I shoot out of the gate like an old miner receiving his end of the week paycheck and headed to town. I have a little Naughty by Nature playing on my headphones and my Nike plus tracking my run. The first mile is nothing but adrenaline. I am running at a great pace, My Nike plus says I ran the 1st mile in 9 minutes but I am pretty sure it was closer to 4. Coming up to mile 2 I hit what a lot of runners refer to as “The Wall”. I figure my jerky from the day before has not quite kicked in. I know this is the time that I have to fight through this for all the people that are cheering me on from around the country….well I guess I will just have to do this for me then. The streets of Seattle are packed with spectators with signs to cheer me on. I even here one lady scream out “Go James!!!” and I know she meant Jason. At this point of running downtown Seattle we come upon the Seahawks stadium. The nice computer lady in my Nike plus tells me that I had just completed 4.5 miles. I found this odd because the race marker only said mile 3. At that point I decided it was time to use some of my NOS and I take off. Some Japanese spectators even commented on my burst. I am not fluent in Japanese but I could make out “White Lightning”. Everything was going fine until I hit mile 5. The race called for us to make a sharp left on to S Dakata St. I felt this was a sign until I looked at the upcoming stretch. I am not sure how the city of Seattle put a street here but it was a completely vertical road. I had not planned on scaling a cliff during this run but felt I was as prepared for that as I was for this run to begin with. I put my head down and just kept running where as many of the other runners felt the need to walk up the hill. I realized that S Dakota St road for metaphor for South Dakota State University. The Jackrabbits have had an uphill climb since moving to D1 but they put their heads down and just kept going. Much like the Jacks, who went to the Washington Huskies arena in November, I too came to Washington and overcame that hill. Miles 6-10 were all the same. I ran and it hurt but I did not stop. At mile 11 I got a nice surprise. My iPhone died on me. It was fully powered at the beginning but it decided it had ran enough (my phone sucks now and has really sucked for the last 3 weeks). Luckily the Rock and Roll marathon features bands at every mile so I did not need my iPhone or at least that was what I thought. I came across the first stage I could hear and it included a half dozen prepubescent boys practicing for junior high band, but at least I can say I saw SEACATS and KillEye Candy before they could drive.
At this point in the race I decided that I no longer was going to try for a time under 1 hour. My legs were really starting to hurt and the clock at mile 11 already said 2:15:00. I concentrated on finishing strong and walking when I got water. I started walking the entire length of the tables when they were handing out water. When I started running again I actually slowed down from my walking pace. My pace became close to 1.5 hours per mile. This continued until the final mile. For the final mile I decided I would give it my all. My all was not very much at this point. My body had used up all the jerky from the day before and was now using the campfire hotdogs from 2 nights ago as fuel. I turn the last corner and only have 0.2 miles to go, but because of some sick joke the city of Seattle had decided to locate the finish line at the summit of Mt St Helens. Much like S Dakota St road I just gutted it out and my left calf started cramping on every other step; but there was no quit in this man. No doubt the spectators at the finish will compare that effort with the time Michael Jordan scored 38 points in the NBA finals with the flu and needed IVs during the game.
After making it through the finish line and all hoopla (I refused to do interviews with the press) I met up with my wife Jennie who somehow finished before me(must have used a cheat code) and we collapsed together in the grass. Everything else from there on out you can read on Jennie’s blog. Now that I am all showered up, it is nap time for this guy.
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