Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon Anniversary Trip

This happened in June but I'm really behind on my blogging again!)

We decided that there was no better way to celebrate being married for 6 years than to run a marathon that just happened to be on our anniversary date! We planned a trip around the marathon and had a blast in Seattle!

We ate like kings! I was in seafood heaven with an Alaskan Feast at the Crab Pot Restaurant! The first thing we did after checking into the hotel was to feed our faces with a mound of fresh seafood! They gave us a bib and a hammer. It was REALLY CLASSY! ;-)

We explored the city and found these totem poles in Pioneer Square.

We walked around the Pike Place Market, saw the fresh flowers, fresh fish on ice, and all the fruits and veggies you can imagine. We had some of the best peaches I have ever tasted here!

We tried to save our legs for the run so we hit the expo for packet pick up and tried to resist walking everywhere we wanted to go. The expo was excellent. There were tons of vendors, free samples, and... drum roll please... the K-TAPE BOOTH! It's my new favorite invention for crazy runners who will use anything to keep going! We met up with my cousin at the expo so we both got taped up for the run. She was having hip pain and I was having knee pain. You can see my crazy looking knee here. It's weird looking but it works!

(Disclaimer: For non-runners, you may find the rest really boring... just look at the pictures instead).

The morning of the marathon, we boarded the shuttle EARLY. I have blocked out just how early it was but I'm thinking it was 5 AM when we climbed onto the buses to make it to the start line on time by 7 AM. I was tired before the run ever started! We hit the port-o-potties (least favorite thing about running) and lined up at the start. Of course I had to pee again as soon as I stepped out of the port-o-potty. At least I was well hydrated! We crossed the start line along with 30,000 or so other runners. My iPod was rocking. My husband and cousin were keeping a steady pace with me and then I REALLY had to pee by mile 3. I convinced myself to hold it until I found a port-o-potty with less than 2 people in line ahead of me. That didn't happen until mile 6 and I was convinced I had ruptured my bladder but I guess it was ok in spite of my stupidity. My cousin kept running so I never saw her again until the turnaround at mile 23 or 24. I caught up with my husband around mile 8 and we ran the rest of the way together. We passed my cousin at some point but never saw her.

We ran over the Lake Washington bridge to Mercer Island and ran through some huge tunnels near downtown. The tunnels were great with all the runners screaming and hooting in them. (Runners are crazy fun! Or just crazy!) We were close to downtown and we were both hurting. We stopped at an aid station to get some Tylenol and kept going. The roads had a pretty significant sideways incline that killed my ankles. I can do hills even though I hate them but running sideways is not something I was prepared for at all!

Around mile 14, my husband tried to quit running but we took a few walk breaks and waited for the Tylenol to kick in and we kept going. When we saw the space needle, we got our second wind and ran for a few miles without pain. We made the turnaround on the north side of the course and then ended up running where we had a great view of downtown and the Puget Sound. It was awesome. The weather was beautiful. The sun would come out every now and then to remind us that it was going to warm up if we didn't hurry up and finish! We finally saw my cousin again and we were all dragging our a$$e$ by that time. Finally the course went downhill toward downtown and we could hear the crowd at the finish line. We stupidly decided to sprint to the finish and felt great when we finally crossed the big blue line!

My husband and I finished at 5:22:21 and my cousin was a couple of minutes behind us. The finish line setup was spectacular. There were mountains of cookies. What more could a person possibly want after running 26.2 miles?! I wasn't thrilled about my finish time to be honest but what mattered most was finishing the marathon with my husband since it was our anniversary. I was so proud of him! He really struggled with this run starting around mile 14. He said his muscles never felt loose and I could tell he was really fighting to keep going. My knee actually felt good because of the k-tape so I had a good day and I loved the scenery along this run. The weather was beautiful, those Washington trees are the brightest, biggest, green things I've seen in years, and the Puget Sound was the prettiest shade of blue grey when we were running.

I can't think of a more exciting way to spend an anniversary! There is really no feeling like crossing a finish line for a marathon! After the run, we limped back to the hotel and took a nap for the afternoon. That night, we did what most people do to celebrate their anniversaries. (Get your minds out of the gutter! I mean DINNER!) We went to dinner at the Metropolitan Grill to celebrate the best 6 years I could have imagined. I ate the best steak of my life. Hands down. Best.Steak.Ever. I ate some crazy Japanese cow that tasted like butter. Good grief it was good! I don't know how we're going to top our 6th anniversary!

The day after the marathon is never easy. We needed booze to numb the pain so we did a winery tour! I think I had about 14 glasses sips of wine that day and guess what? I couldn't even FEEL my legs anymore! It was awesome! Seriously, I Huuuurrrrrtttttt that next morning.

We started at the Janiuk Winery, went to the Columbia Valley Winery next, and ended up at the Chateau St. Michelle Winery which was my favorite. We had a picnic lunch on the grounds at Chateau St. Michelle and sobered up toured the small vineyards that they use to show how the grapes are grown. We met several other runners so we were all limping on the tours and enjoying numbing the pain.

The last stop was at Snoqualmie Falls which is only several miles from the wineries. It was a beautiful drive in the valley around Seattle and the waterfall was very pretty and peaceful. Don't we look happier and more relaxed? We were.

Our last night in Seattle we met up with my cousin for a tour of the Seattle Underground Red Light District. We saw it on the travel channel so of course we had to do it. It was interesting and funny but also sad to learn about a woman's options for "careers" in the mining town of Seattle in the late 1800's. Thank goodness we live in this time! The stairs were ROUGH but we were still enjoying the effects of the wine tour so the Underground was a little bit easier to explore.

The trip was fantastic and I can't wait to go back to Seattle again! It's such a great city with fantastic summer weather when it's like the 7th level of hell in Texas in the summer. We had "a ball and a biscuit" on our anniversary trip! (any White Stripes fan out there? If not, you don't get the ball and biscuit thing).

Anyway, Happy Halloween.