The weather was pretty lousy the morning of the race: cold, wet, and windy. I got up before 6am to give myself a chance to eat something (two pieces of toast) and have plenty of time to digest before the event. We also had to get over the Montlake bridge to Husky Stadium before they closed it.
We parked behind the hospital and walked to the stadium and arrived around 7:20am. There were many people milling about waiting, warming up, and actually registering for whatever event they were running. We found Nancy and her friend (whose name I have already forgotten). She was going to run the 8k but bailed out and decided to do the four mile “noncompetitive” walk instead. We also met up with Heather, Miranda, Henry, and some other people.
There were a bunch of events happening: the aforementioned four mile walk, a one mile “noncompetitive” run, and probably some other things I am not aware of. The 8k had various heats: the wheelchair race (which started first) and three other staggered groups. You were put into a group dependant on your estimated finishing time. Amanda and I were in the last group of great unwashed masses who expected to finish in over 40 minutes. Given my running history over the past few months in which I rarely run more than four miles at a time I thought I could almost definitely do the first three miles in 24 minutes, maybe do four miles in 32 minutes, but really really unlikely I could do five in forty. I have never really been a good distance runner and I expected that I would crash and burn in latter half if I pushed too hard in the beginning (and while I know I can do three eight minute miles right now, it would also completely waste me).
I think there were many people in the group before us who were not exactly truthful with their expected finishing times, though.
Amanda wanted to run with everyone else (who were in the group before us and admitted they may not have been truthful) since her intended running partner Nancy was not available, but I thought such flagrant rule-ignoring causes chaos and there is no need to become part of the problem, and I could go ahead and run with her.
The University Bridge is two miles from the start line, and they raise it twenty minutes after the third wave starts. The announcer guy was pepping everyone up (“This is the party wave! Wooo!”) before we started. He did rightly point out that this wave is the only one in real danger of missing the bridge. Two ten minute miles is not really that fast, but since you are in a huge mass of people you can’t really run very fast at the beginning anyway. And if you are not in the front of the group, you probably wouldn’t beat the bridge even if you were a very strong runner.
Amanda and I did try to start as close to the front as possible. I thought it was pretty fun running with all the random people; I had not been in any type of race since high school, and Amanda had never been in one like this apparently. It definitely was very crowded, though. We kept up a good pace for the first mile, but it was very crowded for the entire first two miles. There was a timer/clock some distance before the bridge, and we passed it with one minute to go. So we started running faster, although it was not clear exactly how far the bridge was. Once we got on Eastlake and saw the bridge, I could hear the guy at the gates counting down, so I started sprinting, but I slowed down as it wouldn’t be good to get caught on opposite sides of the bridge with Amanda! I passed the gate right when the bridge guy shouted “Zero!”. I turned around, and Amanda was pretty close behind me; they only let one more guy behind her get on the bridge. There was a big gap between the guy and the rest of the runners, so I guess everyone else decided there was no way they would make it.
Woo! We beat the bridge! “Beat Beat Beat Bridge Bridge Bridge!” chanted Amanda!
They only raise the drawbridge for a little while, so the people who did not make it were not delayed that long.
The next three miles wound back through the University District to the stadium. There were a lot of volunteers cheering you along. The route taunted you over the last mile because you could see the stadium, but the route went all the way around it before entering it to get to the finish line.
We met back up with everyone and went down to a bakery in Eastlake for bfast. All before 10am.