Mercer Island Half Marathon Finished!

Last Sunday I finished the Mercer Island Half Marathon with a time of 2:21. Not too bad for me, since I had not trained for this since my last half in DisneyWorld 4 weeks ago. My tendon was just hurting me too much and I didn't want to irritate it even more.

Just a quick race recap:
I picked up the race packed at a small expo at the Mercer Island Community center the day before. They had some vendors selling shirts and local businesses and sponsors there. I didn't buy anything while I was there, but did pick up some freebies, like an emergency kit and some tote bags.

I was a little worried about race day transportation because parking on the Island is very limited and they started the half marathon walkers before the runners at 7:00, my race was at 9:00. I didn't think that there was going to be any parking available by the time I got there so I just decided to park at the closest Park and Ride and then take the bus from there. The buses were free for all the runners, which was super nice, so I didn't have to worry about carrying change on me or anything.

Once I got to Mercer Island it was just a short walk to the Community Center where the starting line was. They did offer gear check, but I try not to deal with that if I don't have to since the lines are always so long. They had bagels, oranges and bananas before and after race. Odwalla was a big sponsor, they had a tent set up with free samples and goodies. After that I made my way to the starting line, they didn't have corrals, just different colored flags to stand behind depending on what your pace was going to be. I stayed towards the front though.

Once the race started I was feeling great, I was blasting "This Girl is on Fire" by Alicia Keys on repeat for the first three miles to get me started and it really made get a good start, I think :)  I love that song, its really inspirational and makes me want to run faster and do better. I had brought two packets of energy gummies with me. I had the first pack at about mile 4 and was feeling good and the second pack at about mile 7. They had lots of water stations all thru the course and the best part was that we were running around an island that is mostly residential, a ton of the residence were out in front of their homes cheering us on. Some even had set up their own mini water stations and were handing out candy like twizzles and skittles. Two little girls set up a lemonade stand in front of their home. It was so sweet and it was amazing to see the support from our community.

At mile 8 is where I normally start crashing, I was actually feeling great. I was even thinking to myself, what am I doing different this race that I feel so good that this point, but I could not figure it out. Oh well, I was happy and just kept going, the course was quite hard, due to all the hills there. At mile 5, 8 and the finish were all steep uphill battles, but you always know what goes up, must come down, so there was always a reward of going downhill afterwards.

Overall I really enjoyed the race and I would do it again in a heartbeat. This was the 41st year of the Mercer Island Half!!

See you there next year :)

Oh, FYI they had major discounts for other races in the area after the finish, so I signed up for the Heroes Half in Everett at the end of April. We'll see how I do! I'm officially three for three for half marathons this year (one every month) and now I'm registered for the fourth.

Mercer Island Half Marathon, March 24, 2013

I'm excited to announce that I have signed up for my third half marathon this year!! So far I'm three for three, one half marathon a month so far this year :)

I only have a week and a half to train from here on, I've been really good, but have not ran any long runs since my Princess Half marathon. I'm planning on a 10 miler on Sunday, so I'll let you know how I feel and how it goes. This week I still have to do two more short runs and then next week is the Mercer Island Half. I've never ran this race before, I've read some reviews and people have said that the course is really hard and when I looked at the elevation chart, it looks like its all uphill, with two minor downhill sections. This makes me a little scared, I was going to try for a PR, but now I don't know. I will still train my best and do my best during the run.


The weather should be good, not too cold, not too hot, maybe even raining, which I actually enjoy. I know I'm weird like that, but somehow it makes me be faster and better, probably because I just want to get out of the rain :) I think on the long runs it just feels good when you get hot during your run to feel the rain on your face.

Thankfully this race is close to my house, but the parking will be limited, it is an island with mostly residential areas after all. So what I thought about doing is driving to a park and ride and then catching a bus to Mercer Island. They did post on their website http://www.mercerislandhalf.com that the buses and trains will be free if you wear your bib, which is awesome that they support the race that way.

I'll let you know how it goes and hopefully I'll see you there!!!