See Jane Run Half Marathon 2013!

 

 I'm officially 7 for 13 on my half marathons this year.

This was my first See Jane Run and I really enjoyed it a lot. The course was beautiful, it started and finished in Gas Works Park in Seattle. The weather again was so gorgeous, but not best for running. I'm not complaining though, we'll take the sunshine here in Seattle any day!

The expo was at the W Hotel in downtown, kind of a hassle to get to and I had to pay for parking. The setup was really small, they were selling their merchandise and a few tables with energy bar tastings and that's about it, nothing too big. The Seattle Marathon was set up with a table right outside the conference room and they had some cute giveaways that my son enjoyed, like noise makers and pom poms. In the goodie bag they had the bib and some energy drinks and tattoos. We did end up riding the monorail afterwards, I had paid for an hour parking spot, so I figured, we might as well enjoy a little time in Seattle.

 

 So the run started at 8:00 and I knew that the parking situation was going to be a nightmare at Gas Works, so I was planning on being there at least an hour before hand. I got there just as I had planned and didn't really have as hard of a time finding a parking spot as I had thought, I had to walk maybe five minutes to the starting line.

 

They were setting up for the finish line festival with food and drinks, now I don't like to eat
anything but a banana before my races, so I asked if it was okay to have one before the race and they were totally fine with that. They had tons of Honey buckets and not much of a wait for them which was super nice. I sat by the water and stared at beautiful Seattle until it was time to start. The view from Gasworks park is by far my favorite in Seattle. I could have sat there for hours and just lounged, but that's not why I was there, I had plenty of time to do that after the race.

 

Finally it was time to start, the streets were narrow and we all kind of went the same pace, they did have three start times. I started with the 9-11 minute pacers, I did not finish there though :(. The course was around Lake Union and the weather was just beautiful, so the views that we got were amazing.

 

I went into this race with the mentality of not trying to beat any of my times. I knew that both of my knees were messed up, I'm still not 100% recovered from my tendinitis and I get really bad anxiety during my races. I have anxiety on a daily bases as is, but the races really make it bad, so I was hoping that not worrying about finishing at, or beating a specific time would make it better. It really worked, I didn't take my anxiety totally away, but it was much, much easier to control my breathing and keep going.

 

Needless to say I didn't get a really good time, but I was okay with that, going into it all sorts of injured. I finished strong and thoroughly enjoyed all the champagne at the finish line. This race is also called the chocolate and champagne race. The sponsors are Sees Candy and Barefoot wines, included in the race price is also a champagne glass that you get to keep :) I got a wrist band and once I picked up my glass filled with candy, I headed into the Champagne garden. They were serving two kinds of champagne a sweet red kind and a regular dry champagne. I tried the regular one and it was amazing and it tasted especially great after a long race. I had about three glasses I think, but they did run out of the regular kind and had to go and get more, I would recommend to go there first if you don't want to wait around while they replenish.

After that I headed back to the waterfront and just sat on the lawn and enjoyed the scenery, took some pictures and after a while headed back to my car and came home.

 

Overall I would recommend this race for sure, so far it has been one of my favorites in Seattle, right after the Rock'n'Roll one I think. I would definitely run this one again next year.

Hope to see you there,

Keili

See ya later Pre-K, bring it on Kindergarten!!!

 

Its that time of year again, when all the kids are graduating. This time however our little one is graduating as well. Chase just graduated from Evergreen Academy Montessori School and is now going to summer camps there. He has made lots of new friends and kept in touch with his old friends from when he was a little baby. Next up for him is Kindergarten, I'm so excited for him to go to public school, we'll find out what that's all about. The nice things is that one of his friends from his class is going to the same school, hopefully they'll be in the same class too. I think its always nice to have a familiar face around when you are in a new environment.

The graduation ceremony was so cute, they were all wearing caps and gowns and they walked down the carpet and sang some songs for us. I'm pretty sure that Chase actually didn't sing a word, but nevertheless it was adorable. Their teacher presented them with a certificate and a rose, then they changed the tassel and threw their caps in the air! Seriously the cutest thing you've ever seen. They has some snacks for us and we got to collect all of their school projects they had been working throughout the year and that was it. The school was officially over and our baby had graduated from Pre-K.

He has grown so much in the last year and learned so many new things. I think the biggest change that I've noticed is how well he is doing in reading. He can read three letter words and can sound out a lot of longer ones. He recognizes words in sentences and when we are out and about he will recognize some words randomly in a grocery store or street signs. I'm so proud of him every single day. He never seizes to amaze me. I do believe that he has learned so much from this school, he knows more than I know in some areas, do you know what shape a quatrefoil is? Well I didn't either, but I do now! He has learned organs and bones that I didn't even know where they belong. But my four year old can worn me ahead of time when he is going to kick me in my gallbladder while he practices his karate kicks :) All you Moms to little boys know exactly what I'm talking about, right? Go figure, now I know where that is as well. Its amazing when he knows geography and about continents and planets and plants and seeds and animals and things that I never thought that they would teach a four year old. But they did and he remembered and learned so, so much.

(I just love this series of pictures so much)

 

So what we've figured out is that our son is definitely the class clown and I think he will be his whole life, I'm positive of that. He gets such joy from making others laugh and that includes us. I'm pretty sure he gets his sense of humor from his Daddy and I love that. Who doesn't love a guy who makes your laugh, right? Another thing I love about Chase is that he just loves life, he is a very happy little guy. I love that he gets joy and happiness from the little things like the beach and bath time and stories and the iPad and running barefoot, playing in the dirt, sidewalk chalk and riding his bike super fast down hill. This is just a few things, there are just too many to name.

 

As we are enjoying out beautiful summer here in Seattle, I'm slowly starting to buy school supplies. I just like to be prepared, what can I say. I was amazed how many things they are asking for a Kindergarten class. I think more than anything its a change from what we are used to, he is actually going to carry a backpack to school, how cute is that. I'm so excited for his first day of school that I'm probably going to have his bag packed like a month before school starts.

 

Wishing everybody a great summer, enjoy the sun and spend lots of time with friends and family. Make sure you check out the little video clips below of his graduation!

Keili

Seattle Rock'N'Roll Half Marathon 2013! Completion of the Pacific Peaks Challenge.

Yesterday I finished the Seattle Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon. It was so much fun. The weather ended up being great, only sunny day that we are going to have for a while. Now that being said, I think I would have preferred it to be a bit cloudy, there was hardly any shade, so it made it for a very hot race. Nevertheless, I had a great time and the course ended up being much better than last year.

I woke up at 5:00AM to get ready and leave, I live only about a 20 minute drive from Seattle, but I do like to be at races early, just to give myself enough time to find parking and to make sure that I got there before they closed the streets. The race stared at 7:00AM and I was placed in corral 23, out of 41 I think, not too bad, but that still meant that I didn't start running until about 7:30AM.

I got to Seattle right about 6:00AM, there was no traffic and I got a great parking spot. Once I paid for parking and got my stuff ready (I did gear check a bag so I can have a sweatshirt after the race). I made my way to the Space Needle, there were already so many people there that I had to shove thru the crowds to make it to gear check. I had a banana, some water and a bite of a bagel and then headed to my corral. I did notice a little bit of a change from last year, they had pushed back the starting line a bit.

Finally it was our turn and off we went, I started my watch and my phone ( I use the Map My Run app. which sucks by the way, I don't even know why I use it, its never accurate) and started running. I had gotten a pace bracelet from the Expo with a finish time of 2:15. I knew this was going to be a stretch since I have been trying to give my body as much rest as possible so training runs have been very few and far apart. I had kept the pace up until mile 6, that's where I fell behind a little. I felt pretty good through out the race, it was really hot and sunny the whole time, which I think worked against me. I was really worried about my knee that had been hurting me really bad during the Portland race, this time I didn't feel anything up until mile 7.5, but it wasn't nearly as bad, no tears this time :). I finished with an official chip time of 2:28:53. I was a little bit disappointed in myself since I was doing so good up until the second half of the race, but of well, maybe I should train next time, huh?

Overall I loved this race, I'm glad I did again and I'll probably do it again next year. I definitely prefer the Seattle race to the Portland one, although I was disappointed that they didn't have foil blankets at the finish line, I'm glad I packed a sweatshirt, I get super cold after running. At the end they had the usual: water, chocolate milk, Gatorade, bananas, Jamba Juice smoothies, granola bars and chips. Once I left the finish line area, I went to a medical tent to have both my knees wrapped with ice (this really helped me after Portland). I caught the last three songs by the headliner band Hot Chelle Rae. They were actually really good, I might look into getting their CD. Since I was by myself, I didn't really stick around for too long. Next I headed to the beer garden, I wasn't going to miss out on a free beer. This was also set up much better than in Portland, the lines there were so long that I didn't even wait, in Seattle I walked right up and got mine. Once I was done I headed to the UPS gear check and picked up my bag and headed home. But before I left I did have to stop by the Dahlia Bakery and pick up some goodies for the road and some for us to share at home.

The course was pretty much the same, there were some changes for the better, which I was super excited to see. The first and the biggest one was that the huge hill at mile 5.5 was no longer there :) If you ran it last year, you know what I'm talking about. The second change was the freeway onramp loop that went up to the stadiums was gone as well. I'm sure there were some other changes as well, but these were ones that I noticed.

I'm now at race 6 of 13 for the year, every one gets me closer to finishing my personal challenge for the year. Keep up with my races right here every month.

Hope to see you there next year and next month look for the blog post for See Jane Run race!

Keili

Running Challenges

Every since I completed the runDisney Coast to Coast challenge in the beginning of the year, I have been looking around for more fun challenges similar to that. Not only is it fun to challenge yourself to multiple runs, but you can also collect some awesome extra bling to show off your efforts.

I will be completing my Rock'n'Roll Pacific Peaks Challenge on Saturday by running my last stretch here in Seattle, I'll share this story at a separate post, so keep a lookout for that.

I'll start with runDisney then since that was my inspiration for this post to begin with. Now, Disney has a ton of challenges and keep adding more and more every year. This year especially they added two more challenges.

RunDisney Coast to Coast Challenge. This is a big one for most runners, what you have to do to earn this amazing Walt Disney and Mickey medal is run two runDisney races (Half Marathons or a Marathon) in one calendar year on each coast. One is Disneyland and one in DisneyWorld. Check out the rundisney.com website for the actual races that qualify for this challenge. Extra special Coast to Coast medal for 2014 is if you run the Tinkerbell half marathon in Disneyland and the Disney Princess Half Marathon in DisneyWorld you earn a pink and purple Coast to Coast medal!!!

RunDisney Dopey Challenge. This is a new one for 2014 as well. You have a chance to earn 6 amazing medals. Staring with a 5K run on Thursday, a 10K run on Friday, a Half Marathon on Saturday and a Full Marathon on Sunday, totalling a 48.6 miles in 4 days, you are rewarded with a medal for each race, plus a Goofies Race and a Half Challenge Medal and a brand new Dopey Challenge Medal.

RunDisney Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge. This one has been around for years. The challenge is to run a Half Marathon on Saturday and a Full Marathon on a Sunday and you are rewarded with a Goofy's Race and a Half Medal.


RunDisney Dumbo Double Dare. This is a new challenge for 2013. A 19.3-mile adventure held over two days, participants will run the Disneyland® 10K on Saturday, followed by the Disneyland® Half Marathon on Sunday. You will be rewarded with two medals for each race and an extra special Dumbo medal for the challenge.

 

RunDisney Glass Slipper Challenge.  A 19.3-mile adventure held over two days, participants will run the Disney Enchanted 10K on Saturday, followed by the Disney Princess Half Marathon on Sunday.  You will be awarded the all-new Glass Slipper Challenge medal in addition to your Half Marathon and 10K finisher medals.

LA/SF Marathon Challenge. Runners who participate in consecutive ASICS LA Marathon and The Wipro SF Marathons will receive a special LA/SF Challenge medal commemorating this incredible achievement!



The Windy City 26.2 Challenge. This is for those individuals that complete both 13.1 Chicago and the Chicago Half Marathon. They will be rewarded with an awesome special Windy City 26.2 Challenge Medal.


Pacific Peaks Challenge. Run the Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon in Portland and then follow it up with the Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon in Seattle and you get this amazing Pacific Peaks Medal.

Rock'n'Roll Desert Challenge. Complete the Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon in Vegas and one in Arizona and you are rewarded with this speical Deset Double Down Medal.

Maryland Double: Competing in the full or half-marathon in both the Frederick Running Festival and the Baltimore Running Festival will get you this medal:

Nut Job Challenge: 5K Saturday and Half Marathon on Sunday in Frederick, MD.

Run the 5K Saturday night and then run the Half Marathon Sunday morning to earn yourself a speical bib, an extra medal and the title of being a Nut Job.

 

Beach Cities Challenge: Southern California: Run all three in a row and receive a special medal: Surf City Marathon, The OC Marathon and the Long Beach International City Bank Marathon.

Half it All Challenge: San Francisco - Run the first half of the SF Marathon and the Second half in consecutive years.