Seattle Rock N Roll Marathon June 26, 2010

Hello Runners! Just wondering if any other members are planning on running the Rock N Roll Marathon in Seattle? I am planning on running it and it will be my very first marathon ever! I have currently ran two half marathons and pray that in 5 more months I will be ready to go 26.2. Anyone out there have some good advice they want to share? I know you have to train....I know you have to eat right along the way....but did anybody train and then get in the real race and have any big unforeseen problems? I am pumped up about doing this. I am new to running..relatively. I have only been running a year and a half. Up until age 33 and a half I had never run more than 50 yards and that must have been at field day in elementary school!! I LOVE it now, and made it a goal to run a half in 2009 and a full marathon in 2010. It's time to make it happen

Good luck on your marathon!!! The best advise I have to offer is when you are training do not over do it. You will have to increase your mileage but don't go to hard to fast. I just missed Disney because I did not follow my own advise. I was already at 50 per week and thought I would have no problem going to 65- 70. I was wrong. To much to soon = INJURY. Try not to add more than 10% a week after you have already built a good base mileage. I have been out 2 months now and it S&@ks. I can now at least go out and walk 5 miles a day. When something hurts don't run thru it. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress. I will run vicariously through your marathon.

Thanks! That sounds like good advice....My friend just did a half and she ran out of time to finish training and kind of overdone it. She stressed a tendon in her arch and is out for 4 weeks...Ugh! She was upset. I am trying to listen hard to my body....and my knees, feet, ankles, arches... Hoping to not get injured. It gets hard sometimes to get training in properly but I will take your words of caution to heart and not try to "catch up" all at once if I do get a little behind. Sorry to hear about you having to miss Disney. It's hard to suffer setbacks. Thanks for taking the time to reply! I will do my best to finish this run in June and then let you know how it goes!

I ran last years Seattle R&R and it was also my first marathon and I had run probably around 7-8 HM's prior to that, some of them just as training runs though.
You will enjoy it. It's a great first marathon experience. The most I had run prior to the M, was one 20 mile run 3 wks prior to the M. It was enough to at least let me finish the M.

a bit of feedback from last years experience. Getting to the start was gridlock. A group of us rented a large house on LkWashington only about 4 miles from the start and yet it took us about 1.5 hrs to get there. Hopefully, they will work out some of those traffic flow problems. We arrived at the start about 1 hr late, but with chip timing, that's not really an issue. Although it meant I was still running at high noon and it was a hot day in Seattle. The last 6 miles were pretty challenging because I was so warm by that point and the water at the aid stations by this point weren't exactly cold anymore.

Quite a few of the highways you are running on in Seattle are made of concrete, so that's another thing to be aware of. It can take its toll on your legs after a few hours.

The scenery along the ENTIRE course was great. There really was not any stretch that I thought was boring. And having great scenery, lots of cheering people and great music makes the time go by quick.

You will enjoy this experience! Good luck with your training!

Thanks gprunner! I really appreciate you taking the time to share that advice and feedback! Especially the warning about the traffic gridlock!! WOW! My cousin lives in the area..and she is going to do the race with me so maybe we can come up with a plan to get around the traffic issue.

I am also glad to hear that the course has such nice scenery! I was hoping I would be so distracted by the beauty and the bands that I would forget that I was actually going to run 26.2 miles!!! Are you planning on running another marathon?

Glad you had a positive first time marathon experience!!!

You're welcome. I'm glad I happened to pop in here today and see a thread about the only marathon I even know anything about! LOL

I am registered to run the Newport (Oregon) marathon on 6-5-10 and then I will probably do a late fall one also - unless I'm too burned out on training and want to take a break. For the fall, I'm considering either the Humboldt Redwoods (I've run the half there twice now) or CIM in Sacramento in December. I'm just playing that by ear though. My main races this year, aside from all the usual local races I participate in, are Newport and Cascade Lakes Relay.

trust me, the scenery in Seattle, will absolutely distract your mind from the miles you are running. Although it was a bit warm for running a marathon in 2009, it was a postcard perfect day in Seattle.

My friends keep kindly reminding me that there are hills (maybe even mountains!) in SeattleSo, how were the hills when you ran the race? Bad? Moderate? Barely noticeable?

Just trying to prepare myself....mentally and physically. So looking forward to the scenery though....I am truly very excited though..

honestly, they were not bad at all, except that one at mile 25ish or so but I just block that from my memory. lol.
I run hills though routinely on most of my routes. I live in So. Oregon and it's hilly here too, so some of the "Hills" on the Seattle course, were just gentle inclines in my opinion, and I actually liked them because they give certain muscles in your legs a break and work some other ones.
Now the one at mile 25.5, I cursed at. I think I said something to the effect of "who in the hell is the sadist who decided THIS was a good idea!" . . . I was hurting by that point. My IT Band flared up around mile 20 and was pretty painful by the end, so that hill (even though it was very short) was brutal to me. but you know what . . . by that point of the race, you are so dang close to being done, the crowds are going crazy and you realize that no matter what it's all over in about 10 minutes, so you get a surge of adrenaline and just push through it.

I did the R&R 1/2 in Seattle last year. Traffic to the start was terrible but I made it before the start (5 min to spare). I caught a metro bus from the Southcenter Mall area instead of driving to the start.

Thanks imatiger and gprunner! I am going to make sure I train hills for that race then! I have some hill workouts in my Bart Yasso's Marathon training plan...so I will not let myself skip those. But, I like what you said about liking the hills and working different muscles...I do like that part of hills. I live in NW Florida and there are some hilly areas, just to be sure I am comparing hills to hills I might want to do some research on the exact elevations of these areas!

Congrats on finishing that race...even with some pain and discomfort...kudos to ya gprunner! I am hoping I can come back after June 26, and say I FINISHED!

imatiger...that's a good idea about taking the bus! I will have my cousin who actually lives there to check out if that will be a good solution for us! Thanks for the tip!!