This morning was the Seattle Half Marathon and I was not certain if I would even run it given that this week has been very difficult. Still a bit woozy from the "Simply Sleep" sleeping pills I had taken the night before (and the 2 nights before that to help me fall asleep), I drove down to the Mercer Arena (following the directions I wrote out the night before, yes, I KNOW I have lived in this city for 7 years and should know my way).

I got there early enough to score a parking spot a mere 4 blocks away from the start line (reminding myself that I parked near power thingees and the names of the street start with T) and headed into the race. Went to the start line with Stacey and Ruth and off we went with my just wanting to try to finish under 2 hours.

I took the pace easy and just let my body dictate how fast I ran at the moment. My quads felt weak and my muscles were just little jiggly rubber bands. While my speed was not there, I was able to take the hills pretty well -- probably a combination of the 5 lbs I lost in the last few days and not wearing my usual water belt that adds a few extra pounds. I did have a bit of a realization during the run because I just did not have it in me to race that all races cannot be a PR. Initially, I hoped to beat my PR from a few years ago, but there was no way I was in the space to do that. Sometimes, a race is just an event and the goal is to experience, not push to the maximum and that can be enough. I knew that this was going to be a different kind of race when I did not even care to pass people wearing pink shirts...

So I finished with a 1:55 clock time and I believe about a 1:52 chip time.

Then we went out to "Blunch" and I had 2 Bloody Mary's. The perfect recovery drink :)