#97 - Wattle Waddle Marathon 2010

DATE: Thursday, November 25, 2010

LOCATION: Cedar River Trail near Maple Valley, Washington

Leg one of the first ever Seattle Quadzilla was a bit of a challenge, and not just for me but for everyone involoved. In the days leading up to the race, Seattle was belted with a huge snow storm. Weather got down into the teens and a wind chill near zero. This was all companied by snow. In the week or so leading up to the Quadzilla, I was following the weather forecast very closely. I was at first worried that I might not be able to run the Quadzilla due to heavy snow. But in the finals days leading up to the races, it became clear the storm was going to pass before Thanksgiving.

I had planned to sleep in my car on Wednesay night, but I got a call from my dad, who is a truck driver for Fred Meyer (the northwest chain of Kroeger Foods), and he told me that he was going to layover in Federal Way and asked if I wanted to spend the night with him. This was about two miles from where I was going to sleep in my car, so I said yes. I left and drove up to Federal Way, it was a bit wet, and the weather remained about 30 degrees the whole drive up. I spend the night with him and left early to drive the 30 minutes to the Cedar River Trail near Maple Valley.

I arrived about an hour early at 6am. It was quite snowy out and I was probably the fifth or sixth person to arrive. I chatted with some of the other Maniacs and got ready for the race. At this point I realized that I had left my MP3 player in the hotel room, so I called my dad and he got it and took it back home. This meant I was going to be without music, while I don't need music, I like to have it, and so I was going to have to run without.

When the race started I was off and about three people quickly lead the way. I didn't mind, I had no goal for this race, and because of the snow fall the trail was covered in snow and was packed in pretty hard. I realized this was going to be a challenging run. I was joined by another Maniac that I had not met before, Pedro Infante. We ran together for about 18 miles, before he took off.

The race as a double out-and-back course so the course was basically in four parts of 6.55 miles. In the first out section of the course Pedro and I ran pretty smooth, I quickly relized I was not going to run a normal 3:30-3:45 marathon, and that the snow was going to make this more like a trail marathon. We finished the first quarter of the marathon in about 58 minutes.

As we headed back to the start area I could feel that we were running a little faster, but not much. It was great to see all the runners behind us as we headed back. Rarely do I get to see the slower runners, and it's always fun to stay hi and you pass each other. We ended finishing the first half in 1:55:55. This felt pretty good, but I did't know if I could repeat it.

As we headed back out for the third quarter of the marathon, I could feel that I didn't have enough energy to keep running at the speed we were going. About five miles into this third section, I slowed down and took a GU, this is when Pedro kept going, and I would never catch him. At ths turn around I looked at my watch and it said 2:55. This mean I ran a one hour quarter.

As I headed back to the start, I felt myself getting slower and slower. I figured I could still run a sub-4 hour marathon. But soon I realized I was struggling. About mile 21 or 22 I started to take walking breaks, and realized I was running about 10 minute miles. Looking back I realize I did not eat enough on Wednesday and was at a lack of calories. I kept pushing and finished the final quarter in 67 minutes.

This meant I finished with a time of 4:01:47. My first half split was 1:56 and my second half split was 2:06. I can't complain everyone's times were slow and I finished in fourth place overall. It felt good and more importantly I felt good afterwards. I stuck around for a few hours to see everyone finish. The race started about 28 degrees and finished about 34 degrees. The snow started melting and the roads became much easier to drive.