Capital City Half Marathon Recap

Sprinting to the finish with my hubby.  I love how we are in step but on opposite legs!

I am a little slow getting this recap up, but waaaaaay back on May 20th I ran the Capital City half marathon with my hubby!  This was the half marathon he wanted to do this spring and of course I had to run it with him!  So here goes, this will probably be lacking details since my brain has been rather overwhelmed with LOTS of things going on lately but I will do my best.

On Saturday there was the option to pick up our race packets so we headed down to Olympia, arriving right around noon when the race expo started.  It was a nice setup with several vendors including Running Skirts, south sound running,  One More Mile and plenty of others.  I always try to get my race packet before the race- there is just something about having everything put together that settles my nerves.  Plus my grandma lives in Olympia so we made the trip worth our time by having lunch with her afterwards.  After we got home we packed the kids up and headed to drop them off at my best friends house in Puyallup- they would be staying the night there since the race started at 7:45am!  So early.

At our house before heading to the race.  Notice the lack of rain!  And how I
coordinated my outfit to match my flowers.

My ninja hubby ready to hit the road!

Sunday morning I woke up around 4:30am- I wanted to leave around 6am to leave plenty of time to drive to Olympia, park, use the bathroom, check our stuff and all that good stuff.  I was unsure of my outfit because the weather forcast changed like every 10 minutes the day before the race.  I had a tank top on until literally right before we left the house and switched to a tshirt at the last second.  Which turned out to be a good choice.  We snapped a few photos out front (notice the lack of rain) and hopped in the car at 6:15am.  Anyways, we made good time and were parked and settled at the starting area just after 7am which is when the full marathoners were sent on their merry way. 

Sylvester park about 20 minutes before the race started.  Not raining yet!

The "starting line" if you want to call it that was a big cluster of runners.  There was some yoga going on and to be honest I had no clue which direction we were even running until right before the race started.  I spotted this lovely lady and her hubby and we chatted for a few minutes before the start.  Literally 5 minutes before the race began it started to rain- and NEVER stopped for the entire race.  I was really glad I had grabbed my hat but was a bit worried about my unprotected iphone in the pocket of my vest!

We are ready!

Pretty soon we were sent on our way and it was crowded which makes me crazy!  But I knew that it would probably help Will to not go out too fast and I reminded myself I was running the race with him and my pace didn't matter so I settled in next to him and enjoyed the scenery.  It was lovely- we ran down by the marina so I could look at all of the boats and then we were running up a pretty good hill and into a nice neighborhood with big houses. 

Mile 1- 9:56 ~weaving through the crowd
Mile 2- 10:17~by the marina
Mile 3- 10:27~there was a hill here.  i swear there was!
Mile 4- 10:37~pretty houses

Doesn't everyone have this much fun running? 
Will was spelling out mom- it was his mom's bday!

The volunteers were simply amazing- standing out in the pouring rain to hand us water, cheer us on and give us high fives.  Who does that willingly?  Thank you capital city for having such great support throughout the race!  There were funny signs posted all over the course with quotes and encouraging words that made me laugh.  Of course I can't remember them right now (I am bad with jokes too- in one ear and out the other).

Indeed, I have perfected my smile/wave at the photographer!  Note the only dry part of my vest is under my arm.  Isn't that a little backward???

And it just rained and rained and rained, oh boy did it rain.  The vest I wore was not the greatest idea fabric for rain- it got soaking wet and felt heavy but I was glad to have it because it did keep me warmer than I would have been.  The "big hill" at mile 10 didn't seem all that bad and I ran up it without feeling the need to walk.  It could have been due to my slower overall pace though because it was rather long and the incline was pretty significant. 

Mile 5- 11:11~realize my shoe is too tight.  stop to fix it twice!
Mile 6- 10:54~took my first gel
Mile 7- 9:48~a little bit of speed here.  must have been the beer bribe!
Mile 8- 10:41~I love mile 8.  only 5 to go!

Around mile 11 there was this woman running near me and she was making a point to run through all of the large puddles she could find.  She was actually splashing me with water and I was trying not to stare and/or give her a dirty look but really?  Why would you do that?  She finally crossed over to the other side of the road where the water was deeper and continued her splashfest.  Yes, we were all soaking wet by that point but I was still trying to avoid intentionally stepping into puddles!!

Mile 9- 10:19~super duper wet. waiting for the big hill
Mile 10- 10:57~big hill is not so bad
Mile 11- 11:01~took my second gel
Mile 12- 10:31~starting downhill a bit
Mile 13- 9:30~last mile finding a bit of speed
Mile .14- :57 (6:54 pace!)~we were sprinting to the finish!

The finish!

Will was doing great and I was bribing him with beer to keep him going so we could get out of the downpour faster.  It worked for a little while, then I had to switch to telling him our overall pace.  I may or may not have told him it was slower than it really was to speed him up.  When we had just one mile left I took my headphones out- I was done with music!  Sometimes my brain really just likes peace and quiet.  I still had lots of energy in my legs and it was killing me to hold back but I was trying to push Will and make sure he was still doing ok.  He suddenly had a burst of speed in the last half mile and we held a fast pace all the way across the finish line, got our medal and coaster and we were DONE in 2:17:04 (our finish times were identical!). 

Done! 

I think this is how he really felt!

What a great race- too bad about the weather but I would absolutely run this again and recommend it to anyone.  Well organized, great sponsors and swag.  We got a long sleeve tech shirt, a cute reusable bag, a water bottle filled with water at the finish line, a ceramic drink coaster and a dog tag style medal.  The parking was easy and close, the course was really nice and scenic.  I have nothing to complain about aside from the starting line situation and the rain.  Oh, and the post race food was amazing!  There was fruit being passed around, pizza, bagels with nutella, pretzels, cookies, candy and coconut water. 

Done! 

We didn't stick around very long- we were just sooo wet and cold, and it was still raining so we decided to hit the road and find some lunch before getting the kids back.  I am happy and thankful to be able to share running with my hubby.  And now this finish time can replace my old PWT from the Boise race!