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I hadn't planned to run this race.  The idea was born two weeks before, while holding vigil at Harborview Hospital for my friend Peter (read a bit about him here).  May - another friend at the hospital suggested running the race in Peter's honor - which was impossible to refuse.  I did allow myself to run the half instead of the full marathon, though I considered trying the 26.2 as a training run.

I didn't feel good in the weeks leading up to the race.  It had been just two weeks since running Pacific Crest, and that race didn't feel like a success.  The Monday before the race, my friend Ben and I hiked up Mailbox Peak, an amusingly steep 7 mile hike in the Cascade foothills, with a 4000' gain.  My legs were still sore the following Saturday during a pre race massage.  This didn't bode well.

After waffling about my race strategy, I decided to try something different.  I would run as I felt comfortable, and never look at my watch.  Maybe I would gather my split time, maybe I wouldn't.  It felt important to try my best, but I also didn't feel that really pressing was feasible either.  Ben and I tried a variation of this strategy running in Sydney in September of 2004, and it worked very well.

So - went off to the races the morning of July 10th.  I started off very comfortably running north through downtown Bellevue.  The first mile marker was along 12th st, and I clicked off the split without looking (as I would the most of the race).  Crowds were sparse, but I was able to say hello to a number of people I'd met who were volunteering from the Eastside Runners group.  Have to say the course wasn't terribly exciting or pretty - we ran through a bunch of suburban sprawl (strip malls), before winding down 140th to south Bellevue.  I spent a short time running with a coworker and talking about how we were both remembering our friend as we ran.

Once we turned off of 140th just past mile 5, it got a little interesting.  We turned up into the Lake Hills area, and began doing quite a bit of up and down.  There was a steady downhill on Kamber (probably coincides with the 7:03 split), but then there was a short but significant uphill (doesn't really show up on the course profile).  I throttled back and plodded uphill.  The 8:40 split here seems excessive - I suspect we're seeing a bad mile marker in there someplace - because I had two very fast splits surrounding this slow one.

Running on Eastgate along I-90 was pretty dismal - although there was another nice downhill as we approached Richards Road.  Then we wound north through the Lake Hill area again - and running along the connector was pretty nice - wide and flat.  I struck up a short conversation with a guy around there - we agreed we'd lucked out with the weather - apparently he'd run a very hot midsummer marathon around there 15 years before.

By the time we hit the 11 mile mark, I was feeling kind of tired.  I didn't want to slow down too much, because I sensed that I was running pretty well.  I still hadn't looked at my overall time, although I'd seen one 7:30-something split when clicking my watch, and overheard when I ran the 8:04.  I remember feeling disappointed when we turned down 112th, because I'd hoped that we were just going to run straight back north.  Running the 12th mile went pretty well, although I didn't really think I had a higher gear to kick into for the last 1.1.  For the last half-mile I could see most of the remainder of the course.  I had thought we'd finished on Bellevue Way.  However, we finished by running about a quarter mile uphill, then turning onto 2nd, where the chute was.  Kayla, Rachel, and Kris were sitting on the corner of Main - and they spotted my red shirt a ways away.  Their cheering really gave me a boost!

This last little bit of uphill was a cruel twist.  I didn't know it at the time, but I was running a 6:52 pace then.  It was all I could do to muster breath to make the turn.  When I saw the clock ticked towards 1:40, I couldn't really believe it.  I'd come within 26 seconds of a PR, without knowing how close I was.  I don't really think knowing would have made for a better race though - I didn't leave much out there.

This was a good day.  I guess I need to allow for pleasant surprises like this from time to time.