This past Sunday I ran my first full marathon in Seattle! It also happened to be the 50th Anniversary edition of the Seattle Marathon, so I thought I’d devote a blog post to a race recap. When the race first began 50 years ago, there were only 38 runners! But it has grown over the years to include a field of more than 5,000 runners and walkers each year in both the full and half marathon events.

I am a road running enthusiast and love training for marathons when I have the time – the Seattle Marathon was my 11th full marathon. In the past, I’ve run the Dallas Marathon, New York City, and Philadelphia marathons, and the Salt Lake City and the Colorado marathons in the Rockies. So this race is distinguished as not only my first Seattle marathon but my first in the Pacific Northwest and whole West Coast as well!

In true Seattle fashion, the morning started with a threat of freezing rain and even snow on the course so everyone was bundled up for the cold weather. I held on to my puffy jacket until the last possible minute before checking it in and had a couple of hand warmers as well. The race started at 7:00 am at the iconic Seattle Center in the shadow of the Space Needle. After the start, we ran through downtown on 5th Ave and then on to the I-5 express lanes north across the lake. It was pretty cool running in the semi-darkness of the express lanes and running between both sides of I-5. Cars coming south into the city kept honking to show their support!

Running along the I-5 express lanes with the Space Needle in the background!

From there, we ran on the Burke Gilman trail up to the University of Washington and all the way up past Magnuson Park. This was a tough section for a couple of reasons: First, I was starting to realize that I had started out too fast, a common error for marathoners excited at the beginning of a race. I was tiring too quickly but knew I still had a long way to go. Second, because it was an out and back along the trail, there wasn’t a ton of variety in scenery or places for supporters to gather. It was a long haul out and back to the UW campus with few distractions. What was cool about this section is because the race went out and back on the same path, we got to see all of the race leaders returning and cheer them on as we were still running out.

Running across the bridge to meet up with the Burke Gilman trail.

By the time we made it back to UW, we only had around 8 or 9 miles left. By this time I was already quite tired. But there were also more people on the course cheering us on and more to see along the way. Some held funny signs like, “This seemed like a good idea 4 months ago” and “I trained all WEEK to stand here holding this sign!” We began our final grueling hill climb back up to reach the Aurora bridge. There was a lot of grumbling from runners as this was no doubt the biggest hill on the course, placed conveniently at mile 23 when everyone was exhausted. Finally, we made it up to the bridge and back across to downtown Seattle. The final couple of miles were actually downhill which was nice but wearing on tired legs as well.

Signs on display at the New York City Marathon, and one clever t-shirt worn by a runner in NYC

I was super thankful to finally run across the finish line in Memorial Stadium! By the end of the race, I was very tired and not at all maintaining the pace that I had for the first half. But I still finished in a respectable 4 hours and 30 minutes and received an oversized 50th Anniversary medal for my efforts! Overall, the race was fun and training for it has helped me keep running through the cold and dark Seattle winter. Though I am quite sore this week, I’m already looking forward to future Seattle Marathons and more races with the Seattle running community!

Max showing off my extra-large Seattle marathon medal.

My First Seattle Marathon