My Better Half Marathon Virtual Run

Some weeks ago I saw an ad for a race on Valentine’s Day: My Better Half. I don’t typically do many themed fun runs, but this one intrigued me because you sign up with a partner (lover, gal pal, bromance, etc) and you get medals that fit together and awwwww!

We were all geared to sign up for the actual race (it’s here in Seattle), but I hesitated. In our training group, our long days are on Sundays (and 13 miles isn’t long enough…oh we’re weird) so it was a conflict. However, it had neat swag, so…then I noticed they had a virtual run option! I’ve become a fan of signing up for races/routes and running them on my own time frame (yes, I realize some may find that silly). This was a perfect fix for us – run it a day early on a route we like and still get the snazzy swag. Also, back to back runs are always perfect for ultra training.

We got our shirts, bibs, medals, and swag early this week, and I was psyched to put it to use! We were out on a date together last night, so it was very nice to have a leisurely morning and not feel rushed to get running super early. Of course we had to take some “before” photos, which was rather entertaining since we don’t generally do selfies.

My favorite moment was when Adam was attempting to take the photo and he caught himself with a derpy face. “I don’t know how I wasn’t ready, I’m the one taking the photo!”

We got going about 11:30am, and managed to have decent weather (i.e. not raining in Seattle) almost the whole time. We ran an out-and-back on my favorite route close to home – the Burke Gilman Trail. Almost all flat except for a long hill at the end to get back to our apartment.

Our long run tomorrow is supposed to be quite long, so we didn’t want to trash our legs aiming for a PR or something today. We set out with an easy pace and because it wasn’t too busy, we mostly had the trail to ourselves.

Our turnaround point, at precisely 6.55 miles, was nothing remarkable. Just a random point in a residential area of the trail, but we took a photo anyway. We were feeling good!

At about 11, we definitely weren’t feeling quite as fresh, but still pretty good. As we got to the hill at the end (at 12.3 miles), Adam really opened up and started pushing the pace. At one point I may have let out a few curses because it seemed much easier for him than for me. He said, “It just feels really good to stretch out the legs after all that flat.” <pause> “That’s probably the first time I’ve ever said that.” 🙂

We finished strong at 2 hours, 15 minutes just as the rain really started. We attempted some cute photos with the medals and then descended on the kitchen for refueling in preparation for tomorrow.

All in all, a fun little run together in celebration of Valentine’s Day! 🙂