The Seattle Marathon +

The Seattle Marathon is a crappy crappy marathon. I've held this opinion ever since I ran the marathon three or four years ago. Besides having two out and backs (I detest out and backs) a good portion of the course is on concrete which just plain hurts. Add to that I'm used to running against traffic with my right leg slightly upslope from my left. This course ran a good portion on the right side of the road...which was fatiguing. Finally I would like to say that the course has a couple rather inexplicable route selections that are extremely steep. The first is a sudden uphill in Madison Park and the second is a steep downhill by the REI near the end of the course. I call these inexplicable because both are unnecessary and easily corrected. But of course what made this race epic was the heavy rain runners experienced for nearly the whole duration. (Also why can't the finish line be inside the Key Arena instead of outside in the crumbling ruins that are the Memorial Stadium?) On the upside I had no chaffing (to which I credit a very nice merino wool long sleeve shirt) and I did run nearly 34 miles with very little damage to my feet despite running with sandals on in very wet conditions. All hail Luna sandals. Unfortunately Luna comes out with their wet weather sandal this week. Bad timing. Despite my complaining I am very satisfied with my race experience and proud to have tacked on another 6-7 miles for good measure!

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