Mercer Island Half Marathon – Virtual Condura Race

First off, I would like to say congratulations to my friends who ran the 21K Condura Race. So while I missed the Condura Race this year, I found myself my virtual Condura Run, the Mercer Island Half Marathon. I found this race while shopping for my winter running gear upon arriving here in Seattle.

Saturday night Seattle, I was already reading blogs and facebook status on how the Condura Race went. I was very excited on doing my own half marathon that I wasn’t able to sleep well. I would wake up every hour and even dreamt I was late for the race. Hehehe. This has been a regular thing for me during big and anticipated races (or was it because of my ginisang munggo dinner?) 

After finishing my oatmeal, I left my apartment and arrived at Mercer Island around 8AM. I had enough time to pick up my race bib and time chip at the registration area. 20 minutes before race start, I did my warm-ups and some stretching.

Registration Area at the Mercer Island Community Center

 

race bib, time chip, garmin and Asics are ready!

There were pace markers at the starting line. I positioned myself at 9:01 – 10:00 minute per mile pace. I had no idea at first if this is the right pace for me as I am familiar with the metric system. I know I can do 6:00 per kilometer but I don’t have a calculator in hand to convert min/km to min/mi. Bahala na si Batman. 

 

The half marathon race started at 9:05AM. The weather was overcast and there was a drizzle at the start of the race. I don’t have an estimate but there were a huge number of half marathon runners. The route reminded me of Baguio but colder. We were running around Mercer Island which is in Lake Washington. The lake was in view everytime you look to the left. 

route as tracked by Garmin

The roads were winding but were lined by tall trees. You will probably see the largest houses in this side of Washington. The Mercer Island residents were very supportive of the runners. They would give you high fives, cheer and even give you water on small paper cups. I was surprised to see cheerleaders lined up at the 10th mile marker.

Learning from my first half marathon, i took advantage of the downhills to recover lost time from the uphills. I also made sure that I drink water at each water station to prevent dehydration even though the temperatures are in the 40s. I was afraid that I would conked out in this race but was surprised to maintain a good pace until the 10 mile. The last 3 miles was really a struggle as I was already tired and it was uphill all the way to the finish line.

I crossed the finish line and heard the announcer called my name “Wilbert Lackbey”. My Garmin registered a time of 2:07:56, way better than my Adidas KOTR time 2:33:22.

me at the race expo

Community Center

starting line

awaiting the gunfire

cheerleaders

finish

Oranges, bananas, bagels, water, electrolytes and Starbucks coffee awaited the finishers. I took a few bites, rested and went back to my apartment to prepare for mass.

Til the next half marathon. Vancouver anyone?