Yesterday marked the 5th year of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle Marathon and Half Marathon. The day started out beautifully!

I’ve run the race three times (’09 inaugural, ’11, and ’12). This year, I didn’t run it but had grand plans to cheer and cowbell my heart out. These plans ended up being ridiculously fun!

Woke up bright and early at 5:45am, had a banana, and then met up with Meghan and Lauren at Lake Union Park to run to the Nuun Hydration HQ which was located on the race course! We ran around 2.5 miles over to the stop which was great. Much better than dealing with bad traffic and it was nice to get a run in with the girls.

Just a quick note about this race: last year in 2012, they unveiled new course updates which featured the dreaded “hell hill” (refer to last year’s recap here) at around mile 6.5 from South Dakota St that goes from Rainier Ave S to 43rd Ave S. In 2013, they improved the course by getting rid of this hill (hooray!) and using S Genesee St instead. Lucky runners.

Here’s also a link to a view of the full course and half course maps and elevations that I screenshot from the official site.

Right before we got to Nuun, we were able to see the first male and female runners coming through leading the pack. So awesome.

Shortly thereafter, we arrived at the Nuun locatiob. They had an awesome hydration station and we volunteered to hand out Nuun to runners, fill cups, etc. Andrea, Dawn, Rira, Rebecca, and others were also there. It was amazing how crazy it got especially with huge wave of runners the first hour. Definitely busy but very fun.

After the crowds of runners died down, we headed a couple blocks away where we were perfectly situated at around mile 10 and able to cheer on runners as they came off the I-90 Express Lanes.

This is when I broke out the cowbells! We were cowbellin’ like crazy and I could tell the runners were into it. Smiles, cheers, laughter galore. Loved seeing the fun shared around. Check out my snazzy Oiselle-ified cowbell. 🙂

Our cheering group!

We spectated for a while in that area and got to see the first male and female full marathoners come off I-90. Damn, they were fast.

Also got to cheer on both Lauren and Stacie for the half. Awesome work, ladies!

Other fun and inspirational sights!

After a while, we said our goodbyes and Rira and I ran back through downtown to the area right before runners enter the viaduct. A little more cowbell helped runners get through that stretch.

From there on, I said goodbye to Rira and ran my way back to South Lake Union to Dexter Ave N and Mercer St to finalllly cheer on the runners on their way to the remaining 0.5 miles. It felt great to give words of encouragement and assurance to runners that the finish line was near.

I saw a Marilyn Monroe and Doctor Dribble who dribbled two basketballs the entire 26.2 miles. He also holds the world record. Amazing, huh!? I can’t imagine doing that.

And, to end the race, I found the cutest little race spectator ever.

Race spectating can be exhausting! Well, maybe running around 5 miles, ringing a cowbell, and cheering my lungs out. But it was such a fab time.

Later in the afternoon, I tried getting to the Fremont Solstice Parade but alas the traffic was ridiculous. Instead, I met with the fabulous Erin, owner of JasYoga at Hilliard’s Beer.

Super fun!