Seafair Marathon 2008

Finished with the half-marathon in 2:38, an improvement over last year.
The course http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2011049
This course was totally killing, one nasty hill after another. The beginning was at husky stadium and it took us over 520. Bridge run was good, but since it was the first 2 mile, it was kind of hard. The sun was also at full blast on the bridge. This is the time when you are warming up and everyone else is passing you by. View of rainier was great, though there was some fog. After the first water station at 2 mile, I was well warmed up. The uphill of 520 was ok, by end of the bridge I was running along nicely as if I can run forever. Till mile 6.5, first relay exchange it was nice, some shade, some sun.
After mile 7 was the killer hill. A very long all uphill stretch. I ran half of it, but the other half just had to walk. I recovered most of the time lost when going downhill. But this was just the beginning, one rolling hill after another. I tried to run most of it. The advantage of this uphill-downhill course was that mile 7 - 10 just passed by without notice. It was pretty much running one uphill to other.
Around mile 9, there was another very steep nasty hill, which everyone was walking. That made me most tired. On the way some people were out with their garden hoses, spraying water on runners, good fun for them, and keeping it cool for us.
The course was somewhat flat after mile 9. Long flat stretch. Which was a good refresher after the rolling hills. Though by this time I was really tired. Mile 10 - 12 were really tough, especially the last hill just before mile 12 was pretty much a crawl. Once mile 12 was over, it was mostly downhill from there and the last mile was much easier.