Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Half marathon course map and elevations

OK so the math nerd in me was curious about the actual elevation gains of Seattle's local half marathons. So far I have run the Seattle Rock'n Roll half and the Seattle half marathons. The one I have yet to attempt is the Mercer Island half which I plan to next March. Here are the elevation maps for each run.

The Seattle Rock'n Roll, although the elevation gain is not quite as high as the Seattle half, was the most challenging as it contained the largest hills. Hills have a way of zapping everything out of you, especially the steep ones.

Seattle half marathon that I just completed is technically the course with the most elevation gain and arguably the most hills.

Mercer Island half, while I have not done this one yet, I heard that the road is uneven, so you want to make sure to run down the middle of the road otherwise one side of your body might get really sore.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Seattle half marathon report


Today I completed the Seattle half marathon! Boy my legs are a little sore right now and I had to take a 2 hour nap after I got home. The event started in downtown Seattle in front of the EMP. I left my home shortly after 6:15am and got there around 7:10am after parking. After a quick potty break I lined for the 7:30am start. It was cold and drizzling when the race started. At around mile 6 I had to take potty break #1 this added at least 5 minutes to my time. At mile 8 I had to take another potty break and this one added 3 minutes to my time. I should not have had dairy the night before :(

As the race drew to a close, the rain and wind picked up. I was so wet and cold at this point I couldn't wait for it to end. I started to fatigue around mile 11. My longest training run had been 10 miles to that point. I finished under 2h18m with my 2 potty breaks. I would have PRed if it weren't for them...oh well. I ended up meeting up with Jimmy at the finish line where we chatted briefly about the race while eating bananas. Next time I need to watch what I eat before the race.

Anyways, so what race will I do next? I'm starting to build up a nice collection of finisher medals :)

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

My new friend...

So today I finally weighed myself for the first time in over 2 years. Let's just say I am not where I was in my prime triathlon days, however with a lot of work I can be by the end of the year. With only 6 weeks left to lose 9 pounds I would need to lose an average of 1.5 pounds a week. That's is a deficit of about 5000 calories which means at least a 700 calorie deficit a day. So if I eat 1600 a day and do at least 30 minutes on the treadmill or stairs or outdoor run I should fine. Wish me luck!

Refi time

So I took it upon myself to take advantage of the low mortgage rates to refinance my Redmond home purchased 18 months ago. I was able to get a hold of a mortgage broker who offered me a no closing cost refi. Of course, all refinances require a new appraisal. Yesturday I found out that my property value had declined a little less than 2%. Which considering the circumstances is really not too bad. For example, Jocelyn and Nick's property go reappraised for 25% less than what they paid for it two years ago.

While I love my current home, there are times where I realize that I signed up for more than I bargained for. My yard is 14k square feet! I have an Asian landscaped yard so with a pond, a fire pit, 6 pear trees, 1 apple tree, 1 blueberry bush, 2 Japanese maples, and other various types of plants. As you can imagine, there are a lot of leaves to clean up. Just this last weekend I spent a couple hours filling up 7 compost bags full of leaves. I still have the entire side of the house to do, which I estimate will take up an additional 20 bags :(

However in hindsight, financially it was a good thing that I did end up selling my previous condo and upgrading as I would have lost of money had I kept the condo. I bought the condo for $186k in 2004 then sold it for $235k in 2010. It is now selling for $155k. I feel really bad for the dude who bought my condo.

Anyways, the refi will drop my monthly payment by a little bit. But over time it will add up to over $2000 a year saved!