Gabriella Rao, RD

I ran the Seattle Half Marathon last weekend (11/30/25) and decided it would be fun to write a little recap! Maybe some of my fellow racers will happen upon it, who knows!

I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself with this race. Based on my behind-the-scenes sneak peak from my friends Rachel and Erin, who were ambassadors for the Seattle Marathon Association, the race had potential to be quite the shit show (due to a variety of factors mostly related to poor/chaotic planning). As it was, there were definitely features of the race that left something to be desired (the most disorganized bag check in race history, a couple weird and pointless out-and-backs on the course (including a 10-yard out-and-back on grass around a cone), the questionable decision to have the course go through the Olympic Sculpture Park (which was riddled with sharp turns and poor gravel footing), inaccurate mile markers). So for a number of reasons, I wasn’t betting all my marbles on this race.

Below is a picture of the route (and my splits if you’re into that), which is much more effective than if I were try to describe it in words – but I’ll try anyway. The race began at Seattle Center, went up along Westlake Ave, then onto the Ship Canal Trail. The course did a little loop near Interbay before heading south on the Gilman Ave W Cycletrack. It then connected with the Elliot Bay Trail, looped around a marina (immediately followed by the dumb 10-yard grass out-and-back around a cone), crossed the Magnolia Bridge and continued along the Elliott Bay down Elliott Ave W. Then, there was the dreaded Olympic Sculpture Park mini maze, followed by a 1/3 mile-ish stretch to the finish line. All in all, a pretty nice course (albeit with some questionable decisions thrown in).

A few days before the race, I was excited to find out that another woman from one of my running groups was also running the half marathon, AND aiming for my goal time (in the 1:25 range). I found her at the start line and we traded words of good luck. She noted that she had been slowly pushed backwards by men who had stepped in front of her in the starting corral, most of whom she would pass later in the race.

When the gun went off, my friend and I ran in step for the first few miles. After clocking low 6:10s for the first two miles, I began to fear that my zealous start to the race would come back to bite me in the ass. I only needed a sub-6:35 pace for a PR, and hadn’t really trained to sustain low 6:10s for 13.1 miles. Around mile 4, my friend seemed to pick up the pace (either that or I slowed down LOL), but I made the wise decision to run my own race. The mile marking sign just a bit after my friend and I parted read “mile 7” when we were definitely somewhere around mile 5, so I essentially stopped using them to gauge my pace for the next few miles.

Around the actual mile 7, I caught up with another badass lady that I had met through Seattle’s amazing running community — I knew she had just run the JFK 50-miler two weeks earlier, which must be why she was running closer to my pace than her usual blazing fast pace. We ran with each other for a short time before she asked me what my PR was (1:26:18 at the time), and she replied, “Oh, you’re on track for a PR! I’m aiming for ~1:25, let’s run together!” And what a huge help to me she was! We stuck together until about the last .75 miles of the race, when the course took a sharp, uphill left turn into the Olympic Sculpture Park.

Luckily, it was exactly at this point that I heard my boyfriend Kevin’s voice cheering on my right, and I looked over to see him and our dog, Loo! I waved and blew them a kiss. Their support was just what I needed to get up that hill to the park. The path in the sculpture park was entirely gravel, and with poor footing and sharp turns, my hamstrings were NOT happy with me. Furthermore, there was a hot second when my foot began to cramp after taking a sharp turn, and I had to coax it back to relaxation. I cursed whoever thought that little park addition to the course would be a good idea. I saw Kevin and Loo again on my way out of the dreaded sculpture park, which gave me another boost of serotonin.

I had assumed there was only ~1/4 mile to the finish after the Olympic Sculpture Park, but it must have been longer, because that final stretch seemed to go on forever. As it was ~8:30 am in late November in Seattle, the sun was just beginning to shine — directly into my eyes, of course. I wouldn’t have been able to make out where the finish line was if it weren’t for the fact that I could see the red numbers of the race clock up ahead.

With a line of spectators cheering me on to my right, I felt strong at the finish, running the final stretch at a 5:45 per mile pace. As I crossed the finish line, the red numbers on the time clock read somewhere in the mid 1:25s and I thought, “Sweet! A PR! But to be honest, I thought I had been running a bit faster.” Then I looked down to my watch, which read 1:25:03 and thought, “Dang it! If I knew I was that close to sub-1:25, I would’ve pushed harder at the end!”

I was thrilled with the result, regardless, and enjoyed the high of scoring a personal record in a race for which I had minimal expectations. A few minutes later, I received a text from a friend who had been tracking me that said, “That was fucking fast!!!” Then, with the one brain cell I had left after running my heart out, I realized that the time on my friend’s tracker was probably my official race time — so of course, I asked her what it said. “1:24:57.” Holy shit!, I thought to myself. I RAN SUB 1:25!!!! In a race that I fully expected to be kind of a shit show. In a race where I was afraid to make big goals and fail, I PR’ed by 1 minute and 21 seconds. I was OVER THE MOON!

Being that one of my passions is sports nutrition, I feel that I must talk a bit about my fueling strategy for this race, as it definitely played a huge role in my success. I carbohydrate loaded for two days prior to the race, which was made easier by the fact that Thanksgiving had fallen on the Thursday before, and we had A LOT of stuffing and pumpkin pie left over. I aimed for 8 g of carbohydrate/kg bodyweight, and more or less met that goal. The night before the race, Kevin and I made a thanksgiving leftover pizza, topped with mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy (it was amazing). The morning of the race, I had a bowl of raisin bran with almond milk, then half a large rice krispie treat ~30 minutes before the start. During the race, I carried a handheld water bottle for hydration so I wouldn’t have to try to drink from the aid station cups. I took two Huma+ gels as both a source of carbohydrate and electrolytes (which is why I use Huma+ vs regular Huma), one around mile 4 and one around mile 8. I took each gel slowly, over the a span of 1-2 miles.

After the race, I naturally requested from Kevin that we make a stop at Hey Bagel on the way home. I got a fabulous everything bagel with scallion crea cheese. 🙂 Later that night, we went out for some delicious Indian food to celebrate my new personal record. Kevin had also completed an FTP test that day for cycling and got a new best of 289! It was a beautiful day of athletic accomplishments all around.