Emerald City Fun

 It was during Rock ‘n Roll San Diego that Linz and I discovered we were actually on the same flight up to Seattle. Convenient, yes? Yes. Since I was picking up my dad the night before at SNA, and we were flying out of Long Beach, I stayed in Chino, and got picked up at o’dark thirty for our 9 am flight up to Seattle! (Big thanks to Jet Blue for my airline ticket! Through my ambassadorship with Run Racing for the Holiday Half, I was able to earn a free flight on Jet Blue! Hello racecation!)

We were up in Seattle by 11:30 and quickly met up with Briana, Libby and Libby’s friend Lindsey – this weekend can begin! We knew Friday would be a whirlwind and with all of 30ish hours in the Emerald City, we needed to hit the ground running (pun intended) - we were all staying in different places, so Linz and Paul took off and we knew we'd catch up with them at the We Run Social later in the day anyhow. Briana hopped off the Link and Libby, Lindsey and I made our way to our score of a hotel (Paramount Hotel near the Space Needle. We super lucked out). 

After checking in and getting situated and our phones charged a bit, we headed back down to Pioneer Square to meet up with Briana and Andrew for lunch. Briana called dibs on Tat's Deli and holy wow - delicious. A must-eat if you're back up in Seattle any time soon! Half the crew had Tat's noteworthy pastrami, and I devoured a massive meatball sub, because you can never go wrong with meatballs!

  

Finish line going up near Century Link! See you tomorrow, finish line! 

After lunch, we hopped back on the Link to make our way down to CenturyLink field to get our bibs and packet pick up done before the meet up. Easy peasy - the expo had started Thursday, so Friday afternoon was just quiet enough to get in through bibs, shirts, and the front store pretty quickly.

 Briana's #poseoftheday: group tree pose!

And then meet up fun! Linz, Carlee and I got to host the WRS meet up in conjunction with the super fab folks at ProCompression. New friends, reconnecting with old friends, putting faces to Instagram handles - SO. MUCH. FUN. Thank you to everyone that joined us and we hope you a) had a blast b) won some socks or hats or visors and c) will come back again soon! I had a blast meeting you all!

Thank you everyone! <3

PC love. 

Rock 'n Bloggers. 

Me, Linz & Carlee. Love these two!

  After the meet up, we took some time to wander through the entire expo itself, including playing on Brooks riding shoes, trying to win some free shoes, filling in for Sparkly Soul just a little bit, and then getting on with the rest of the fun! And by then... we were beat. It was nearly 5:30 already! And we had a city to go see! Both Libby and Shelby hadn't been to Seattle before, and while I had, it'd been a solid 15 years since I had, so I still wanted to poke around a little bit too!

In keeping up with my run streak though, I still had a mile to get in. Libby and I deeply contemplated taking the monorail to the Space Needle (and then we could run a mile back), or do we just do the treadmill in the hotel? We eventually settled on the 'mill and busted out a quick mile so we could get on with dinner and on with our short touristing time! We were literally a mile from the Needle, so we took the monorail up and spent our evening playing around the famed landmark. 

Despite some slight rain earlier, the sky had broken up a bit and our trip to the top of the Space Needle totally lucked out: pretty clear, gorgeous evening, sunset in progress. It couldn't have gotten any better.

We also purchased a combo ticket to get into the Chihuly Gardens & Glass exhibit which I'd been dying to go through. Gorgeous, breathtaking and to think... it's all glass. I was totally and completly blown away! 

Could. Not. Get enough! 

Clearly.

Me, Libby, & Lindsey!

After nearly three hours up in the park, we decided it was a much needed end to our day - grabbed dinner, ate back in our room, got race day ready and hit the hay about 11 for our early wake up. Thankfully, since we were so close to the start, we didn't have to head out super duper early - especially with that rain forecast, we were a little uncertain about what the morning would actually have in store for us!

Hoping #FlatMegan would be enough - please don't rain!

Race day recap coming soon - but  I can't wait to share how much fun I had! 

What are other must-sees or dos in Seattle for next time I'm there?