# Race Report: Seattle Marathon 2025


Last Sunday, I ran the 2025 Seattle Marathon. This was my third marathon, and I
got a PR! I’m splitting this race report into two broad sections: about the
course, and about my experience/training/etc.

## The Course & Event

Candidly, I’ve avoided running the Seattle Marathon in the past because I’d
heard negative things about the course layout. Previous courses spent much more
time around the arboretum and University District, and routed over the 520
bridge -- which does sound fun in the abstract[^1], but would be monotonous for
a race.

One thing I still grumble about with the Seattle Marathon is that they _do not
post their courses until a few months before the race_. This is in contrast with
other races, which either don’t meaningfully change their courses
year-over-year, or have an established course prior to registration opening.
Signing up for a course sight-unseen isn’t great.

However, the 2025 course was great! It was a true highlight reel of the best
locations for Seattle running.

![Course Map: 2025 Seattle Marathon](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2025/12/04/Race-Report-Seattle-Marathon-2025/course.png)

Broadly, the course started near the Gate Foundation building, went up through
Eastlake, turned east to the Arboretum via Interlaken park, provided a nice loop
through the Arboretum and the University of Washington Campus, then headed west
through Gasworks park, Fremont, the Fremont Canal, and Interbay.

### Interlaken Park, Arboretum, Union Bay Natural Area

The section of the course that went through Interlaken Park, the UW Arboretum,
and the Union Bay Natural Area (near Husky Stadium) was the highlight of the
race for me. Running through those parks on a crisp day as the sun is coming
out, alongside a ton of other runners... amazing.

### Magnolia & Interbay

In contrast, the hilly industrial streets north of Interbay and the section of
Elliott Ave in the last 3 miles of the course are not that nice to run on.

The last several miles were a point of contention, since they
[caused significant traffic in Magnolia](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-marathon-reroute-a-hit-for-runners-headache-for-new-neighbors/)
and largely prevented residents from leaving during the race. When I normally
run this section of Interbay, take the Elliott Bay Trail past through the
industrial area there, which connects to Centennial Park. (This is the blue
route in the map.)

![Course Map: Magnolia Bridge & Elliott Way Segment](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2025/12/04/Race-Report-Seattle-Marathon-2025/alternate_route.png)

I think this would have been the preferred route by the marathon planners, but
there are two things preventing this route from actually being used:

1. Despite
   [recent trail renovations](https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2025/10/01/with-the-bridge-over-nothing-removed-the-terminal-91-trail-in-interbay-reopens-thursday/),
   there’s still a significant choke point in the trail in the connection
   between the Elliott Bay Trail and Centennial Park that would likely have been
   a safety issue for the volume of marathon runners.
2. There is ongoing construction in Elliott Bay Park that would make it tricky
   to route through.

I have pretty high confidence in this second factor, as this message was posted
around the Race Expo:

> The new courses touch several parks, waterways and other viewpoints throughout
> the city, showcasing the beauty of all of Seattle.
>
> And next year the courses get even prettier! Starting in 2026, once
> construction of the Elliott Bay Trail has been completed, we have agreements
> to switch the last two miles of the races from Elliott Ave to the brand new
> waterfront trail.

As an alternative to the nicer Elliott Bay trail, the course instead routed over
the Magnolia Bridge, which caused significant traffic. My sense though is that
this wasn’t the “first choice” for the course, as (if memory serves) the course
was updated a few times after it was announced.

### Turnarounds & Loops

The other gripe I had with the course was that it relied more on turnarounds
than I would have preferred. As a Seattle-native runner, this didn’t bother me
too much; I was quite familiar with the course and the turnarounds felt logical
enough. If I were coming from out of town, this likely would have been more
annoying.

The one _really unfortunate_ course element though was, again, north of
Interbay. At the intersection after the Emerson Pl Bridge, the course wanted you
to first turn right to do a loop up Gilman Ave, then drop back to Fishermans
Terminal via Commodore Way. Then you go over the Emerson Pl Bridge _again_, this
time turning left and going down to Interbay.

![Course Map: Interbay Loop](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2025/12/04/Race-Report-Seattle-Marathon-2025/loop.png)

Having seen the course online and knowing the area well, this was reasonably
intuitive. However, I saw at least a dozen runners who'd taken the left on their
first pass and had to retrace their steps (sometimes for >1 mi) to do the loop
they’d accidentally skipped. There were course monitors at the interaction, but
the signage was still evidently insufficient.

### Summary

Overall I enjoyed the course quite a bit. The event management was really good:
the race started on time, the aid stations were plentiful/well-staffed, and the
finish line was on-par for post-race chaos. I think if they smooth out the
Interbay/Magnolia piece next year, this same course would be an excellent one to
repeat.

## My Experience

**TL;DR**: I finished in 3:24:34, a PR, down from my previous best, which was
~3:43.

### Training

My training window for this race was rather long. I’d been ”training” for months
longer than I needed to, to partially train alongside a friend who ran the San
Francisco Marathon in late July. My training started in earnest shortly after
that, and I used [Runna](https://www.runna.com/) for the first time to manage my
plan.[^2]

My training was mostly uneventful, until near the end. I’ll write more about
Runna at some point, but in short: it was really helpful in scheduling
progressive long runs, and I loved that is generated pace workouts which
helpfully sync to your running watch. I built up my weekly volume and distance
capacity without issue.

However. In early November, I injured myself on a 20mi long-run. I started the
run feeling like something was “off” in my knee, but kept running on it. The
whole run was slow and painful, and it was the first time in my entire running
experience that I was unable to walk after a run. Not great. I took a week off
after that and wore a knee brace consistently until race day. Eventually, my
knee improved, but the ankle on the same leg got injured too -- potentially
compensatorily. So I started wearing a compression brace on that ankle too.

I was becoming pessimistic that I’d actually run the race, since I didn’t want
to further injure myself and had to dramatically step down my training in the
final month -- skipping all my tempo runs, and limiting the distance of my last
long runs to well under the plan.

In a moment of injury reprieve mixed with inspired consumerism, I bought a pair
of carbon “super shoes”:
[Adidas Adios Pro 4](https://www.rtings.com/running-shoes/reviews/adidas/adizero-adios-pro-4)[^3]s.
The first time I put them on to go out and test them, I ended up running my
first ever sub-20min 5k. Was this a good idea? Probably not, but surprisingly it
didn’t aggravate my knee and was a strong mental win.

### Race Day

**Pace groups**: I ran the first 18-19 miles with the 3:20 pace group, which
went really well. That helped a lot with not going too fast out of the gate. In
my first two races, I had the tendency to run really fast at the beginning and
burn out around mile 13, then struggle from 13-20, and be in a bad situation
from 20-26. Running with a pace group got me solidly to mile 18 without
overexertion, but still at my goal pace.

**Fueling** My fueling was definitely suboptimal. I brought 3 protein bars and a
caffeinated Verb bar with me. Unfortunately I somehow “lost” two of the bars I
brought in the bottom of my running vest, and didn’t want to stop to fish my
backup out of the bottom of my vest. The result of this was I ended up having a
bunch of course gels. This was fine, but I got “sweeted out” and had this sickly
sweet feeling in my mouth from mile 18 on.

**Shoes**: Shoes wise, running with carbon shoes definitely helped, but more in
the early sections where my legs were fresher. Qualitatively, I feel like they
probably gave me a 30 second qualitative boost on my pace, which is nontrivial.
However, the last 6-8 miles was still pretty hard. My thighs started freezing up
which makes maintaining a sub-8:30 pace tricky. The Adios shoes have much less
stability than my usual Brooks Adrenalines, which led to a few close calls with
rolling an ankle as my legs fatigued.

**The Last 6mi**: The phrase “a marathon is a 20mi warmup to a 6mi race” is
popular for a reason:[^4]

![My pace chart for the race](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2025/12/04/Race-Report-Seattle-Marathon-2025/pace_chart.png)

**Finishing & Post Race:** Marathons are such a mental game. In the last mile or
two, I had the feeling that I _could_ push myself to finish a few seconds
faster, but ultimately decided to not to. Once I was confident that I’d finish
comfortably under 3:30, I “just” wanted to finish without further degrading my
form. This probably was a smart decision. As I stopped in the finish corral, I
had a few seconds of post-run adrenaline, which immediately crashed into “yup,
can’t really walk anymore”. It was also still a quite _cold_ day, and so I got
to use one of those fun mylar blankets for the first time.

### Pictures

![Start Line](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2025/12/04/Race-Report-Seattle-Marathon-2025/start_line.jpg)
![Union Bay Natural Area](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2025/12/04/Race-Report-Seattle-Marathon-2025/union_bay.jpg)
![520 Bridge](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2025/12/04/Race-Report-Seattle-Marathon-2025/520_bridge.jpg)
![Almost at the Finish](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2025/12/04/Race-Report-Seattle-Marathon-2025/almost_at_the_finish.jpg)

---

All in all, fun race. I'd do it again. :)

[^1]:
    I have yet to run or bike or walk over either the 520 or I90 bridges, a
    glaring omission in my Seattle-native credibility.

[^2]:
    Previously, I’d just search for a reasonable internet training plan
    (invariably one of
    [Hal Higdon's plans](https://www.halhigdon.com/training/marathon-training/)),
    copy that into a spreadsheet, futz with it until it felt “right”, and then
    hang a printed version of that on the wall during “training season”.

[^3]:
    As a side note, RTings, better known for
    TV/headphone/vacuum/consumer-electronics reviews, does surprisingly good
    reviews for running shoes.

[^4]:
    This generalizes reasonably well to “a marathon is a $(26-N)$ mile warmup to
    an $N$ mile race, for values of $N >= 13$”.