“Upholders of the truth here dwell, the dreamers of the Dream.”

This is the last sentence in Seattle’s official city song: “Seattle the Peerless City,” music by Glenn W. Ashley and lyrics by Arthur O. Dillon.

I’m a dreamer of dreams. When I’m surrounded by inspiring people in inspiring places, my dreams get bigger and my will to conquer them grows deeper. I feel like a giddy school girl this week as I head off to be in just such a place with just such people: Seattle.

By some act of incredible fortune, I’ve been extremely blessed to represent Brooks Running as a Run Happy ambassador for the past 3 years – a role many of you know means the world to me and a running family I’m extraordinarily grateful to be part of.

On Friday, I’m headed to one of my favorite cities to spend time at the Brooks world headquarters with some amazing and inspiring runners.

And run a half marathon. Oh yeah, that too.

Speaking of dreams, I can’t help but dream of a repeat performance from my experience at last year’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle Half Marathon. I arrived undertrained with no goals and the desire to just run for fun. I had just started my official training cycle for the 2014 Chicago Marathon and was not in half marathon racing shape. Furthermore, I did everything wrong before the race – ate poorly, was on my feet too much, didn’t sleep, etc. And somehow, I ran the fastest half marathon I’d ever run. (Yes, that’s sweat on the lens below blurring the photo #unladylike.)

My only goals for this Saturday’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle Half Marathon are to have fun, feel good and be inspired. But …

Secretly, way deep down, I want another experience like last year. Being undertrained and not in racing shape and blowing my own expectations out of the water anyway. Not likely, not going to happen, but I can’t help myself.

As I get ready to fly across the country (literally, Florida could not be any further from Seattle), I leave you with these fun facts about Seattle that have everything and nothing to do with this weekend.

• Seattle is the birthplace of Starbucks. This is good since I have to be at the airport at 4 a.m. on Friday to catch my flight to Seattle. My eyes are already hurting thinking about a 3 a.m. wake-up call. Must. Get. Coffee.
• Despite its reputation for being a rainy city, it actually rains more in Houston, Chicago and New York than it does in Seattle. This means it hopefully won’t rain on race day and I will not get chaffed to bits from wet running clothes and socks. For the record, I still haven’t looked at the weather. See, there’s something to this “running for fun” thing and my stress level. If it does rain, here are some tips for racing in the rain.
• Seattle is home to the second highest number of glass-blowing studios in the world (second only to Murano, Italy). You never know when this may come in handy as a runner, right? One hand-blown glass finisher’s medal please!
• The Space Needle, which weighs 3,700 tons, sways one inch for every 10 mph of wind. Hmmm. I may need to rethink how awesome it is that the race starts and finishes right next to it. Either that or pray for no wind.
• Seattle is ranked the most literate city in the country. They have the highest percentage of residents with a college degree or higher and their library system has the highest percentage of library card-holders per capita in the country. So if I have a terrible race, there will be a lot of smart people around to console me.
• Seattle was the first city in the U.S. to play a Beatles song on the radio. Rebels. It also has the second-highest per capita rate of live music performances in the country. I’m assuming this means there will be the best music playing on the course, of which I will absolutely drown out with my own playlist that I will absolutely be listening to and which includes no Beatles songs.
• Seattle has nearly 500 houseboats, more than anywhere else in the U.S. Perhaps I need to look into this while I’m there since we can’t seem to find a house in Tampa to live in.
• According to the 2010 U.S. Census, there were more dogs than children in Seattle. Hopefully there won’t be more dogs and children in the race than adult runners. And hopefully no dogs or children will be chasing me while I’m running.
• Apparently Seattleites are all more unladylike than me. They have a No Pants Light Rail Ride where riders are encouraged to take off their pants and “pretend that everything is normal.” They also have an annual naked pumpkin run in October where the motto is “Go as bare as you dare.” And last but not least, they ride bikes naked during the Fremont Solstice Celebration. I could not find anything about peeing in their pants, pooping in the woods or other unladylike shenanigans.

Thanks to movoto.com and travelingwiththejones.com for the Seattle tips.

I’ll be posting live updates from Seattle throughout the weekend on social media, so be sure to follow and stay tuned for what Brooks and my 10^th half marathon have in store.

Twitter: @rUnladylike
Instagram: @runladylike
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/runladylike

If you’ve ever been to Seattle, what’s your favorite thing to do there? Have you ever run a PR when you weren’t in racing shape and weren’t expecting it?