Sorry for my absense yesterday but I was running a 1/2 marathon!!!
Yes I completed it without stopping and under the time I set for myself!
So all and all I am happy!
It was truly an experience and as I crossed the finish line I did shed a couple tears- I did it!!!
Let me tell you it was not easy. There were many frustrations along the ways so I thought I would share as some of you might learn from them.
1) The metro did not open till 6am and the race started at 7am. This may not be a problem for people who live close but living out in Fairfax it takes us anywhere from 40-55 minutes to get to DC Armory (where the race started). In previous races I have run like the Cherry Blossom 10 miler and the Army 10 mile the metro opened at 5am which was awesome. So we decided to drive and left an 1 1/2 before the race. Basically everyone was driving because the metro opened so late so at 6:45 I jumped out of the car that Joe was still driving and ran to my coral. (Remember the race starts at 7am). It was kind of a stressful moment for me as I like be there early finding where I am going to be all that good stuff
2) IT WAS FREAKING COLD Thank God I talked to my brother before my run who suggested wearing my Nike running shirt underneathe and wearing a a long sleeve cotton shirt over that I would not mind losing if I decided to take it off I also took a pair of cheap running gloves that I got as a freebe in a previous race. So at mile 3 I left my gloves and shirt at a donation station. The set up stations to discard your clothing and they would give it to the homeless shelters in DC- works for me!!!
3)I have become a race snob and unfortunately my first race- the Cherry Blossom run ruined me They handed out a beautiful race packet, had mile markers, and time clocks along the course, had water stations that were manned well, and bathrooms accessible along the race course. This race was lacking in all of the above. I did not see a mile marker until mile 10. The water stations were very poorly manned and could not fill up water fast enough. There were three bathrooms at mile 5 and then one at mile 10 which has a line of 20 people to use.
4) The course. The first part of the course was gorgeous, I ran next to the Monument, the Capital, the Whitehouse- all while the sun was rising. Absolutely, beautiful!! However, the second half of course was very hilly which I was not prepared for and also not as pretty- we ran thru Adams Morgan and some not so nice parts of town. I could tell when I hit those parts because the number of police men increased.
However, all complaining aside there were alot of good things
1) The beautiful first 1/2 of the course
2) How motivating people were. My husband found me at the start, mile 6 and the finish. But people were cheering everyone on!!!
3) The finish area nice- they had everything from water, bananas, bagels, juice, chocolate milk, granola bars, etc.
4) It was an amazing experience. I ran next to a girl for the first bit who wore a shirt in honor of a little boy diagnosed with Leukemia. Then there was another group running to honor people serving in the middle east. TALK ABOUT MOTIVATING. People were cheering you on every step of the way. If only we cheered our fellow people on in everything we do.. it would be a much better world.
So last night when I had people over they were asking me when my next one was. I am now going to work on find a sprint tri this summer, a 5-10 miler in the fall and then another 1/2 next year.
So my running continues.
Thank you everyone for all your support!!!
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