National Half Marathon, Saturday, March 26

I have so many pictures to share which is why I've been on total blogging silence for the last few days.  The time and energy to transfer pictures from the camera to the computer has been in low supply lately.

However, I ran a half marathon on Saturday and I didn't take a single picture, so THAT I can write about.


This was both a training run and a test run for the marathon in May.  I decided since this was "just" a training run and I didn't need to prove anything to myself with this (and metro would be readily accessible if I crashed and burned), I would do something I never do: go for the reach time instead of the safety time.  Despite some really great training runs in the last few months, when I crunch the number I still feel like a sub 2:10 half is waaaaay out of reach. It's means running a sub 10:00 minute mile the whole way. It's one of those things I think I can do, I think I've done it before, but in the race situation it just seems beyond my ability. Even so, I know I usually finish a race feeling like there's a little something in tank, and that I could've pushed it harder.

With metro as my safety net (seriously, this was a big factor), I decided to join up with the 2:10 pace group instead of the 2:15 and just see what happened.

What happened was AWESOME! The pace group leader was really fantastic. Turns out she is Laura Skladzinski, current Youngest 50 State Marathoner and a Marathon Maniac. I slowly figured this out as more and  more people she had paced at other races (or had read about her or read her blog) showed up to say hi, cheer her on, etc. She kept the motivating chit chat going the whole time, told us great stories about her past races (including this), and talked us through every step. Uh, she's also 25, how has she had time for all this?

I stuck with the pace group until the final three miles when I had a lot more confidence that I could pick up the pace and hold it.  I ended up finishing in 2:08:48!!  This is my fastest half to date and it's really got me reconsidering my marathon plan. Before, I was thinking of shooting for 4:45, but now...well, there was a lot of number crunching yesterday and re-thinking my pace plan.

Here are a few of the highlights (and low lights) of the race:

• There were a ton of great posters by spectatos. My favorite was this guy up in Adams Morgan whose sign read "I'm Pregnant, You're the Father."  He showed up later on H Street with a second sign that read "This is Easier Than Labor & Delivery."

• THERE WERE NO MILE MARKERS. NONE (ok, yes I saw 5 and 10, but I didn't see any others). WTF? Mile markers are a somewhat essential aspect of a race!!!!!!! I can honestly say that had I not been running with a pacer who was using a Garmin to keep us on track, I might have been angry, confused and pissed off enough to drop out of the race.  Taking away mile markers is tantamount to mental torture for a runner. 
• The course and the weather were just beautiful.  It was sort of chilly, but it wasn't windy, so it was great. And the course is really spectacular. I got to run through some of my favorite spots in DC, some new neighborhoods I haven't visited before there were some really amazing views of the Capitol and other monuments. 
• I thought the start corrals were organized really well. They had us line up in corrals in the parking lots at RFK and then they release each corral to walk up to the finish. It was easy to find your corral and there was plenty of room to spread out while waiting to start.
• This was a good test run for May. I drove myself to the race, tried to eat breakfast things I was pretty sure would be available in OKC (and the Holiday Inn free breakfast), tested out some socks (fail!), and a new pre-race warm-up routine (good).
• Pacers and Pace Groups Rock. Period.

A pretty good race all in all, though I'd be hesitant to recommend it to others, especially if they were traveling here specifically for the race, given the disaster of NO MILE MARKERS (did I mention that yet?).  But if you're local and want to try out a new local race it might be worth looking into for next year.