On Sunday April 27, 2014 myself and 15,000 amazing women (and a few men) ran through the streets of D.C. on a half marathon course that began at 7am. It was an amazing weekend and I loved the whole thing! I didn't have high personal expectations going into the race, because I was in the middle of an upper respiratory infection at the time of the race, but I was still so excited!
My weekend actually started early Saturday morning (the day before the race) when my boyfriend and I drove a little over an hour to the metro stop that we took into D.C. It was only my second time riding the metro and, yes, even though I'm 20 I was scared. Thank goodness I'm dating a boy from D.C. who helped me make sure I was going on all the correct trains and getting off at all the correct stops the entire weekend. I have no idea how other people maneuver the metro without a personal tour guide.
When we finally got into D.C. we checked out the expo, where I got my packet, race shirt, and saw my name along with all the other runners placed into a huge mural on the side of the Nike Georgetown store! (I didn't take a picture of the entire wall, my mistake!)
It was so cool! I loved how they made us all into one unifying display! I didn't take many pictures when I was at the race expo or race because I was doing a lot of just taking in the atmosphere! BUT something I did see that was completely amazing was Joan Benoit Samuelson and Shalane Flanagan! If you know me at all you know that these women are in my top 5 for favorite all time runners (Flanagan being #1!). Here's the picture!!
All in all the expo was really nice to be at! I would have liked to see more accessible free goodies. I mean they knew it was 15,000 women, they should have had more than 15 people working at the free fun things if they are going to so boldly advertise it. I did some shopping at the Nike store and grabbed an awesome neon tank and black spandex! I love them both (yes I'm wearing them right now). The cool thing about shopping at the Nike store was that you didn't have to wait in line to check out! You could just find an employee and they could check you out with you just standing there!!
I also volunteered at the Nike T-shirt distribution later in the afternoon!
Then Kevin, the boyfriend, took me out to dinner which was definitely nice. I was a little out of place at the restaurant seeing as I was in running clothes, but it was still great prep for the race! (Of course, I had pasta).
I ran the whole race with my GU Energy Chews (watermelon (: my fave!!) and SaltStick tabs! I felt solid the entire race and I really think that's because I was fueling my body perfectly the whole run.
I loved running around D.C. and all the little treats Nike had for us along the way. We got the typical water and Gatorade, but there was also a whole mile where they handed out little chocolates!! Yum! The entertainment on the course was pretty good, but I wish they had compared song lists (I heard Happy 5 times and it was horrible). My favorite band was scream-o one! It was a marching band... PLAYING SCREAM-O! It was such a great pump up (: The entire race was amazing, but I think the best part was crossing the finish line under 2:00:00 and hearing my boyfriend yell for me at the same time. Made the whole thing worth it.
Oh and of course my finisher's medal:
OH YES IT'S A TIFFANY'S NECKLACE.
SO GOOD.
SO SO GOOD.
I was so excited to have my first piece of Tiffany's, but after I finished all I wanted was to find Kevin and head back to our hotel and a shower. In fact I barely relished in the finish the way I usually do (I think Kev was more excited than I was!). We walked through the Finisher's village and one awesome thing that Nike did was have a line of clothes that you can only buy if you ran the race! I got a red long sleeve zip with FINISHER across the back. The way I figure it: If you're going to run for 2hrs and feel terrible you might as well get a shirt that brags for you out of it!
All in all it was brilliant race, and I highly suggest it to all the women out there (The San Francisco half is opening registration soon!!)
My official race results:
