Vacay Part 2: NW1/2M DC Race Report

Very belated - with such a quick turnaround between DC and Wildflower, finishing this post fell to the wayside.  BUT with today's announcement that registration for NWM San Francisco will open on 6/3, I got my butt in gear, so here's my race report!

Lottery opens on 6/3/13 - mark your calendars!

So I have been a Nike brand whore for a very long time.  I finally ran the NWM 1/2 in SF last year, and as soon as I heard that they were doing a race in DC, I immediately put the race on my list.  As soon as I got that confirmation email, our vacation was planned!  Well, the race absolutely didn't disappoint! From a great expo to perfect weather, Nike definitely knows how to put on a race, especially for their first year in a new city.

The Expo:

Since we were in town for the whole week, we hit up the expo on the first day.  The actual Expo was set upon the waterfront in Georgetown and all the fun gear to buy was just up the street at Niketown Georgetown.  Since we went to pick up on Thursday, luckily there was no wait.  It sounds like Saturday was packed, but we breezed right through.  The Nike Expo is always smaller than other race Expos, but I was extremely happy to see the Nuun Hydration bar.  I have obviously come to love Nuun with all of my tri training and it was nice to try more flavors without having to buy a whole tube (Kona Cola is now in the cupboard just in case I run out of the good stuff.)  Fruit punch has now been added to the arsenal.  Tubes were on sale at the expo, and the best part was that you got a free water bottle if you bout 2 tubes.  Done!  

Seriously one of my favorite things I got all week!

After taking all kinds of pictures in front of everything that said We Run DC (thank you patient paparazzi BF!!) we made our way up to the NIke store.  The store was pretty packed and the line to try on shoes was out the door!  But I picked up my new favorite half zip, and found my name on the wall of runners.  

Pre-race:

After carbo loading at a college favorite Noodles and Company, rolling out my ever sore IT band, and laying out all my race gear, I headed to bed around 10ish for a 4:30 wake up call.  Vickie Wags was joining me out here for the race and the plan was to meet her, her sister, and her dad at their hotel near the race start.  When the alarm went off, I was ready!  I hopped in the shower and whipped up my non-toaster access breakfast, whole wheat peanut butter and honey sandwich.  I had stolen (well, they were free, so it's not stealing really) bananas from the hotel gym, but apparently didn't plan correctly, so I was out of bananas for race morning...whoops :/

Quick stop to say good morning to the Prez on the way to the start.

I used Rock Tape for the first time a few weeks ago and now use it before every ride and run.  I chose pink for the day and put Rock Tape on my left knee and right IT band (I think I still need to figure out exactly where to apply the tape for my IT band, but my knee has been feeling great).  Then I got dressed in my outfit for the day: Orange lululemon sports bra, neon pink lulu tank, lulu crops, my Saucony Virratas, visor, arm warmers, and hot pink wrist band.  I wrapped myself in an old foil blanket and we were off!  (TIP: save your foil blankets after races.  They are perfect for cold morning race starts so you don't have to worry about freezing while waiting around, loosing one of your favorite jackets, or overheating during the race.)  Our hotel was right on the metro line, so transportation was a breeze.  Because we were meeting Vickie at her hotel, we got off the metro before the stop for the race...we definitely got some looks from all the other runners heading towards the metro like "ummm you're going the wrong way"!

Vickie's hotel was about a 1/2 mile from the race start, and the walk was a great warm up for the legs.  Bag check was a breeze, we made a stop at the porta potties, then we attempted to get into our corral.  At packet pick up, each person was given a colored wristband corresponding to their start corral.  You could only enter the corral corresponding with your wristband and the race officials were actually checking before you could enter.  In theory, this is a great idea...the only problem was that they didn't quite divide up the pace corrals well enough.  I was in the 7:30-8:59 corral.  Now, there is a HUGE difference between running a half marathon in the 1:30's to running it in 1:57.  Trust me, I know!  So there were way too many people set to be in our corral, and at some point, they took away the barrier between the 9-9:59 corral and the start was packed.

Crooked photos are always better

Cattle Call

As the minutes counted down to 7:00am, Shalane Flanagan and Joan Benoit Samuelson took to a riser near the start line, both wearing Boston Red Sox shirts and we observed a moment of silence for Boston.  It was really great to see so many people wearing their Boston shirts and all kinds of notes in support of boston pinned to their shirts.

Actual Race:

As the gun went off, it was the typical cattle call through the start and into the first 2 miles.  Even with the time specific corrals, I had to do A LOT of zigzagging to get ahead of slower runners.  Pretty frustrating, but nothing out of the ordinary.   Because of this, my first two miles were WAY off my goal pace.  My secret goal was to run a 1:40...I kind of thought this would be possible because of the weather and because the course was generally flat.  But I hadn't been doing any run specific training - just the run training specified in my tri training plan.  My main goal was to at least PR and beat my best time of 1:45:10.  So I planned to run 7:40 ish/mile.  The first two miles were nearly a minute slower!  Once I realized that, I got my butt in gear and fell into a great pace with the help of my special friend.

Who is this special friend?  It's one of the best apps that I have discovered: Jog.fm.  The app goes through your entire library of music and categorizes it based on pace.  Then, you can set the app for a specific pace and you will get a playlist set to that pace, of all your own music!  It is, by far, my favorite running app.  It has helped me set multiple PR's.  Just as a song ends and you feel like slowing down, another song comes on and just keeps your feet moving!

The spectators along the course were incredible, including in the 'way out there' section around the East Potomac Golf Course.  Having run that section in the 2009 Marine Corps Marathon, I was not looking forward to it because I didn't expect any spectators to make the trek, but luckily I was wrong.  As the miles clicked by, I was surprised to see that I was holding a consistently fast pace.  Around mile 10, I realized that I would at least break my PR, even if I slowed down to 10 minute miles.  I was stoked, but kept pushing it in hopes of reaching my secret goal.  

Mile 11 goes through a tunnel under the National Mall before letting you out right near the Capitol Building.  There were 2 different drumlines in the tunnel, and the pounding rhythm definitely pumped life into me for those last few miles.  After the tunnel, it was one loop in front of the Capitol Building, then a straight shot to the finish line.  Because I was close to the start line when the gun went off, my chip time was only about a minute slower than the gun time displayed over the finish line.  As I started sprinting towards the finish, I was able to see that I not only broke my PR, I shattered it by 5 minutes!!!  I was beyond excited and even got a high five from Joan Benoit Samuelson and heard them announce my name as I crossed the finish line.

Post race - Tiffany's bag in hand :)

I walked through the finishers chute to pick up my pretty blue box from the tuxedo'd boys and picked up my finisher's shirt (best one yet).  I was able to log onto the Nike runner tracker and saw that my friend Vickie was not far behind, so I found the BF, got a congratulatory hug and kiss :)  and was able to see Vic crush her PR by 8 minutes!!!  So exciting!

Proud Boyfriend

Finishers! Kathy, Vickie, and Me

All in all, the course was fantastic.  Landmarks included: Arlington Cemetery, Lincoln Memorial, Capitol Building, Tidal Basin and Golf Course, Kennedy Center and the Washington Monument.

The main bummer was that Nike didn't have any photographers on course.  I would have loved some shots since I was super pleased with my time :/  Hopefully next year??  

Post Race:

After some seriously good racing and burning lots of kcals, we trekked over to the Tabard Inn for some fresh baked donuts, mimosas, and brunch.  Then we hopped on the metro, back to our hotel, and I slipped into my amazing recovery pants - seriously those things are miracle workers.

Happy Training!!!