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Comments: Early in the run, it became apparent that I was going to be the pace leader, with the other pacers being support. From then on, I decided that I was just going to push it and do the full marathon, even with me not being that prepared, and risking injury. I'd rather just see this thing through and make sure it's done right. With the crowd, it was hard to pace the group to our planned 8:58 pace. We started out with a 9:15 or so, then had a fast mile, and by mile 4 we were locked into our pace. We started getting ahead of the planned pace a bit from 4-10, but it still didn't get too bad. By mile 13 we were only 18 seconds ahead of pace, and it was pretty solid from then on. We had a nice group of runners with us, many first timers, who stayed with us the whole way. Most of them suffered by the end and even got emotional, but they stuck with it and made it just ahead of us to the finish line. What a great thing to be a part of. One guy even got his picture taken with us after the race. I used this race as a bit of a test for my compression sleeves, and they worked out pretty well. I think they kept my legs pretty fresh. I did have hamstring problems, as well as knee swelling, which was expected due to recent issues. Now if they only had a compression sleeve for the hamstring. Weather turned out to be really nice. We started out at about 32 degrees and may have maxed out at 40. I wore 2 thin long sleeve shirts, one short sleeve shirt, tights, hat, and gloves. As I got warm I removed gloves, which amazingly resolved my heat problems. If I had been pushing my limits, I would've likely been complaining about being hot. I would still rather run in temps that start at 50, but really, this wasn't bad at all, and the sky was beautiful. What would you do differently?: I tend to stop taking gels late in the race, figuring I can handle the last X miles without it. I need to stop thinking like that. I probably could've improved my energy in those later miles.  Post race
Warm down: Went back into the DC Armory and did some yoga type stretching. Event comments: This is a pretty good race, I recommend it especially for half marathoners. You get to see the sights, the parking is easy, and it's decently run. Some of the aid stations were a little tough to get things from. One aid station actually was undermanned. But it didn't affect racers I don't think. One thing that was bizarre was that they seem eager to have people use the Metro to get to the race. Well, the start is at RFK Stadium, which can handle 70,000 fans, I think it can handle a measly marathon for parking. Parking was fine, and free. I consider it one of the easiest races for parking that I have done. The post race food isn't that great, but does have beer which immediately gets many people excited. Otherwise, you are looking at Gatorade, water, soft pretzels, and bagel bites. There are some pay vendors around, made me wish I had money. This is a pretty good alternative race to MCM. You get many of the same sites, but it's not as crowded, or hard to get to. This race is growing every year. Last updated: 2009-03-11 12:00 AM
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32F / 0C
Sunny
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I was a last minute assigned pacer for the 3:55 group, so I was planning on pacing just the first 16 miles or so of this race, and I would overlap with a 2nd half pacer, plus we had a full pacer. So I didn't really approach this race as a marathon race. I did a 16.5 mile run just days before, didn't taper from other training except a day off on Friday. My typical pre-race food is something like a Harvest Grain bar and a Gatorade and that's what I did today. I wasn't very happy about getting up at 430am with it being 32 degrees but somehow I did it.
It was kind of stressful with meeting up with pace organizers, getting things ready, discussing the plan, meeting my pacer teammates, and hitting the bathroom. The really nice thing about this race is that you can hang out in the DC Armory before the race, staying warm. And there are also hidden bathrooms in the back of the Armory where you can get in and out more quickly. We intended on getting to the start line at 630-645, but I don't think we got in line until later. Corrals weren't that visible. While talking to my pacer teammates, and the folks in the 3:55 group, I realized that I am probably going to just do the whole marathon with the group. It's heard to tear yourself away from this stuff.