Just wanted to take it easy for the first 3.1 and see how I felt from there. If I felt good, I wanted to then test the body under racing conditions and try to get a LT to work with for my upcoming training. Didn't really know what to expect with this being my longest run post-hospital, even with the good 5K run last weekend.

Felt great the entire run and pushed the effort on the back half. Average pace went from 9:35 to 9:08.

The overall goal was to do the run under 1 hour.....done!!!

Nothing. I could have pushed the effort a bit more, but I didn't want to overdo it and I knew I still had a long day of jockstrapping ahead of me.

Finished the run, got my medal and some much needed refreshments and even had to be first to get a beer off the kegs that were being set up for the marathoners. Then went to bag pickup to get my gear and waited about 45 minutes for them to find my bag...what a fiasco. From there it was off to find Chippy's sugar cookies that she wanted from Subway. After the long wait for the bag pickup, I knew I was against the clock in finding the cookies and getting back to the 21 mile marker. How right I was...ran around the Roslyn area looking for a Subway...nope. Quizno on every corner but no Subway. Decided to run back the 3-4 miles to Crystal City to find a Subway there...nope! Shit..running out of time. Finally was just running up and down the different roads trying to locate a Subway...passed a fine looking lady coming out of a condo building...back tracked and asked her....so it was an excuse to talk to her, so what. She stated that the only one was a couple more blocks away back at the Pentagon Center/Fashion Mall. Dammit, no time to talk to the hot lady...gotta get Chippy her cookies. Off I went, finally locating said mall and run inside and get the cookies. Also had a phonecall request from Wendy for a Diet Coke...but all the mall vendors had was foutain drinks...that's not going to work. Dammit..the needy marathoners are making my day a bit more difficult than expected. Run back to the 21 mile marker stopping on the way at different building in search of a vending machine...all were either broken or didn't have one or the snobby front desk help wouldn't let me in the building...finally raided the Double Tree Hotel for a couple of sodas...gift shop closed, but found a vending machine on the 6th floor. Grabbed the cokes the was back out on the course and set up my aid stop about 15 minutes before the runners came through....but I made it. Saw Team Chippy, then Renee, then Cindy, then repeated the same on the return of the out and back which put them just short of mile 24. Saw them all off again then grabbed my gear and ran back in with Cindy.


Are we talking about my race or the Chippy cookie search????


great race, great race weekend...and I will be back next year for the full marathon!!!