well, I had no idea what to expect about this race… I assumed it’d be scenic and picturesque but that is all I knew. I soon learned that you get in through a lottery, that is flat and fast and that I had amazing friends who had done it before and were willing to plan it all for us. Which means, until 2 days before the race I had no idea what was happening. So, as soon as the lottery was held, they booked rooms at the JW Marriott, because it fills up and because it’s half a mile from the race, super convenient. They also booked brunch because the best places fill up. I am so lucky.

Some of them amtrakked there, Ilse and I drove together with lots of gummy bears (and way too much water). Left Saturdad morning, race was Sunday morning and we drove back Sunday night, super easy. We did hit some traffic in DC but the rest was fine.

Anyway, Saturday we took a walk around the cherry blossoms, right under the National Monument. Also the place of the race start and finish.

Anyway, it was a shit show. EVERYONE was there. OMG WORSE than TIMES SQUARE. UNDO UNDO PLEASE.

We lounged in the hotel, got some light dinner, watched a movie (the Fyre festival mess on Netflix) and then we all fell asleep happily.

Sunday morning, aka RACE DAY, we got up late, got dressed and headed to the race. It’s amazing to have a race less than 10 minutes away, with no security, no stress, no mess, corrals that anyone walk into (maybe not so good?) and zero drama. Now that I think about it, I don’t recall seeing anyone from the organization and we looked like children left to our own devices, which was fine. We are all adults after all. sortof.

So, we met up prerace for a picture:

Soon, we got moving. After the national anthem of course, which was amazing.

Well… “moving” is a bit of an exaggeration. We were pretty stuck for the first 3 miles. It was TIGHT. SO much traffic. It was pretty awful. It always works fine though, because it helps us all to not start too fast but I would have like to not feel too claustrophobic or like I was going to trip ALL THE TIME. I actually saw people tripping. It was really crowded.

The course is gorgeous though. I got mostly video but here is a picture, from mile 6 (the best part), it wasn’t crowded by then:

I got a lot more video here, so you can see what the race looked like:

There were a few out and backs where you could see people. Love those bits!

My race was actually great! I started with Courtney and felt super comfortable untile the road opened up at about 4 miles in… I started to push a bit. By Mile 8, I was able to do the math that I could PR… WHICH IS A BIG DEAL BECAUSE I HAVEN’T PRed IN 3 YEARS…!!! So I had to calm myself down and tell myself over and over to hold it right there and calm the eff down.

The last two miles flew by. Apparently, there was an uphill in the last bit but I don’t remember… you can probably see it in the video. I was racing so hard, I can barely remember…

That was a great race. Would love to do it again next year!

My previous PR (from the Bronx 10M) was 1:16 something. but check out that awesome negative pacing!

The race organizers emailed us all to tell us the course was short by 80 yards this year… which kills the male and female american records. It’d also add approximately 17 seconds to my time (STILL A PR!!). I find it really odd that they mismeasured the course, given this is such a historic race but oh well, I guess it happens.

now brunch:

and then we rest. Until the next one!!!!

again, don’t miss the video recap: