Nike Women’s Half Marathon

This past weekend I made another trip to Washington, DC.  I have to say that it is one of my favorite cities.  I’ve been there numerous times and each time I always have a great time.

I got in on Saturday afternoon and made my way to the hotel.  I was meeting up with a few girls from the Nike Training Club.  I dropped off my luggage and made my way to the expo.  I am used to an expo being in one building.  Well, this expo was different because you had to go to three different locations to get your bib, your shirt, and other miscellaneous stuff.  There weren’t many vendors plus it was crowded so I did not stay too long.  I then found out that Shalane Flanagan was there.  Dang!!

As soon as I got my bib and shirt, I saw this.  Pretty cool!

 The course map.

Found my name!  It was so cool to also see my mother’s name next to mine.

Then I met up with the rest of the girls and then went to lunch.

I woke up at 5 on race day.  I quickly got dressed and ate a ClifBar with some coffee.  Then we proceeded to take the metro to the start line.  It was a bit chilly and part of me wanted to go back to the room for a long sleeve shirt.  However, I knew that eventually it would warm up and then I would be too hot.

Ready to run!

There were so many runners on the course.  Even after one mile, the course was still crowded.  It was then that I saw JB.  She had flown in the day  before after running The Garmin Half Marathon in KS (where she got to meet Meb). She is pretty amazing!  She was running with a coworker and I managed to tag along.  Yeah, we ran together till the end.

It was a gorgeous day for running.  At various points there were so many spectators cheering for us.  I did get hot and thirsty but overall felt good throughout the race.  I began to feel a bit tired around mile 11.  I told JB to go ahead while I walked.  However, she is such a good pacer and part of me still wanted to run with her so I picked up the pace until I caught up with her.

Less than a mile to go.  That is me by the letter “E”.

So close to the end.

Finally done.  I love that instead of a medal, I got a Tiffany necklace.

It is a great race!  It is not a flat course but isn’t too hilly either.  The weather was gorgeous.  I definitely recommend doing this race.  I enjoyed it so much that I plan to go back next year.