The Fit Family Lounge

know I know.. I’m way late on this.. but better late than never!!

***warning it’s a little pic heavy***

First I want to thank all of you who donated to the cause.  As you know I ran this race as a member of TNT (Team in Training, National Capital Area).  I ran in honor of my friend Sammie’s mom, Mrs. Ivy.  She is a Leukemia Survivor so this race was very dear to my heart.

I signed up to be a member of TNT long before the lottery opened for this event through Nike.  It was my goal to raise the funds and I’m thankful for all who have supported.

Now onto the race…

I was very intimately involved with some of the planning of this race.  I was fortunate enough to see how some things work behind the scenes of a race and let me say this.. IT AIN’T EASY!!! OMG Race Directors & their staff I have a NEW appreciation for and I will definitely be giving back more and volunteering to help pre or post race if I am not running.  These events are NOTHING without their volunteers.. I also learned how easily I can get pissed off when people sign up to volunteer and THEN don’t show up to do their assignment or simply come up with some bs yet they are out there cheering for folks.. *sigh my pressure is going back up* but I digress..

On Thursday I volunteered for packet pickup.  It wasn’t bad and the system was great.  Very easy and I easily checked in about a hundred or so runners during my shift.  It was easy, fun and had the opportunity to network with some folks!

Saturday, I missed the Team in Training events.  I was very tired from the days events already with my family and anyone that knows me before race day I have to zone out and I’m usually in bed by 7pm.  I laid out my gear and made my pre-race meal.

Sunday, I awoke without any trouble.  Alarm went off and I did what I had to do.  I met my coach and we carpooled in together.  That was the BEST thing I could have done.  We chatted and talked and my “nerves” about the race were gone.  I told her my time goal and she agreed that I could do it.  I had only verbalized that to 2 other people.  Mister & my girl Melly Belly.  So now THREE people knew about my time goal..

Nerves were gone and I was excited.  I looked forward to hitting the pavement and doing this!!!

It was totally an honor to do this race with my professional mentor.  She had done Disney as a member of TNT before and she is a WALKER!!! She stays burning up the asphault!!! LOL

So we headed to our respective start corrals and made it do what it do.

This race was very crowded!! From the start thru the end.  Thru the first 5 miles I had to worry about being clipped by another runner.  Several times I almost took a nasty spill for just that reason!!! I was very irritated but I didn’t allow it to disturb my groove.

The bands on the course were a nice touch.  I did not like running thru the 9th street tunnel (phobia of mine) but it wasn’t so bad on the out.. but coming back with that go-go band playing.. it felt like I was about to have an out of body experience and I said screw my intervals and ran as fast as I could at that point to get the hell out the tunnel.

I didn’t start running my 4:1 intervals until about mile 3.  Like I said earlier.. JUST TOO CROWDED!!! Sadly this was a lot of peoples FIRST half marathon and lawd help me.. RUNNERS ETIQUETTE WAS DEAD!!! From spitting to stopping dead in front of someone to not passing on the right or at least yelling out on the right/left ugh.. irritated me highly!!! I think this was a big issue and I made sure to comment on this in the post race survey.  They did a “rolling” start vs. “staggered” start.  They didn’t hold the corrals.. you basically all walked up and it kept going.. I like when races actually hold the other corrals for about 5 mins or so.. yes you may not start until 20 mins after the first corral but it’s much safer to me and races aren’t as crowded.

Despite those incidents, this was truly one of the best races I’ve run.  I had an awesome time, and I loved the crowd support.  I saw many of my friends running and also a few of my running buddies and people I have met online.  Support amongst the runners was also great.  There were many moments I stopped on the course and did a lil dance with the bands LOL.  Thru Hains Point where I believe the band from Howard University was their dances were dancing.. I stopped & popped locked & dropped it with her LOL they started laughing and it was an overall great experience.  I got to high 5 volunteers, some of whom I knew personally and some of the ladies that I help on their running journey’s through BGR!

A few of my run buddies, caught up to me and I didn’t have anything left in me to go with them.  By the time I got to mile 12.. I went from a 4:1 interval to a 2:2 interval.  My hands had swelled and I looked like I was casing sausages LOL normally I would run the last mile.. I looked at my watch and said fugg this time goal.. and you know what it didn’t matter to me anymore.. Time goal wasn’t as important as finishing the race UPRIGHT and not needing medical attention.

At the end I finished.. my garmin said 2:41 and then I had checked the results and yes they said 2:41.. but I checked again for the OFFICIAL results and I hit my time goal of 2:40 even if it is by 2 seconds.. LMAO I’ll take it!!!

I look forward to running this race again next year and yes I’m going to throw my name in the lottery for San Francisco 2013 as it celebrates the 10th Anniversary!!

Here are some post race photos..

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