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SRRC Race Reports

National Half Marathon, Washington, DC—Sat., March 24, 2007
by Mary Sullivan

It was about 3 weeks before this race that I realized I was going to have to run more than a comfortable 6 miles for my “long” weekend run if I was going to finish the National Half Marathon without hitting the wall at mile 8!  This is when I began to question the wisdom of the friend who’s idea this was and my “lemming”-like tendency to agree to sign up for a half marathon in early Spring. The idea was to provide us with a goal that would keep us running through the winter.  Sounded great back in December as I was still basking in the glow of my Chicago marathon finish—sure 13.1 miles sounded like nothing!  Hah. And all probably would have been well if it weren’t for the arctic blast that hit in February.

Sometime in late January early February I new I would need to do some consistent running, and my schedule really only worked for morning runs.  So, I made great use of the SRRC and joined the 6 a.m. group who meet Tues, Wed and Thurs. at Starbucks.  I had great hopes to become a regular and did fairly well for the first 2 weeks.  I even imposed on Phil to pick up a reflective vest for me on one of his running store trips.  Yes sir, I was there.  Then, one unbelievably cold morning—I recall that it was single digits, coupled with a biting wind (though Phil and Kevin may recall differently)—that my early morning routine suffered a setback. I had never been that cold on a run, EVER.  I even asked the guys to detour from our usual route and cut it short.  So, my running took a bit of a dip until the temps came back up into the balmy 30s and 40s and suddenly it was 3 weeks before the race, and I had to get some miles in!

So, a few weekends of long runs and some warmer weather morning runs (thanks Phil, Adam, and Siva for pulling me along!), and there I was at the start line of the National Half Marathon.  This race was indeed very low key when compared to the other DC races I’ve run, which was actually refreshing.  It was so low-key in fact that my friend Julie and I did not even see and were never told about chip pick-up when we went down to get our bib and t-shirts on Friday.  It wasn’t until we were lined up at a port-a-potty and saw other runners with chips on their ankles that the light bulb went off.  Again, being a small race we were able to find the tent with the chips and get them on with a good 10 minutes to spare before the start.  I might add that the table was littered with so many unclaimed chips that it would appear we weren’t the only idiots who missed picking up the hidden chips.

The rain that was falling when we parked and went to the bathroom decided to stop for the most part about 5 minutes before the race, which was nice.  My friends took off like shots but I knew my limitations and wanted to make sure I had enough left at the end, so I let them go ahead.  Smart move I think.  It was fairly humid and overcast but breezy enough that I was comfortable the entire race.

The race course was a very nice tour of DC and turned out to be quite a bit faster than any of us ever thought.  Everyone in my car (4 of us) set a PR.  I broke mine by about 15 minutes.  Even more amazing, they have sent out an email and said that there was a misplaced cone on the course and we ran and extra .24 miles so it turns out our times were even faster.  I still don’t really believe it.  The best part of the race was when I ran with Mayor Fenty for a brief moment.  I knew he was somewhere next to or ahead of me early on because his security car, a black sedan with tinted windows and flashing lights, was driving along the race course.  But at mile 3, I came up on someone who I thought might fit the bill, and he was talking to the police along the course, so I decided it must be him.  Even more amazing was the fact that I passed him pretty easily.  It all made sense when I saw him at a turn and realized that he was running the full marathon, so he was obviously conserving his energy.  I’ve read that he is a very decent runner (i.e. faster than me) and in fact he ran a not-too-shabby 4:08 at this race.  So, it was pretty cool to have a celebrity sighting on the course.

I was so happy to make that turn at mile 9 and watch the marathoners carry on for another 17 miles.  My legs were the happiest of all!  I was staying true to my decision to stick with the half-marathon distance for my long races since marathon distances take such a toll on my legs.  As Allison said in her report, the rolling hills in Anacostia were the toughest part for me. and I still haven’t decided if it was good or bad that there was no mile 12 marker.  I could see RFK in front of me and looked at my watch and was praying that indeed there was no mile 12 marker and we were almost home.   The shouts from the nearby finish line told me we were almost there.

I would absolutely recommend this race to someone looking for a reason to run long during the winter. I think a lot of the marathoners were prepping for Boston.  So, despite my belly-aching about cold weather training, it was all-in-all a pleasant foot tour of parts of D.C. I don’t usually see.  Now on to the Cherry Blossom 10-miler.

March 2007

The SRRC would love to hear about your running, racing, or crewing experiences! If you would like to submit a race report, to be posted on the SRRC website, please email srrunner@srrunners.org.