America F$%k Yeah - Washington DC RnR Race Report

Yeah!  That's kind of what I was humming to myself as I ran past the Washington Monument....
For those who are entirely confused, this is a picture of Team America and America F$%kYeah is a song...

Anyway, let's rewind, I went into this race with a couple goals:

1. Use this run as a training run - considering I have another 1/2 marathon in 2 weeks (that's not a typo) and Mooseman 70.3 in June.  I did not want to hurt myself since you all know my fabulous running history with injuries.
2. Have fun!

Woo hoo!  I accomplished that goals and a minor PR (according to the Garmin which said I ran 3.48 miles...).  But otherwise it was the same time as other races.  And I should preface that the PR is in the 30-40 year old decade of my life, I still haven't been able to get what I had in my 20's....

Before leaving, Mike had a Project Runway moment and helped me make some snazzy arm warmers from my St. Patty Day socks I had...

 
Nicole and I got in DC on Friday night to drop off my sister at my aunts house so they can join in the craziness of the finish line together the next day and we went to the expo to pick up the race pack.

I wasn't impressed like I was for NOLA RnR, I think they should have blew it up a little since it was St. Patty Day weekend.  We ate a quick healthy dinner and relaxed...er, drank some wine before bed.

 We took the metro and made some friends...

Ironically, the girl on the right was named Heather - they dug the HGRC shirts

Caroline and Allison were awesome in their tutus!

 In our usual manner, we are running late, missed the corral and stood in line for the port-a-potties and ended up in one of the last corrals. I think this happens every race, part of which is we never give a shit because it isn't like I am winning a half-marathon or anything.

Rocking the HGRC - Metal Chicks Tri Harder Shirts!!

 I felt really good, I kept the heart rate in check trying to stay roughly between Z2-3 and not try to blow up since this had to be a training run no matter how excited I was getting.

My splits looked good up, and I tried to keep within hte 9:30-9:50 range, I sped up at mile 6, I think I had some good song selections (my sister helped with that...it was probably a showtune or it could have been Iron Maiden, "Run to the Hills" very random on the ipod) or maybe it was the surge of  taking a Gu with 2x caffeine, not quite sure the rationale there.  Problem with the race was the lack of water/gatorade stations.  I didn't realize it would be a every other mile thing and absent-mindedly took a gu at mile 5 and didn't get water till mile 7....
Mile 7 I did a mid run walk during the running station did a quick stretch as I was feeling tight after the 3 mile hill extravaganza.  Why didn't I realize DC had hills....they were lingering long hills - like mile 4-7...and then these random under-passes (yes under-passes).  At mile 10, I started having the toe claw issue...my toes cramped into a little claw...it felt really awesome...that took a little time to flatten them out and run, so that happened at mile 10, 11 and 12.5.  I think it made me slow down substantially, because I didn't know if speed would make it happen again. 

Even with all that complaining, I feel like I had a really good day!  The actual clock gave me my usual 10 min miles for 13.1 while my garmin showed a 9:50 pace but I probably let it go for a little after I crossed the finish line.

To top it off we had our cheerleaders at the finish line!  

I got to meet up with a friend I met in the pain cave (i.e. Vineman run portion) who just moved to DC and celebrate finishing with beers and fro-yo!

Sunday, we tooled around the city in achy legs and saw the typical touristy thing and was able to get over to Brassiere Beck (see my blog post for Brewtal Beer here on the restaurant and beers).  Mike and I went there before and they have a fantastic beer list.  We had brunch and celebrated my sister's bday with beer and blackberry crisp. 

We then hit the Newseum which is awesome, a must see in DC, the exhibit for 9/11 was a great memorial.  
All in all a pretty fantastic weekend.  I healed pretty good so far this week starting off with a great 3000m swim, an outside bike today and some plyo strength training...I have a pretty high volume training week on the books for this week and next including the Atlantic City 1/2 marathon!!

 I am not sure what will happen with AC, not sure if the shoes are the issue or if the toe thing was a fluke, but I kind of think I am on a not so secretive PR mission.  It is on a course that I run every summer while training and in a city that makes me smile and think of my Grandmom Nero and my childhood memories in Atlantic City.  Oh yeah, AND I got a free tutu for entering....

Not quite sure if that was food or a scanner problem on my nose....