National Half Marathon in Washington DC. Race start time was 7:00am and I sat in traffic to find a parking spot from 6:15 until a few minutes before the start of the race. Upon finding a parking spot, I jogged up to the race start area and ultimately got started about 8 minutes after the opening of the race. Thus, I was stuck with a whole lot of slower people and had to weave for the first few miles (mostly on the sidewalk). At about .75 miles, I saw an old friend of mine who is a DC cop manning a barricade so I stopped and chatted with him for about a minute. His family was doing well. From there, I proceeded to run on the sidewalk past the US Capitol and Senate buildings and down the monuments of DC. At about mile 3, I saw one of my USMC buddies I haven't seen in about 10 years (I knew he was running though) and ran with him for about 4 miles. Actually, I paced him until we got to the hilly section of the race, where I beat feet up the hills and left him in the dust. I knew there were going to be hills but didn't expect there to be that many. The hilly section lasted until about mile 9 then they gradually diminished headed down North Capitol St. towards the Capitol. I had gu's at miles 5 and 9 to replenish the energy supplies and hit random water/gatorade throughout the race. At about mile 9.5 my right hip started to seize up and at about mile 11.5 I had to stop and stretch it out. Once my hip was loosened up, I hit the last couple miles and picked up the pace on the last mile to about a 6 1/2 minute mile. Total race time was 1:42:01 for an average of 7:47 miles. That's pretty good considering the furthest I ran for training was 5 miles with the dog. I attribute my fitness to my P90X routine. Race splits at the 10k mark was a 47:45. Positives....I can still run a half marathon at a decent pace while training minimally. My Plyometrics training definitely helped with the hilly portion of the race. I felt as though I was able to explode up the hill, rather than plodding along. Negatives.....My right hip, which has been good for a while, has jumped out at me as a problem again. It could be running form, yet it could be something larger and more sinister. It generally happens when I start running up hills. My next race (April 24th) is on an entirely flat course so I'll test this theory. Overall, it was a good race and good to see some friends who I haven't seen in a while. My time would have probably been a few minutes quicker if I hadn't stopped to talk and paced my friend. Oh well, I'm not gonna worry about that.
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