Very hot morning in DC! Biked 3 miles to meet up with my friends, at 7 supposedly.. 7:20 finally everyone was there - we barely made it in time after the long cab ride to Mt Vernon, in Alexandria. The race started slow, along the very green George Washington parkway that runs along the Potomac. A gorgeous course, and the road is nice and wide. The first 2 miles were slow, passing lots of people, but my right shin was feeling tight and almost cramping up... right after mile 2 I saw Camille and Dave right in front of me! I couldn't believe it and got worried that I was going so slow! I think they started a bit too fast, that's what it was... finally by mile 3 or so it had loosened up and felt much better for the rest - and I passed Camille and David finally! My stomach was not feeling well, and I had to go to the bathroom since the very beginning, so I was a bit uncomfortable the whole time. It was very hot, so I poured water on my head at the water stations. I took a gu at around mile 6 cause I was feeling a bit low in energy, not sure if it worked. I didn't feel really bad, but I didn't feel really good either. I felt I was going slow the entire time... but this wasn't my target race so whatever... what matters is I finished! My time was close to 1:24, official results are not posted yet. Here are some of my splits:
Mile 2: 17:01
Mile 3: 8:40
Mile 4: 8:43
Mile 5: 8:41- 5-mile split was 43:04
Mile 6: 8:33
Mile 7: 8:10
Mile 8: 8:34
Mile 10: 15:50
Pretty good negative split, I won't complain. Not a PR but considering I haven't been back from injury that long ago, I'll take it.
Camille finished in 1:30 and David in 1:36 or so. They were happy.
Tendon didn't hurt, heel didn't hurt, overall a good day but while I was running that's not what I was thinking!!! I like point-to-point races too, though it's also entertaining to watch the faster runners come your way when a race is out and back on the same street, and also to see the slower runners behind you, ha!
Lessons learned: 1. When meeting up with other runners to get to a race, call them in the morning to make sure they're up, and leave some cushion time between race start and meeting time. 2. Don't eat ice cream with dulce de leche the night before a race. 3. Don't wear those insoles again, they give me blisters.
----------- Results are posted but not age group results yet... I was 771st out of 4 thousand runners... that always gives a good perspective, being on the top 25% is not bad.
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