Nike Women's Half recap

Where to start.

We (me, twin and Aunt Sandy) drove down to DC Friday morning, tried to check into the hotel but it was too early, so when my friend N got in we just went straight to the Expotique. Packet Pick-Up was a breeze. Because we took Uber there, we got to jump ahead in line. The rest of the Expotique was pretty, but crowded. Love the We Run sign...I want to talk to someone about getting something similar for our race. It's a huge photo draw. Dinner Friday night was at a local Italian place around the corner, which was good bc the weather that night was crap. Everyone went to sleep super early that night so I stayed up texting S til like 1am.

Got my last run in with Aunt Sandy Saturday morning. Just a quick two miles on the treadmill. After a quick breakfast at Corner Bakery we decided to just hang out til everyone's family got in. Our parents were coming and Aunt Sandy's husband, sons and a girlfriend were coming down to watch too. We wandered over to the White House then went back to the Expotique and Nike store before heading over to an early dinner. Carmine's family-style Italian. I didn't really want pasta again, but it was a lot better than I was expecting. It was another early night and I was the last one awake again.

But boy did that alarm come early on Sunday morning. I got up, got dressed and had an uncrustable that Aunt Sandy had brought for breakfast. Actually seemed like it worked well. Might have to have those again. Then, right before we were leaving, I broke my yurbuds! Running a half marathon alone with no music does not sound like fun to me. Thankfully the twin was nice enough to give me her iPhone headphones so I could still listen to music. We were out the door at 5:50am. So early.

I walked down with them, but decided that I would start ahead in my assigned corral. Twin had forgotten to fill in her pace when registering, so she was put in the last corral. At this point I was thinking I had a shot at two hours, so I didn't want to start back that far. My corral was so close to the start! I crossed the start line in 23 seconds...if you don't know anything about running, that's really quick. Twin and them crossed in 14 minutes. A friend of mine from USATF was actually in my corral so I hung out with her until it was time to go.

Mile Splits:

1 - 8:54

2 - 9:31

3 - 9:05

4 - 9:22

5 - 9:15

6 - 9:40

7 - 9:42

8 - 9:48

9 - 9:58

10 - 10:27

11 - 10:05

12 - 10:56

13 - 10:08

last .1 at 8:27 pace bc I just wanted to sit down!

Overall the race was ok. I mean, what could I really expect. Training had been going really well until I took three full weeks off in the final four before the race. I felt strong until about mile six, when my hips started to tighten up. And then after mile eight, I could swear I was carrying someone on my back. I want to say I'm happy with my time, but why lie? Not sure when the next half will be though. It's about to get real hot here in Houston.

For the moment I think I want to focus on speed. There's a 5K coming up in June that I think I'm running with the girls. After those two miles at home at 8:35 pace, I think I could do well there. So we'll just see what happens.