Nike Women's Half Marathon -Washington, DC Recap

Hello Blog Buddies. My sincere apologies for the lack of blogging. This time I can actually say the lack of bloggin'  was not in fact due to my procrastination. Our blog was temporarily down because some not so nice internet leech infested our blog with malware via a spam post. Google had our blog on isolation precautions.

 No worries reader(s). We have been to the free internet clinic, we were treated, and can now say our blog is 100% disease free. Wish someone would have given me some kind of internet transmitted disease brochure when we launched this rookie blog. Guess it's just one of those live and learn scenarios. Well, Internet, we have been around the block now, and we are now fully protected. So to all those promiscuous blog skanks, you can take your malware elsewhere.

Since I haven't blogged in a while, we'll make this a mega post to make up for our lack of blogging.

 Caroline and I did our first race of the year together in DC in late April. We ran the Nike Women's Half. It was a bit of an emotional week for us as two weeks prior we watched the horrific events unfold at the Boston Marathon. Caroline and I decided to honor the spirit of marathoners everywhere and the victims in Boston by running and posting happy race pictures. We also made the decision to wear Boston themed running gear while racing. To the left are our shirts from RawThreads


As with the other Nike races, the Expo left a bit to be desired as it doesn't have the vendor diversity you can find at a race that isn't sponsored by an athletic apparel company. There were some great speakers, and a cool option to make your own cheer card.

 The race gear made by Nike was top notch. The biggest pre-race excitement was the quest to purchase the limited edition shoe for the race. Since Caroline lives in DC, she was able to score a pair of shoes early in the week at a local running shop. I had to wait until I raced off the plane. My first stop was to the Nike store in Georgetown, and lucky for me, I got the last pair of the shoes in my size. I am sure I spent more on gear than I did on the race entry. Well played, Nike. Here are the shoes in all their glory.

!!!!

After the shoe hunt, we played around the town. Here are some of the goofy pics: 

Race day went pretty well. We had no trouble getting to the race. Caroline came by metro, and my sister dropped me off by car. Bag check was well organized. Once at the start, we were pretty crammed getting to our corral, and thus didn't actually end up getting into the line until well after our corral had started. I was so impressed with the turnout, and the enthusiasm of the runners in the wake of tragedy in Boston that the crowd didn't really bother me. Had I been hoping for a PR at this race, the crowd would have been an obstacle for sure. Because there was such a bottleneck at the start, and due to the fact this race was a Team in Training event with lots of run/walk racers, I didn't really end up at my full pace until almost halfway through the race. Again, this is NOT a complaint. I was so thrilled to be running, and to be able to run, that it didn't bother me a bit. Just writing this as an FYI. 

The race course was gorgeous and with lots of DC monuments. Nike also had cute signs on the race with sayings like, "blue boxes ahead." There were lots of spectators with somewhat topical signs such as, "binders full of runners."

My attempt at photography while running. #fail

 The only thing I would warn runners of in regards to this race is the fuel situation. There wasn't any name brand sports drink available (no Gatorade or Powerade).  They used a product called Nuun (which to me tasted AWFUL). I rarely drink sports drinks at a half marathon, but unfortunately since some of the Nuun flavors look clear, I ended up with Nuun instead of water twice during the race. Yuck!  I never consume Gu or other gel-like substances while racing, so I can't comment as to the selection of those at this race.

The best part of the race was the long anticipated TIFFANY'S NECKLACE! The finish line was a red carpet, and when we finished, a man in a tuxedo handed us a little blue box! Afterwards we stuck around and took post race pictures, and hung out for post race festivities. All in all, it was a great race! Here are some general pics of the race and the bling. 

Start

Crowds at Start

Finish

The Bling!!

Up next for Caroline and me is another trip to Disney! We are running the Tower of Terror 10 miler in October. We are also excited to announce  we will be running the inaugural Glass Slipper Challenge in Disney in Feb.2014!