A week after I completed my 6th half marathon, I completed my 7th! When I signed up for the inaugural Nike Women’s Half in D.C., I knew I would use the race as a training run (albiet an expensive one), since my goal race had been only a week earlier. It was the perfect opportunity to visit a new city, run, meet up with friends, and score myself a Tiffany’s necklace.

We arrived in D.C. on Saturday afternoon and headed straight to the expo. The line was super long, but I got lucky and found one of my college friends in line, and just hopped in with them. I picked up my bib and pace bracelet, and took a quick walk through the “expotique.” I’m not usually a fan of expos because they’re crowded and cramped, and this was no exception. There wasn’t much to it; there was a hair styling station, a Nuun station (which I would have loved to check out, but the line was just too long), a Luna bar station, and a Team in Training station all under a pop-up tent by the water. And I think that was it? It seemed like they really wanted people to head to Nike Georgetown, but I wasn’t in the market for anything so we headed out.

The race started early on Sunday morning (7am!), so I was up around 4:30a and going through my pre-race routine. Despite writing a post last week about what I always make sure to pack for races, I managed to forget a PB&J sandwich and a gel for during the race. I think I forgot because I wasn’t really treating it as a race, but it wound up being okay. The hotel was only about a mile away, so I decided to walk to the start rather than dealing with the metro. I had talked with Krissy and Ashley beforehand, and we decided to run together planning to keep it around 8:45 average, and picking it up if we felt good along the way. After snapping a quick picture we headed into our corral, got to hear Shalane Flanagan and Joan Benoit Samuelson be introduced (we couldn’t see them though), and then we were off!

I didn’t realize it at the time, but this race had 15,000 runners!! Let me tell you, we could feel it pretty much the entire time. I’ve always said that I have never experienced a run that “just flew by.” But I can honestly say that this run felt that way. No, it wasn’t the best run ever, and I didn’t even feel that great. But running with Krissy and Ashley, sharing laughs and stories, and just doing something we love on a beautiful course was SO much fun. It made me realize that I need to run with friends more!

The race itself wasn’t anything special – it was hot (it looked like I peed my pants by the end of the race I sweat so much!), crowded, and in all honesty, I probably would have hated every minute of it if I had been alone. But I just kept reminding myself that a pretty little blue box and cute finisher’s t-shirt was waiting for me at the finish. We finished in 1:58:34, with our actual running pace just around 8:50, but we took a pit stop around mile 6 which put us at the 9 minute average. After the race Ashley and I headed to brunch at The Mad Hatter (I’ll have a separate post on food later!) for delicious breakfast burritos and BOOZE to round out a pretty awesome morning.

I’m planning on running a bunch of 5k’s between now and the fall, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be running the Richmond Marathon in November. So I just need to stay healthy… which didn’t work out so well since I came home from the trip with the stomach virus. But I’m back at it today, thankfully!