Sunday, March 22, 2009

national 1/2 marathon washington DC report

Since I am no blogging daily as I use to do I am going to report every race as detail as possible. Hope you enjoy it.
This race was intended to be a fitness test to know were I was. The coach said that I should be around the 1:40's. I had to take it easy from the beginning and see how the race goes and how I was feeling.

Wake up at 4:45 in the mourning took breakfast really quick and took the 5:30 metro since it was open and I am a metro believer and I live 1 /2 a block from it. It took 25 minutes and 6 am I was at the race site went to check the bag. First impression it was really cold I mean 30 . Left the bag and went to the armory. Thank god it was open because it was really cold.wait there for 30 minutes.Had time to go the bathroom stretch and warm up for 10 minutes inside. AT 6:50 I was out side and move to corral 1 while the national anthem was played. There I saw the the Rainmaker who was there looking great and hoping to pr.(Unfortunately he had a bad day due to a trip to Spain but he will qualify for Clearwater and KONA I bet and accept money.)Exactly at 7 the race started. I went out easy and cross the first mile around 8:15 mile pace from there I knew the 2nd mile was down hill and will make up time. Didn't check the watch till mile 3 and was around 23:15. After that I saw mayor Fently and I passed him he was doing the marathon so was going slower. From mile 4 to the 10k the hills were coming and since I use to work on the area I knew what to expect and how to attack them. I got to 10k mark in 47:55. I felt good and knew that the next 3 mile were down hill and I was running in to PR territory. So from there just push push and push hit the mile 10 in high 1:16 and knew that I just need to keep up the pace and I had the PR in the pocket. On mile 11 my hamstring yes both began to cramp a little bit and I decided just to keep up and maintain and not push because I was in time. Mile 12 had a small hill and on the hills I can push because the force is made by the quads and they were just fine. I continue and when I saw the mile 13 marker and my watch read
1:38 something I knew I had the PR from there I just roll to the finish line.
Official time 1:39:35 PR by 1 minute.
Honestly a great race If you want to do a race in DC that you get to see a lot of DC the city this the one to do.Well organize fun and fast at least the 1/2. Is good to run on the neighborhoods that people say are not that safe. MY only 2 complains are that it was cold really cold and that the bag pick up was a mess.
I totally recommend this race for any body run it before gets to big and out of control just like the other big races in the area.
Finally congratulation to my GF who did her first 1/2 in a great time of 1:47:25

For pics visit the the Rainmaker who have a great report with great phtos

Have a great week

3 comments:

No Longer Using said...

WOW CONGRATS! that is a great recap of the whole race, i loved reading from start to finish :) you made up a lot of time from the 1st mile to the 10k! and that's really good the hamstrings didn't hold you back at the end, could've been really bad potentially! congrats on the PR! :) guess you showed your coach where you are! :)

Rainmaker said...

Great write-up!

It was good catching up with you pre-race, you went out there and really kicked butt! Congrats on going sub-1:40! You're making incredible progress on the running front.

Awesome job.

Argentine Rocket said...

Wow Eric you are one fast muchacho! Congratulations!