As if trekking up to see Mt. Everest a little over a week ago wasn't enough, today I finished the inaugural Nike Women's Washington D.C. half marathon.  After having a good time finishing the popular San Francisco race last October, I didn't hesitate to enter myself in the lottery for the new one in D.C. - fun and convenient!  Plus, who wouldn't want to earn another Tiffany & Co. finisher's necklace?
The race course is perfect, blending some of the best parts of the downtown area and minimizing the hills.  For people traveling to D.C., the course runs past all of the major monuments and D.C sites, so it's a tour and a race all rolled into one!
Packet pickup and the expotique were located in historic Georgetown just down the street from the Niketown, where you could pick up exclusive race gear and find your name on the banner attached to the side of the building.  What a fun idea!
It was an early morning, waking up at 4:45am to get ready and take metro into town.  The energy was high even at 6:00am.  I met up with a few girls from work, and we all headed to the corrals together, then it was time to run at 7am!




I'll confess that I didn't train a single mile for this race, and it probably wasn't the best idea to choose to "carb load" with Panda Express the night before, so I shouldn't be surprised that I started cramping up around mile 7.  And once you start walking, your legs just turn into giant tree trunks.  I tried to run as much as I could for the remainder of the race, enlisting the help of some Mumford & Sons music, just to massage my muscles and get some blood flowing, but this race ended up being my worst half marathon finishing time.  Hey, at least I wasn't last and I didn't get picked up by the "loser cruiser," the bus that collects people who won't finish before the allotted race time.  And I still got to see this at the end of the finishing chute: