Searching for a Destination Unknown: 6th One Down: Nike Women's Half

Jess and I after the race

Omgeeeeeeeeee I wanted to back out of this race SO BADLY. I had zero interest in running it, my heart and head wasn't in it...so much that I even posted on FB to see if anyone wanted to purchase my bib. However, my cheapness got the better of me. This race costs 160 freaking dollars...yes, you read that right. ONE HUNDRED SIXTY DOLLARS! For that price, I'd want them to run it for me! Yeah, yeah, yeah that Tiffany's necklace was pretty, but I don't know about $160 worth.

As I mentioned several times before, I didn't mean to run this race in the first place. I definitely didn't want to run it the days leading up to that weekend. But, I put my big girl panties on and realized I've already run one of these in March and a 10 miler earlier that month. Suck it up cupcake and get over it. You're running it whether you like it or not.

This race had its positives and down right NEGATIVES. Having to pick up my race packet in GEORGETOWN?! NOOOOOOO say it isn't so!!!!! Not metro accessible and SUPER SUPER SUPER jam packed anyways!!! (But side note, I DID see Michael J. Fox in Georgetown randomly walking the street!) I get there on Saturday and there is a mile so long I'm afraid it reaches 13.1 miles long. Come to find out, there was a power outage and they couldn't process anything. Wait....what? Since when do we need a computer to pick up my bib? Well, because they wanted to be super fancy and just give us a bar code for them to scan. WTF?!?! There was no typical order to the numbers, it was just where we went to a station, they scanned our bar code and we got whatever number was next. Well, what about corals you ask? You got a PAPER BRACELET to signify what coral. Oh great, I have to wear a stupid paper bracelet while I run? Guess I just have to wear it for the start and can toss it and liter. Great.

Anyways, jump forward to race morning. There are so many people mushed up in wrong corals that I can't even get INTO my coral until after the start of the race. WTF?!?!? See below:

I've been in crowded corals before but I've always been able to get in while the next coral moves up to start, but this was ridiculous. Spectators cheering their wifes/daughters/friends were LITERALLY IN THE CORAL. GET OUT OF MY WAY IDIOT.

And that's not the worst of it! The gun goes off and what's that sound?! Oh that's only 15,000 runners STARTING AT THE SAME TIME!!!! There was no waiting time between corals. This only leads to pushing, running into each other, elbowing and people stepping on the back of your feet. It was pure chaos. I understand that this was most people's first race ever, but come on. Stop stepping on my heels, are you kidding me?

Okay, enough bitching. On to the good things. There was a nice tribute to the Boston tragedy where the crowd went silent for 30 seconds and you could literally hear a pin drop. Getting 15,000 people silent is priceless. The course was beautiful and had some AMAZING entertainers. Twice we ran under this tunnel where there were 2 bands playing the drums and the acoustics were so awesome!! I could literally feel the vibrations from the music in my body. They gave out pretty great things along the course too, we got cliff blocks and Nuun water (not my thing, but not the typical Gatorade either).

During the race, I was okay really until mile 10 again. There was a pretty big hill at mile 10 where we came around the corner and I was like NOOOOOOOOOO SAY IT ISN'T SO!!!!! Then I walked a lot from there. I even had to stop right before the finish because I was like "um, I might vomit...shit". I crossed the finish line on a red carpet. How often do you get to do that?!!?!? And then men in tuxedos handed out that little blue box!!! They were probably so hot, but such good sports! I have to agree that they had a lot of goodies when you finished the race too! Bagels, bananas, protein bars, water, fruit cups and some more things too. And the shirts turned out really great too! I thought it was really weird that they made us finish the race before actually getting the shirt. I mean, I get it because it says "finisher" on it, but interesting because most people (not myself) wear the shirt the day of the race and run in it. Whatevs, to each his own.

And the BEST part was that there was a stretching tent afterwards!!!!! It was amazing to have a place to stretch out while not getting stepped on or freezing as you cool off. There were mats, stretching bands, and a person who could help yu stretch if you couldn't do it yourself. Can EVERY race have this please?!!?! Especially the Shamrock because you finish on the beach and you don't want sand sticking to every single sweat bead on your body.

Stretch it out ladies

No PR this time, but I did finish in 2:09...that's 8 minutes faster than last month! And this is the first ever half marathon that I ran by myself. I'm proud of myself because I didn't have my dad there to yell, "mind over matter, you don't mind...it don't matter". Though maybe I did secretly like not having to read it.

Ok, longest race recap ever is officially OVER. Now to enjoy pictures:

Hello tent!

Pretty cool high tech stuff in the tent

The course map. Me standing near that part that I really hate..Hains Point. It's long (4 miles long), cold and windy because its an island and there aren't many spectators because its in the middle of no where.