Wow, work has been getting in the way of my swim, bike, run lately. Working more than 50 hrs a week really takes its toll on the available gym/life hours. It seems lately that I have to choose between going to the gym and grocery shopping/haircut/laundry, etc.
I didn't let my lack of gym time affect my performance last weekend. I completed my second half marathon in our nation's capitol, Washington DC. The race was the Gynecological Cancer Foundation Race to End Women's Cancer. My friend, Hillary, is a GC survivor and asked me to run the race with her last month after the Maine half marathon. It sounded like a worthy cause and I've never really run with someone else before, so I decided to go for it. Well after spending Saturday roaming around Northern VA with Hillary, she ended up going to bed with a headache and woke up on race day with a 101 fever. She was out of the race.
I drove myself to DC for the 7am start, put my bib number on and listened to the opening ceremony. RACE TIME. The gun went off approximately 7:10am on a nice cool fall morning. Sunny and low 50s...perfect.
The race started out with a straightaway towards the Capitol building, very nice mile or so, then the course turned right and now the Capitol was on my left and the Washington Monument on my right. Really puts into perspective the location of this race. I find it strange that people actually work and live around all of these landmarks that are so significant to our nation's history. I digress...The rest of the loop (race map) was, don't know how else to describe it but "eh." There were 5 u-turns for each loop and a total of 3 loops during the 13.1 miles. That makes a total of 14 times where there is just no way that you can keep your running stride. My other problem (and now life lesson) is that I did not use the bathroom before the run. This caused a little bit of a problem during the third lap because there were no bathrooms on the course. I had to go to a walking pace about 4 times to let things...settle down. Live and learn!
Results:
Even though I slowed down on the third lap, I crossed the finish line in 1:47:46 which is an 8:13 pace. This is a solid 2 minutes better than in Maine. I think I could have done better had I used the bathroom before the race. Oh well.
Next event:
During my visit to Birmingham, AL to visit my family for Thanksgiving, I am going to run a 10k "Turkey Trot." The event is the 33rd Annual Montclair Run. My race history does not include a 10k; only 5k and 1/2 marathon. This should be interesting.
Pictures to be posted soon, thanks Capstone Photography!
I'll try to update a little more frequently.
Swim, bike, run...LIFE
