2017 Rock n Roll DC Half Marathon

Scroll all the way down to the end of the post for the tl;dr version.

Prologue

Rock ‘n’ Roll DC has a special place in my heart because it’s the largest marathon entirely within the District of Columbia and, in 2010, it was my first marathon.  Since 2008, I’ve run the full or half marathon every year.

My goal race for this spring is the Eugene Marathon on May 7th.  I started training for the race back in December.  Each week, I’m creating my own training plan.  This week, I ran hard on Monday and Wednesday but took the other days easy.  The forecast showed tough racing conditions – temperatures near freezing with gusting winds.

Goals

Personal Records:

• Half Marathon PR: 1:32:19 (7:03 pace), 2014 Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon
• Course PR: 1:33:56 (7:11 pace), 2014 RnR DC Half Marathon
• Most Recent Half Marathon: 1:45:15 (8:03 pace), 2016 Parks Half Marathon

Achievable: ~1:43:00 (7:52 pace).  This isn’t too far off from what I ran 10 miles @ goal marathon pace last week.

Stretch:  ~1:39:00 (7:35 pace).  Recent workouts suggested I might be in 3:30 marathon shape and this is equivalent performance.

Strategy:  Take the first 6 miles easy, pick up the pace on South Capitol Street, and maintain an even effort to the finish line.

Course

The course has challenges but is also fast in parts.  It starts at 14th Street and Constitution Avenue near the Washington Monument.  After four miles, it climbs through Rock Creek Park ending with a steep hill to Adams Morgan.  The course rolls through Columbia Heights, Howard University and then goes downhill on North Capitol Street to the H Street corridor.  After a mile or so through Capitol Hill, the course ends at RFK Stadium.

There are water stops approximately every mile and bands every mile or two.  There’s good crowd support in parts – particularly in Adams Morgan and H Street.

Playlist

I put together 1 hour and 41 minutes of music for the race:

Weather

On race day, it would be about 28 degrees with winds out of the north at 12 mph with 16 mph gusts!  I ran a report in my training log and this would be my coldest race (second only to the 2014 Fairfax Four Miler, which was 31 degrees at the start.)

Pre-Race

Thursday

I went to the expo at the D.C. Armory on Thursday.  There were quite a few vendors.  I saw some cool shirts but only bought some socks.

Friday

In the morning, I ran a 6 mile recovery run and then went to my chiropractic appointment.  I was anxious about the weather forecast but since I’m training for the Eugene Marathon, I thought of the Bill Bowerman quote, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just soft people.”

For dinner, I had spaghetti and two glasses of wine before going to bed at 9:30pm.

Race Day

I got up at around 4:30am.  I felt like I had enough sleep.

I drank some water, coffee, and ate two slices of cinnamon toast.  Realizing that wasn’t enough, I added a Honey Stinger Wildflower Honey Waffle.  (In retrospect, that still wasn’t enough food!)

I decided to drive downtown instead of taking Metro so I could stay warm in my car.  I left my house at 7:00am and found parking in Capitol Hill, just outside the race course closures.

At 7:30am, I jogged to the start.  I noticed it didn’t feel too cold!  In fact, I wondered if I’d over-dressed.

I got to The National Mall pretty quickly.  It was much less crowded than usual.  I saw a line of port-a-potties and there wasn’t a line!

Just before entering the corral, I ran into a teammate from my run club!  We caught up and got ready for the race together.  After 15 minutes or so, we were off!

The Race

Miles 1 to 4 (Constitution Avenue, Memorial Bridge, and the Kennedy Center)

I wanted to use this race to judge my current fitness, so I didn’t want to hold back too much.  The pace I was running felt a little quick early on but it didn’t seem too hard to maintain.  It was settling running past monuments and iconic landmarks.  My serenity was disrupted when my Garmin buzzed and the performance indicator was negative.  “I’ve never seen that before,” I thought.  Meanwhile, I’d put my car key in my pullover pocket and it kept slapping my iPod off.  I fussed with the device and during the second mile.  My hands, which were in gloves, mittens, and hand-warmers, got a little too hot so I adjusted them, as well.

I felt the full force of the wind next to the Kennedy Center since I was finally running north.  I knew I was running faster than planned – my Garmin was showing ~7:20 pace – but it didn’t feel hard.  This year, the course did an out-and-back on the Potomac Parkway.  I felt warm and took off my gloves and mittens.  Still, I tried to get myself to dial back to 7:45 pace.  It wasn’t working but I felt great!  I saw a friend and waved before heading up the Rock Creek Parkway.

Splits: 7:31, 7:31, 7:30, 7:36.

Miles 4 to 9 (Rock Creek Park, Adams Morgan, and Columbia Heights)

Running up the Rock Creek Parkway was strange.  Instead of dealing with the wind, I felt like I was fighting the camber of the road.  Looking back, it was probably a sign I wasn’t running the best line.

Along the way, I ran next to a guy holding a flag.  I know the Wear Blue Run to Remember Mile was coming up.  During that stretch, I made a point of looking at the faces and names on the signs.  I drew inspiration – not in what heroic deeds I imagined they might have done but just in appreciating life.

I got to the top of the hill and my calves were worn out.  I really wanted to stop and just let them recuperate.  I couldn’t believe how quickly the race changed from feeling great to wanting to walk.  I knew I’d run this uphill at 8:20 pace last year and was disappointed when I saw 8:40 pace.

I zoned out a little during most of this section of the race.  I thought I would feel better now that the course was more rolling but, my legs were dead.

At the 8 mile mark, the course started the long downhill.  Batala was at the corner and provided a lift but then a few steps later, the reservoir settled me down again.  I tried to find a comfortable rhythm over the next mile.

Splits: 7:43, 7:51, 8:50, 7:42, 7:44.

Miles 9 to 13.1 (North Capitol Street, NOMA, H Street Corridor, Capitol Hill)

I grabbed a cup of water at Mile 9 before heading down North Capitol Street.  Still trying to motivate myself to take advantage of the terrain, I thought, “Let’s go!”  But, my legs just wouldn’t turn over.

At Mile 10, I felt a sharp pain in my piriformis!  I was surprised because I haven’t had much pain recently.  I pulled up on my gait for the next half mile or so until the discomfort subsided.  I told myself if I could just run 7:45s for the next three miles, I’ll have met my goal.

The crowds on H Street were pretty fantastic!  They really spurred me on to fight through the rough patch and finish this race!

The last mile is also slightly downhill.  I managed to pick up the pace a little.  But then, there was a short incline to the finish and I lost steam.  I just wanted to cross the finish line.

Splits: 7:31, 7:51, 8:13, 8:41 (1.1 miles).

Post-Race

I walked through the finish line chute, passing on the medal, water, and food.  I thought about taking the Metro back to my car since I was so exhausted but forced myself to shuffle the mile back to my car.

Result

My time was 1:42:11 (7:49 pace) [Log Details].  Right now, I’m recorded as 870th finisher (top 7%), 241st woman (top 4%), and 7th in my 5-year age group (top 2%).

In the elite field, Mizael Carrera won the race on the men’s side in 1:05:51 (5:02 pace) and local Kerry Allen took it for the women in 1:19:20 (6:04 pace).

Epilogue

For years, I joked that something will inevitably wrong at this race.  But from my perspective, everything went off without a hitch this time.  And, it was great seeing so many people out cheering for us on such a cold day!

With a half marathon under my feet, I’ll recalculate my training paces.  According to McMillan, a 1:42:00 (7:47 pace) half marathon equates roughly to a 3:34 (8:12 pace) marathon.  I’m considering this my floor, though.  Eugene is a flatter course and hopefully, I’ll have better conditions.

Next race: 2017 Cherry Blossom 10 Miler on April 3rd. (My Complete Racing Schedule.)

Abridged Version

Logistics went well – I parked in Capitol Hill and jogged to the start.  The weather was less than ideal – about 32 degrees and 15 mph winds!  In the early miles, I ran mid-7:00 pace, which was faster than I planned.  The Calvert Hill left me feeling completely destroyed.  I hung on through Columbia Heights and North Capitol Street but by Mile 10, my piriformis was killing me and I slowed down.  I tried staying close to 7:45 pace but failed.  I ran 1:42:11 (7:49 pace) – good but I feel like I’m in better shape than that time.