Got up early. Had our pre race fuel. No peanut butter, so went with bagel and cream cheese.

The race was about a mile from our hotel. The Eldon Suites. So we did a warm up walk to the start. The day had already started out with beautiful weather. It was currently 51 degrees.

Got to the start to greet thousands of other runners. Attempted a last stop to the potty. After waiting out for about 25 minutes gave up. The lines were extremely long. We now headed to our corrals. We were in the red corral. But with a “color deficiency”, lol, ended up in orange couple corrals back.

D.C. is definitely a state that takes puntuality seriously. Race gun went off as scheduled. It was sure to be a day of bottlenecking. A huge turnout of runners. Approximately 15,000. Water aid stations were placed about every 2 miles.

My pace at mile 1 was 8:19. That I would take with such a heavy crowd. At mile 2 began getting in my groove. It took me about mile 5 to really get in tuned with runners holding an equivalent pace. D.C. made for a fast and very scenic course. Hope someday I can do a triathlon or marathon in this city to take advantage of the flat elevation. People who were expecting more Cherry Blossoms on the route may have left dissappointed. Ran with my camera and took pictures along the way.

Through my training I use a powergel around mile 6 on long runs. So I did today. Without taking this gel I may have bonked for sure. Continued the remaining 4 miles very strong. Attempted a 5K pace for the 3 final miles, but held back. The race goal for today and every race is to finish with some energy left to spare.

Just some cons: we had to walk what felt like 1/2 mile to get water at the finish. Also more volunteers and water aid stations may be needed.

Pros: very scenic and fast route. Kudos to the race organizers in recycling our “D” tags. Great weekend of activities: Cherry Blossom Festival on Saturday followed by the Sakura Matsuri Festival. We missed the festival which runs from 7th to 17th via Constitution. However was able to catch an hour of the Sakura Matsuri. Great arts festival honoring the Japanese society. I would recommend anyone who gets selected for this race to book a stay in D.C. the Friday night leading to the race and leave the Sunday afternoon.

All in all an awesome day in racing. Glad we got selected for this lottery. Highly recommended race.

Unofficial time. 1:19:50.
N.B. Course may have been off a bit. Garmin 310 and other runners reported a longer course.
Garmin Connect