I made it back from D.C.! I'd like to say I made it back unscatched, but I'd be telling a big, fat lie. :-)
Where should I start? From the beginning I suppose...As an OCD, organized freak, I'll do this timeline style for ease of reading.
Thursday, October 21: My friend April and I flew together- we both lived in D.C. for a period of time and were so excited just to be back in the city. It's a great place to live in my opinion, but too expensive for my taste right now. I was lucky enough to live off of per diem when I was there, so I had lots of extra money- and if I lived in D.C. I'd want to live in a nice, little house with a yard. That's just me for ya.
We arrived and had dinner at Lebanese Taverna in Pentagon City, my favorite Lebanese restaurant in Arlington. So good! I love lebanese food, save the dessert. Bulp. I ordered some Lebanese cheesecake. It tasted NOT a thing like American cheesecake. ACK!
Anyway, I was exhausted at this point, so all I wanted to do was go to our hotel and crash. I had a big weekend ahead of me.
Friday, October 22: The day began with some shopping in lovely Georgetown. The weather was chilly on the walk over, but was nice to get some fresh air. April and I met up with our friend Courtney, who I worked with and who still lives in the D.C. area. (Courtney is also the little bobo who signed my ass up to run this race in the first place. Skinny bitch. I say that with 100% love.)
Naturally, our first stop was at my love...my heart and soul: Anthro! I was a little regular at this particular location- so much so that one of the Sales Associates who rang me up this day RECOGNIZED me from a year ago. lol. Yeah.....I'm not obsessed or anything.
Thank you wind, for blowing up my cardigan, giving me an unatural looking rear-end. HA!
Urban Outfitters Fun! I need this mug. Seriously.
After a day of shopping, we were exhausted again- so we took a nap and then got dressed in our best 8-s attire for The Legwarmers show@ The Legwarmer's are an AWESOME 80s cover band. I'm pretty sure they mostly do shows in the D.C. and Northeast area. What a blast- from what I remember... :-)
Courtney, April and I. Yes. April is wearing a THONG leotard. I'm trying to do my best Madonna.
Saturday, October 23: Much of today was spent recooperating from the 80s night. We were all still washing off eye makeup.
Courtney and her roomie hosted a spaghetti dinner for some of the runners- we chowed down on spaghetti, bread and drank tons of water to hydrate before the big race the next day. Poor April had a cold when we first got to D.C. and it was getting worse- so she spent much of the evening (and $200) getting meds to clear that funk up.
I contemplated just not running- I was scared, my stomach was churning...I didn't know if I was going to make it. I was exhausted from the week before and the past few days. This was NOT how I envisioned feeling before a race.
Sunday, October 24, RACE DAY: Woke up at 5:00 to leave by 6:00. We hopped on the metro and got to the race site at about 6:45. The metro was PACKED. The dude I was next to certaintly hadn't brushed his teeth that morning because I sure smelled his stank breath.
Go me.
My first shoe tag. Awwww....
I drank a 20oz bottle of water and used the nasty port-o-potty on-site. About 30 minutes later, I stood in line again to get one last pee in. I was determined NOT to stop to use the bathroom.
At around 7:45 April and I finally made it to our "wave" start and hung out with the several other thousands of people around us. The total runner sin the race were about 22,000! That's a lot! Personally, it was awesome to see so many people supporting the Army with this race, but I was getting claustrophobic....
Once the starting cannons fired, we were still walking like turtles in a herd for about 20 minutes, and finally reached the start line! YAY! Off we were! The first few miles seemed to fly by! I was happy with our time, we were pacing ourselves with my handy dandy Garmin and I felt great! I felt like I was barely even breathing hard.
Of course, we walked, but we were ahead of lots of people still. This made me feel better about everything somehow.
At mile 5 we came to the point in the route where we passed the faster runners- we saw a few friends and waved and I thought, "Hey! We turn around right down the road. We're not too far behind them..." WRONG. Oh, so wrong. lol. They were at mile 7.5. We had just got to 5. Damn.
That's about the time my right knee started to hurt. The blasted knee that always gives me problems. We made it through mile 6 and I could still jog at that point. Come mile 7.5, I was hurting. BAD. It wasn't my sore legs and feet that were the main issue- it was the SHARP pain in my right knee. I could barely jog, so we had to settle for walking.
I was a little dissapointed because we were so close and doing so well! The last 3 miles we walked fast. I say that I was dissapointed, but really I'm proud of myself for finishing. I was hurting. A massage, hot bath and a new knee never sounded so good.
Of course, I pushed myself the last quarter mile to run into the finish line. BAHA! Hobble/jog is more like it! I made it though and it was grand. I felt a few tears wanting to come, but I think more than anything they were tears of pain for my knee.
So in 2 hours 13 minutes, we finished.
Post race- no makeup. EEK!!
Not awesome, but I finished- and I finished ahead of people, which I thought was impossible.
Monday, October 25: Time to fly home! I'll miss you D.C. and I'll be back soon.
OH, and in the D.C. airport, April was checking in her bags and as I stood off to the side waiting, I saw a dude with bright blonde hair- bad dye job- and his counterpart. In my mind I thought, "Wannabe rock stars," but in all honesty I have SUCH a thang for musicians (I've decided I should marry one). I couldn't take my eyes away from these dudes- they looked SO familiar. FINALLY I looked harder and it dawned on me- it was the lead singer, Jason Wade, and the drummer, Ricky Woolstenhulme Jr. from Lifehouse. I'm not a HUGE fan, but still like their music, so I walked right up and shook their hands. I wanted to take a photo, but decided that the lead singer was acting kinda snooty so I didn't want to give him the satisfaction. lol. Drummer dude was REALLY nice, though.
Conclusion: I think I'll keep running races, but I doubt if I'll ever run anything over a half-marathon. It was hard on my body to run so far, and as much as I know running is good for me, it could also be nothing but trouble for my knee as I age- and personally I don't want to just fall apart at the seams.
I'm still sore and walking as though I rode a horse all weekend (haha! Nice mental image I'm sure), but very proud of myself and all the hard work I put into my training the past few months.