National Half Marathon Race Review

I know I already told you about this, but I didn't get to say much about it. Seems I get kind of busy sometimes.

I was thinking about that race during my run this morning. Mostly I was thinking how this 5 miles I was running was my longest run since that race. What can I say? It takes me awhile to recover and get back out there again after being in so much pain. I have been running but it was with the kids training for a 5K...not much running to say the least.

But I digress - I was feeling pretty good when I got back in this morning. Training these past two weeks has been a bit more intense and it's encouraging. When I walked in, Nelson asked me if I had seen my "cute" little postcard. Interestingly, it was a postcard from the company that took pictures at the race and it had my picture plastered all over it. Not my best shots, mind you, but a cool marketing technique.(This, by the way, is not one of them.)

This race was my favorite one so far. First of all, it's the first race I've ever run with someone for the entire race. The fact that my someone just happened to be my baby brother only made it that much better. For some reason though, the photographers managed to crop him out of most of my photos.I, however, got him in a few of mine.


Secondly, it was my first destination race and I love D.C.! We got to stay with some dear friends who went above and beyond to make sure we had a great time. Running through such a historical part of the country was inspiring. I do have to admit though, seeing D.C. after the race was a bit challenging. Sounds kind of funny, but it's not so easy to walk around a city after you've run 13.1 miles.


And, last but not least, no matter how slow I ran, or how much my stinking IT band hurt, or how many times I had to stop and stretch, it was March and I finished a half marathon. In my brief stint as a "runner" my training has consisted of joining the running group mid-May and running with them until the race in late October. After that I pretty much did no running at all until the next training season. This is the first time I've run through the winter and that was victory enough for me!