Across the Finish Line!

All weeklong, the nervousness about the 10-miler was building up, and although I ran 8 miles on the treadmill on Monday night, I only lifted freeweights for the rest of the week. I was either getting home too late or hadn't eaten in over 5 hours and knew I wasn't going to run well on an empty stomach. So I just decided to see what happened and hope that if I could do 8 at home, I could push out 10 on the road.

On Saturday, Aunt Tai and Uncle Bruce had a dinner party to welcome one of my mom's old school friends. And by old school, I mean elementary. This lady apparently knew my mom and her siblings since mom was 8, so that's a LONG time. Dinner was outstanding, as Tai and Bruce are definitely gourmet cooks. I had planned on having a basic spaghetti dinner on Saturday night to carb up for the race. Instead, I had a plate of roast beef, roasted veggies, Greek salad, and pasta with lobster sauce, followed by homemade apple pie and a small scoop of ice cream (it would have been a big scoop, but Dad is pretty clumsy and managed to flip a big chunk out of the container and onto the floor).

Mel and I left early so I could get some sleep, but really, I was so nervous and excited about the race that I didn't go to bed until midnight. At 5AM this morning, I dragged myself out of bed and got ready. After some initial panic about losing the all-important time chip, I found it attached to my shorts...freaking velcro. Once I grabbed my bag of Cheerios, I jumped in the car and headed to Dad's house. He had "volunteered" to go with me and hold my stuff since I wasn't sure how safe my stuff would be in the garment check area. We drove down to the Rosslyn Metro station and got onto a jam-packed car that took us the two stops to the Pentagon where about 20,000 runners were already on hand. We got there a bit early, so we were able to see the Canadian parachute team and the US Army parachutists do their thing to entertain the crowd. Sadly, the Canadians put on a better show, mainly because they had the colored smoke thing going on as they did these neat spirally tricks. Then came the national anthem, which was all the more impressive because of the sight of all the military personnel in formation standing at attention and the fact that the parking lot that we were using as a staging point for the race was, just over 7 years ago, the staging point for emergency vehicles pulling the wounded out of the Pentagon.

Around 8AM, we heard the cannon fire and knew that the first wave was off and running. I was in the second wave, and as I went up the hill towards the starting line, I turned around and saw literally thousands of people behind me. It was really an impressive sight!

Just to refresh, I had 3 goals going into this race: 1) not fall down; 2) not puke; and 3) not finish last/meet or beat a 12-minute pace. Once I got to the starting line, I got into what felt like a pretty comfortable pace. The first mile went by very quickly and I was at the first water station before I knew it. Amazingly enough, I managed to grab two cups of water and start slurping it down without wiping out. Hurray! Goal 1 achieved. I walked only the length of the water station and then started running again, which was a strategy that worked out well throughout the race. For the next 6 miles, I felt pretty strong, and I hit the 5 mile mark at a pace of just under 11 minutes. Even better, I beat the cutoff time by about 25 minutes, so I knew I was going to at least be allowed to finish the race. The course route went a long way in keeping my mind off of the pace. We ran from the Pentagon into DC and past some major monuments and around the National Mall via Independence Ave, so I found myself checking out the sites more often than I spent thinking about my time. Once I hit mile 8, I could see the Washington Monument looming large on the horizon, and I still felt pretty good. I was keeping my head up and wasn't slouching or gasping for air, so I think I looked stronger than a lot of the people I started passing. Around mile 8.5, I realized that I'd actually run further than I'd ever run before...and that was probably when I started to feel fatigued. I took a very short break to fix my hair, but once I hit the 9 mile mark, there was a line of Army guys lining the route screaming at the runners to "finish strong" and rooting us on. It's a little intimidating, but at the same time, it motivated me to not stop in front of those guys...who knows what kind of punishment or trash talking they would have unleashed. Once I made it to the ramp that leads to the Pentagon and got onto the downhill portion, I rounded the corner and sprinted the 200 yards or so across the finish line.

Ultimately, I managed to reach all of my goals. I kept my breakfast down. I did not slip and fall, not even once. And I finished in a time of 1 hr 51 min, a pace of about 11:07/mile, which was a lot better than I'd expected having never run that far before. It was hard to understand why people run competitively like this, but having just run this race, I am beginning to understand why. The thrill of running with literally thousands of other people is hard to describe. Then there were the spectators, which included hundreds of civilians and Army personnel, who urged the runners on. It seriously made a difference when the thought of slowing to a walk started creeping into my head...definitely didn't want to do that in front of all those people. And then there were the runners themselves, who urged each other on. I felt so good after finishing and shockingly enough was a little surprised that it was over so soon. I am definitely doing this race again next year, and if it's scheduled again for the end of October, the Marine Corps 10K. I think I'm hooked! :)