Do you remember when the Rock n Roll DC Marathon and 1/2 Marathon was called Rock n Roll USA? And do you remember when Team Chocolate Milk used to be called Team REFUEL? Names have changed over time, but the amount of fun I had this past weekend was nothing short of extraordinary. Thank you Team Chocolate Milk for the continued support as one of my sponsors, and to the cool peeps at Rock n Roll for executing high quality running races!
Going into the weekend, I had logged a pretty significant amount of training stress, highlighted by my Wednesday morning Queens College track workout and my Thursday 3-hour bike ride and 1 hour run. Since the race was on a Saturday, I wanted to give myself at least 24 hours of rest, in the form of stretching and foam rolling. Luckily, the traffic on Friday afternoon was not as horrific (plus $2.05 premium gas in NJ) as expected and had reached the Washington DC area by 9pm.
Race Day – March 12, 2016
We arrived at the InterContinental Willard Hotel around 6:30am for a Team Chocolate Milk meetup. It was fun to briefly catch up with Lisa, Erika, Steve, Julia, and Hugh. I also met some new teammates, including Trevor, an ultra-marathoner! (the marathon is his warmup!) By 7am, Christina and I dropped off our bags, took a DC Triathlon Club pic, and then it was off to the start line!
One of the greatest things about Rock n Roll races is the ability to sneak into my assigned corral at the very last minute, allowing racers to maximize their warmup time and minimize the gap between warmup and race-start. The race started at 7:30am and we were off!!!
Since I do not take mile splits on my watch, my mile splits are generated from Strava’s race analysis. I clocked a 5:58 for the first mile. It was comfortable and controlled. Miles 2 and 3 featured an out and back on Memorial Bridge and I hit 5:42 and 5:44, respectively. This is where I found my rhythm as I found two other racers to tuck behind. One of the guys I had tucked behind was at least 6′ 3″tall, which I think greatly helped block any headwind! (Thank you!)
Miles 4 and 5 were 5:45 and 5:59. Tall dude and the other runner (who wore a DC Triathlon jersey), cruised our way towards the Rock Creek climb. This was the greatest elevation gain during the race, so I made my greatest effort to stick with the guys. It was awesome to see volunteers lined up along the climb with American flags, cheering us on – that definitely helped push me up the hill! At the top of the hill was the 10km mark, where I hit 37 minutes flat.
Miles 6 through 12 were: 5:51, 6:20 (the climb!), 5:54, 5:50, 5:41, 5:49, and 5:58 (small climb). Both DC Tri guy and tall guy had led the way through Mile 12. At that point, I knew that I was going to set a personal best. I also knew that the last mile was mostly downhill towards the Armory. At around 12.25 miles, I made a small kick to separate myself from the guys. There was no response and my legs still felt good so I pushed a little more and was able to hit a 5:42 for mile 13. I finished with a personal best of 1:17:30, good for 34th overall out of nearly 18,000 finishers.
After crossing the line, I headed straight to the Chocolate Milk tent to chug some low-fat chocolate milk! Delicious!
Special thanks to the tall guy who was effectively my pacer and to Alastair (DC Tri guy) for helping out too!
This makes 3 personal bests in 3 races – 10km, half marathon, & marathon. Next up is the NYC 1/2 Marathon on March 20th.
Do you think I will be going 4 for 4 personal bests?
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