Half Marathon Race Recap

by - 10:22 AM

It's been an insane week and a half since I ran my first half marathon, and I'm FINALLY getting a chance to sit down and write about it!

I experienced such amazing support during my race last week, and I couldn't feel more loved. And obviously, everyone wanted to know how it went so, here goes!


The Road to DC

I originally signed up for this race to challenge myself to get out and run in the winter. Little did I know the Midwest was about to have one of the coldest, snowiest, nastiest winters ever. I didn't do a single long run where the temperature was over 45 degrees. During my 9 miler, it rained. During my 10 it sleeted. During my 11, it snowed.

The weather in DC was AMAZING and we even got to cruise into Georgetown in a top-down jeep to hit up the expo.

Me and Janene // Touristy DC cruisin pic

I was lucky enough to have a friend in DC who was running the half with me (and the one who suggested I come to DC to do a race sometime!). You will be seeing her alot in these pictures, and she was awesome enough to let me stay with her and be my navigator all weekend, especially on race day morning.

The Expo

...Was probably the coolest race expo I've ever been to. Nike did it UP. Everything was tech-ed out from the registration, to an interactive shoe wall, and a HUGE digital display wall that scrolled through instagram, twitter and Facebook posts to share everyone's #werundc love.

Digital Wall

Expo Matinee


We had so much fun walking around, getting excited for ourselves and capped it off with dinner and drinks on the river.

Nike also had this AMAZING wall with all of the participants names up by the Georgetown store, and we found ourselves! So official.


Race Day

Race day morning was such a rush. I love racing, I'm addicted to competition. I wasn't nervous about finishing - I knew I had done my training and was prepared, but I was nervous about finishing WELL. I wanted to finish in what I felt was a respectable time for me to be proud of for my first race and give me something to work towards with speedwork for my next race. 

I am also a sprinter - I am not a "fast" distance runner which I hate, and I knew realistically what pace I could pull off based on what I had been training at. But I didn't let that stop me from starting with a faster pace group anyways :)

You can kind of see the outline of the Capitol building peeking out through the sunrise through the start line.
It was a beautiful, flat course which was great for my first race. My goal was to negative split and still run a 1:55 (which means I'd do the first 4-6 miles at a slower pace and really kick it in over the last 6 to still get that time).

I am very happy to say I did exactly that, and crossed the finish line in 1:55:06!


I will be honest and say I did not expect the last 2 miles to be as hard as they were. I clocked 8 minute miles for the last 5k and it hurt pretty bad. The finishing stretch was a long, long street and that finish line never got closer!! I just repeated my mantra, and visualized that little blue Tiffany's box waiting for me in the chute.



Official finisher's "medals"!

Overall, it was a great race and I am so so happy I put in the miles and effort to get there. Thank you to everyone for your great support! 13.1 complete.

Check back tomorrow for a great healthy spring recipe, and next Monday for a big announcement! 

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