National Marathon

Often times, seasoned runners can get so wrapped up in timing that they forget what lured them into the sport in the first place. Enjoying the race route, high-fiving the crowd, and chatting it up with fellow runners becomes replaced with constantly checking one's watch to stay on pace to make sure they beat that clock. The best part of a first race for any distance (be it a 5K or 50 miler) is that just finishing the event sets a PR. With each race that follows, one feels the need to set a new PR to make that event worthwhile.

Going into National, I didn't really know what to expect. I didn't feel any pressure to meet a specific time goal and decided I just wanted to enjoy the race for what it is: a run through history as they promote on their website. This winter had been plagued with endless weekend snowstorms and I only put in one 19 mile, two 14 mile, one 12 mile, and two 10 mile training runs in preparation. On the other hand, I have noticed that the track workouts from the Speed Development Program have made me more comfortable with running at faster paces and I PRed in a rolling hills 10 miler by over 5 minutes. So I decided I was going to start National at a faster pace than previous marathons and see how long I could last and how much more work I need to put in to qualify for Boston. No specific time goal. No specific pace to stay on. Just run it based on how I was feeling at the moment.

THURSDAY:
On Thursday night, I had a really bizarre dream that took place on the Friday before the marathon. In the dream, I woke up on Saturday morning at 10 am and thought, "$@#! I should be done the race in an hour and it takes about an hour to get to DC, I am not going to make it." I already wasn't looking forward to having to wake up at 3:30 AM and this got me even more paranoid.

FRIDAY:
My one complaint about this race is that I think they should've held the packet pickup/expo over two days because dealing with Friday traffic is not a very fun way to spend your evening. I was lucky that I got to leave work early, but I still hit traffic on the way home.

RACE DAY:
I was startled awake by my alarm going off at 3:30 AM and fell out of bed and gave myself a bruise. I thought, "Crap! I haven't even run the race yet and I already have a bruise!" It was so weird to put on shorts and a singlet that morning after months of running bundled up in multiple layers, a hat, and gloves. I got to the College Park metro station at 4:55 AM. The metro opened at 5 AM to accomodate the marathon. It was a nippy 40 degrees out. I had a jacket and pants on but was still shivering and wished I had another layer and a hat. I even contemplated keeping my jacket on for the run, but had to convince myself that I did not need it for a 4 hour run that was going to end in 70-80 degree weather. I dozed in and out of sleep on the metro, too scared of missing L'Enfant Plaza to let myself fully fall asleep. We got to Stadium-Armory around 5:45 AM and got to wait inside the armory. This was one of the highlights of this race for me. Most races make you wait outside, so you have to strip down to your running gear and stand around shivering for a good hour waiting for the bathroom and stretching. It was so nice to be inside in the warmth until 5 minutes before the start.

The race started at 7:00 AM. I was supposed to be in Corral 5 (8:41 - 9:00 min/mile pace), but Hai and I didn't feel like pushing through the crowd to get there, so we stayed in the 7:35 min corral, which probably made us start a lot faster than intended. The first few miles offered a beautiful view of the city, passing by the Capitol and National Mall. Around mile 2, a girl named Liz ran up to me and started up a conversation. I found out she was from Cali, her running partner had crapped out on her due to IT band issues, she wanted a sub 4-hour marathon, and planned to keep pace with me/I had just become her new running buddy. I wasn't sure how I felt about that because running with other people makes me feel the pressure to keep a certain pace, but it's not like I could've gotten rid of her. She was headed the same direction for the next 24 miles. So I rolled with it.

Around mile 3, I looked over at a couple of policeman patrolling the streets for the marathon and immediately recognized one of them. It was Dave, my cousin's husband! I knew he was a DC cop but had never seen him in action. I ran over to him screaming his name and flailing my arms at him. He was caught completely off guard and had a "What in the world?" expression on his face before realizing who I was and saying "Oh, HEY!!!!!" I didn't stop to have a conversation with him as I now had two running partners to stick with.

The next few miles are a bit of a blur to me. I was in a complete daze and hardly paid attention to any of the scenery. When Liz mentioned there were some hills coming up on miles 5-7, I still thought we were on mile 2 until I looked at my watch and saw that I had been running for 40 minutes. Somewhere in there, we picked up another runner named Stephanie, who decided to join our group. This was her first marathon, but she definitely had a runner's build and I knew she was going to be fast. As we rolled around RFK stadium for the 13.1 mile mark, I was excited to drop off 3/4 of the runners. It wasn't because the course was too crowded, but more so the fact that the half-marathoners were throwing me off because they were running at a faster pace and definitely hustling the last few miles.

Miles 13-20 are also a blur to me. I don't know why I was so completely zoned out during this race, I usually pay more attention to my surroundings than I did this time. Somewhere in there, we passed the Capitol again, but that's really all I remember. I had heard that this course takes you through some really ghetto areas of DC, but I have no recollection of any ghettoness during this race. I guess it must not have been that bad. I remember all too clearly how ghetto some of the streets were in the Baltimore marathon, I definitely ran faster through those parts. I do remember Liz mentioning that we should slow down to a 8:45 pace several times, and I started to slow down but she and Stephanie didn't. It wouldn't have annoyed me that they continued at a faster pace if they didn't keep saying we needed to slow down and not slowing down! I eventually lost them around mile 21. I knew Stephanie was going to be too fast for us and Liz tried to keep up with her.

The weather up until mile 18-19 had been perfect. It wasn't until then that I really started feeling the sun beating down on me, especially with no shade at all along the Anacostia Riverwalk trail. The heat was exhausting my energy and I could feel myself falling apart. I took a gu and drank several cups of water at every station and still could not get it going. I dared not take any Powerade, seeing as to how my stomach had already been doing a couple flips after each Honey Stinger chew that I ate (organic cane sugar, why are you failing me too now?) and one 10 mile session on a treadmill was not enough experimentation for me to rely on coconut juice. If anyone has any non-sugar suggestions for electrolyte/fuel replenishment, please share! I don't think it was so much the weather itself as the drastic change from 40 degrees to upper 70s in the course of the race and the fact that my body had gotten used to running in bitter cold temperatures and was not adjusted to the warmth. Although the hills between miles 23 to 25 were nothing compared to Frederick and Baltimore, they were still bigger than I expected. At mile 25, I had spotted Liz, kept her within reach, and eventually passed her.

The last mile of the race was a straight shot down E. Capitol Street to the stadium. I really liked that the end point was within view from a mile away because I knew exactly how far I had left to run before it was all over. I appreciated the crowd support, especially those that yelled my name (which was printed on the bib) or my bib # and told me I was looking strong for the last mile. When the finish line was in sight, in typical Amanda-fashion, I hauled ass and sprinted across the finish line. What always goes through my mind during the last few miles of a race is that there is no way I am going to have any energy left to sprint the last 500 feet to the finish, yet I somehow always manage to find that last burst when the time comes. I crossed the finish line with a time of 3:53:33, a new PR for me. Looking at my race split times, I started out at a 8:30 pace and slowed my pace down 5 seconds for each of the following splits, which means I have a lot of work ahead of me this summer if I want to keep a 8:23 pace and get that Boston qualifying time.

The finish line festival was a little dinky in my opinion. The food was the same as any other race, but there was pretty much nothing else there. They offered a free post-race massage, but there were only about 6 masseuses and the line did not move at all in the 15 minutes I stood there, so I left. I met up with Hai and headed to Eastern Market after taking a ton of pics with our newest medal. With all the advertisements for this race having pics of Abe Lincoln all over them, I was a little disappointed to not see Abe on our medal. I was pleased to find no crowd jams at all inside the metro station. The crowd had cleared out at a gradual pace, especially with all the half marathoners being done over 2 hours ago. At the Marine Corps Marathon, it was so crowded that I waited for two hours inside the eating place next to Rosslyn station and still had to wait in line for another 30 minutes to get into the metro station.

At Eastern Market, we waited at a stand to get crepes. When we got to the front and ordered, the guy asked Hai if he had just run the National Marathon, to which Hai responded, "Yeah, wanna give me a discount?". The guy was so chill and said "Ok, $2 off." Hai pointed at me and said "She ran it too" and the guy looked at me and said "$2 off for you too." My crepe was only $6, so I ended up only have to pay $4 for lunch. I didn't expect him to say yes, let alone take 1/3 of the price off! What's really sad is that after the crepes, we stopped at Starbucks to use the bathroom and I paid 2 cents more for a freakin tall frappuccino than I did for lunch itself!

I really enjoyed this race and would consider doing it again. The scenic route was awesome, as well as waiting inside the armory before the start. I also enjoyed the number of race participants allowed (Frederick was too little that I was running parts of it completely alone and MCM was too much that we were running into each other), the amount of crowd support, and the fact that I was able to get out of there via Metro at an efficient rate. I also enjoyed the flat last mile with the end in sight during the whole mile. National Marathon was a positive experience for me.