Race Recap: MCM 10k

Posted on October 30, 2012. Filed under: Uncategorized |

First let me say, I hope everyone is OK after the storm. Everything ended up being fine here in the DC for me. I never lost power and was holed up in my apartment watching TV and eating snacks throughout the storm. My family up in NJ/NY seem to be doing OK too though some of them don’t have power. I hope they are all get power back sooner than later!

Now, on to the race recap! I was so happy to be out running in a race on Sunday. It was awesome. Seriously, just awesome. The weather was a lot warmer than I thought it was going to be and I”m glad I ended up wearing my favorite Lululemon running skirt with my “I Love Sweat” shirt. It is really the perfect race day outfit, I have to say. The 10k started at 7:55am on the Mall. I woke up at 6:00am has some black coffee and some oatmeal, packed up my backpack and headed down to the start line. I ran down to the start line, kind of making up a route as I went and ended up running just under 2 miles. It was a good warm up and I’m glad I got some extra mileage in before the race. I immediately went to the bag check (UPS trucks) and then just wandered around taking in the scene. Luckily I didn’t have to use the bathroom because the porta-potty lines were SUPER long.

Good morning, DC!

You can see the big red start line if you look close enough.

There wasn’t much down time and before I knew it, it was time to line up. I was being very cautious about my time (not really sure why) and ended up lining up in the back of the 1:00 – 1:10 corral. While waiting for the race to start the girl next to me asked if I had run this race before because it was her first race ever. I was so excited for her (and told her that maybe 10 times). She was nervous but I told her it was a great course, with spectators and that it really never thins out so she would have people around her at all times and I promised she would have fun. Her fiance was also running it but was lined up in a faster corral. I never saw her again after we started but I hoped she had an amazing race!

I definitely started out a little too far back but I got into a good pace pretty quickly. I stayed in the 9 minute range the entire race and every time I looked down at my Garmin it was usually in the 9:35 – 9:38 range, which is great for me! I felt really great throughout the entire race and even found myself powering up each hill. It was a little windy in Crystal City and everyone was yelling about Sandy but other than that, the weather was great. I also felt like the race went by SO quickly, we were at mile 6 before I knew it. I knew the horrible hill was at the end and I powered up it as much as I could and crossed the finish line with my hands in the air. I felt awesome!

I thought I had managed to keep my time under an hour and was feeling really proud about that but I just looked up the results and turns out my time was 1:01:23. Not bad, not bad at all but I still wished I had been under an hour. A new 10k goal to work towards I think. Right after the race ended I grabbed some water and went directly to get my bag so I could hop on the metro and get back out on the course to see all the marathon runners.

I made it to around mile 16 trying to find friends and finally just stopped, worried I was going to miss some of them running through. I saw Emily who was sparkling away and yelled out to her. She sped by and gave me a big smile and wave. I next saw my friend Billy who was running a marathon for this first time. He looked great and was running at an awesome pace. I then saw my co-worker Noam who looked like he was just having a ball and managed to miss Meredith on the first go around (seriously, I’m sorry, Meredith).

After missing Meredith I totally panicked and literally ran to mile 25.5. and planted myself there determined to see her. I saw Billy again, missed Noam for a second time, am pretty sure I saw Erika and then Meredith came running up. I literally ran into the crowd and we gave each other the biggest hug ever. She looked amazing and I ran with her a bit and gave her some last words on encouragement and she powered through the end with a strong finish.

I’m so in awe of all of my friend who ran the marathon. They are truly amazing!! I love watching races so much and was totally emotional throughout the entire thing. I love when spectators finally see their runner and erupt in screams. I tear up every single time. The MCM also tends to have a lot more emotion attached to it and I truly think it’s an awesome race. Congrats to all the runners!

I’m already looking forward to the 5k Addy and I are doing on the 9th and I’m ready for the half to just be here already. I had 10 miles slated for my long run over the weekend and I ended up doing 8. I never ran the last two miles but between the race and all the walking I did that day (all over the race course and then HOME…yes I walked from Rosslyn to Logan Circle)I felt like my legs had done all they could for the day. I threw on on my compression sleeves and worked out my legs with The Stick when I got home. Three weeks to go until the half!

Let’s continue to make this the longest post ever and take a look at last week’s SIDI and what’s coming up for this week:

Monday – Rest – success!
Tuesday – 3.5 mile run – success!
Wednesday – Spin + Body Pump – success!
Thursday – 4 mile run – success!
Friday – Spin – did not happen
Saturday – Zumba + Body Pump – played tennis for an hour with a friend instead – loved it!
Sunday – MCM 10K Race + 4 additional miles (for a long run of 10 total) – 8 miles completed

This week’s:

Monday – Rest
Tuesday – R&R Run (3-4 miles easy)
Wednesday – Spin + Body Pump
Thursday – R&R Run (3-4 miles easy)
Friday – Spin
Saturday – 11 mile run
Sunday– Rest

Stephanie