Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon

I picked up my running friend Ivana and we headed into the expo for the Rock 'n Roll marathon that was at the DC Armory (which was surprisingly easy to get in and out of). It was a ton of fun!!
Note: my hair looks seriously bad from behind. ICK!

I spent too much money I'm sure, but it certainly didn't go to waste. Three headbands, one waist belt, a pair of arm warmers, and a new pair of sunglasses for running (not pictured since I have them out in the car). Katelynn picked out the pink headband (I think it'll work great for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler coming up on April 7th!)...she didn't want to take it off either.

I changed my mind about what I was going to wear at least a dozen times. The shirts we got were blue (I was hoping for green since it was St. Patty's day weekend) and short sleeved. It wasn't supposed to be very warm, but I figured the arm warmers would help IF I decided to wear the blue shirt (I really wanted to wear green!!). They were calling for rain too. Every where I looked said something different. I debated on taking a change of clothes incase I got soaked, but I figured it'd be quicker to just catch the metro home and change later. After running for almost 3 hours in the rain what's another hour to get home before changing?!? This is what I ended up wearing...

I tied my jacket around my waist incase it ended up raining then I could just throw it on (it didn't bother me until about mile 11 or 12 then it started flapping and it drove me nuts - LOL). I did wear my shamrock headband, but I wore my hat too incase it rained. I was so annoyed! I had no idea the hat looked so funny. I couldn't find my race hat anywhere so I just grabbed one of Chris's - it did bring me good luck though! My arm warmers were awesome!! I loved wearing them. I also decided not to wear my skirt since I've never worn it for long runs. I was very comfortable except for my feet. I need new running shoes. My Brooks just rub my foot the wrong way below the toe. They are great for low mileage but once I get pass mile 8 or so it starts to throb.
Race morning: I got up super early since we were taking the metro into the race. I met Jennifer at her house and Ivana followed us (we had our own little caravan going on). We picked up Jennifer's friend Heather along the way too. The trip in went very smoothly and we found the start line easily enough.
I found the setup a little odd. They had different start corrals for the different waves (which was fine), but in each of the corrals they had port-a-potties facing into the corrals, so you ended up having these weird snake-like lines in the corrals of people trying to use the port-a-potties before the race began. There was no one separating the corrals either so once the race started everyone just moved forward and kept mixing together...which actually meant there were no port-a-potty lines closer to the front since they had already left to start the race. I ended up starting 30 minutes after the gun.
Also, the baggage check lines were quite ridiculous!! Drop off seemed easy enough (some of them had longer lines then others though); however AFTER the race those lines were insanely long and I was so glad I didn't have to wait in them. I was expecting it to run a lot smoother since it was a big race. I was quite surprised with how poorly the set-up at the start and finish were laid out.
The race: I ended up running the entire 13.1 miles with Jennifer's friend Heather!

We hit it off and chatted the entire time. Her pace was perfect for me. We walked up one or two hills (there were several and two of them were seriously huge!) and through some of the water stops, but that was it. She was an excellent partner! She liked to count things while we ran - men in kilts (I think there was one), person using the bathroom in the woods (that was hilarious! They just pulled down their pants and did their business - and they were wearing bright orange! It was too funny), number of men in tutu's - 1, number of barefoot shoes - 3, etc. It did help the miles go by.
Here is the recap on how we did...

Not bad at all!! I'm super happy with my time - 2:26:29!! I told Heather at the start that I wanted to finish under 3 hours, but I'd be really happy with 2:30-2:45. We definitely beat it!! She told me to leave her if she started to fall behind or hold me back, but I stressed that I'd rather have someone to run with then try and do it alone. Besides, I hadn't run more then 10 miles in training I was going to really, REALLY need help with those last few  miles. And help me she did! She was great. I hope to run another race with her again sometime.

I might also look into fuel belts. I didn't grab any water at the first few stations, but around mile 7 I believe (right after the massive hill) I started using the water stops and I tried the GU. I had a pb GU at one stop and an orange one (I believe) a while later. I actually really liked the taste and followed by a few sips of water it really did work well for giving me energy. Some of the water stations were crazy (I learned later that a lot of the volunteers didn't show because of the rain)...some didn't have any cups, some had cups, but no water in them, it was just craziness. A water belt would've helped me with those stations.
An unexpected surprise: my friend Patti came to cheer me on! Well, that, and she volunteered. And believe it or not she found me! In a crowd of 30,000 racers she managed to find me before I started running! And that was without using a phone. She found my corral and just started moving forward - she found me in a line for the port-a-potty - ha, ha!! After the race she gave me an awesome gift and even drove me to my car at the metro stop (it was on her way home) so I didn't have to ride the metro back. Only one small problem with the ride - we had to walk 3 miles to her car!! HA! What's 3 more miles after running 13.1?!
Here is a pic of Jennifer, Ivana, and Heather. They all had bags checked, so I headed home while they stood in those crazy lines. Katelynn had a birthday party at noon that I was trying to make it home for (my sister ended up taking the kids to the party since I was running so far behind). Next time I promised I'd stay for the after party - then maybe I'll make it into a photo. LOL