Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
My (still long) abbreviated RnR USA half recap and a lame PR
Okay, now that I'm not in excruciating pain and being a negative
nancy about running a shittastic race (and still PRing by 2 minutes, lol), here's my
less obstructed view of the RnR USA half marathon. I will spare people my full race recap, because it kind of reads like War and Peace, and I swear a lot. And cry. And swear some more. If you want to read it, let me know and I'll post the link.
It could have been capped at about 5000 less for the half. If that had been the case, I think the race would have run like a well-oiled machine. I'm glad others had a good experience with the full, and a lot of first timers enjoyed themselves for the half. My BFF who ran the full as well said that the course on the backside was great- no congestion, no trouble at aid stations, etc. That was definitely not my experience with the half course. Aid stations at 5.2, 7.2, and 9.2 were pretty much out of water/gatorade when I arrived at them- and this was me being in the middle of the pack at this point. For some of the stations, it was a struggle to find a table or a person holding up a cup for runners. They kept saying "next table next table", and the next table would say the same thing. 9.2 had zero water ready when I went through, which sucked because that was the Gu station. I wasn't about to swim against the current to find a table SOMEWHERE that had water, nor wait like five minutes before the refilled the giant filler tanks to refill a glass on the table for me. I tried to ration my fuel belt supply but it wasn't enough. I dehydrated, cramped MISERABLY, and ended up walking a decent chunk of the backside of the course. I feel like I blew 12 weeks of excellent, well-executed training.
Portapottys + Metro nightmare = shitsuck start for me. Yes, they were
there, but if there were more and elsewhere around the Armory/Corrals
they were not well advertised. But after the Orange line diaster at the
Smithsonian station (where an entire train had to be emptied and then
attempted to squeeze in on two later trains), our train arrived at 8:15.
Still needed a portapotty. But people were STILL in line from non-Metro
disaster situations! Geez! That coupled with the fact that
volunteers/coordinators were standing by the portapottys yelling at
people to hurry up and hustling people into corrals, it was just a mess.
I didn't have time to properly warm up, which ended up being part of my downfall because my IT band exploded on me on the Hill. That and all the sweat from playing the role of sardine on the Metro meant I was sopping wet before arriving, which meant my BodyGlide was wearing off- and totally wore off by mile 4.1. My inner thighs look like they've been through a wood chipper. The next time I listen to people that I don't know yelling at me will be if the building
I'm standing in is on fire, and they are suggesting I leave.
The bands that were there were great. The military brass band was playing "Proud to be an American" and that was some of the loudest cheering of the day. I agree with ebeth, I seriously missed the Howard kids. I don't know if RnR chased them off, or what, but I was sad when they didn't welcome us to Howard past DuPont. What almost made up for is was Mr. Incredible under the DuPont Circle bridge blasting the Star Wars symphony. Epic. But, were there bands at every mile as advertised? It didn't feel that way. I almost wish I had my headphones with me to keep me in the game, something I NEVER do, but anything to keep me pushing through my injury and dehydration would have helped.
Did anyone find the course, either one, LONG? I tangented well for the race, didn't spend a lot of energy weaving and bobbing around people (despite plenty just plain STOPPING in front of me on hills), and I was at 13.4 when I crossed the line. Dur?
Overall, I think I'm going to take a hard look and a few shots of whiskey before I sign up for this one again. I think Shamrock may be replacing DC for my spring half next year. Not because the course is less challenging, but because I've heard that the race runs so much smoother.
Re: My (still long) abbreviated RnR USA half recap and a lame PR
Congrats on the PR.
Wow that really sucks about the rest of it.
I agree about the portapotties. I jumped in a line like 20 minutes to go and I was in line until like 2 minutes before the race started. I guess I should have looked around for shorter lines, but I was worried they weren't there and paniced and just got in line. I ran towards my corral and squeezed through the fence since I was on the wrong side.
The metro was insanely crowded, I was lucky to get on at L'Enfant Plaza (DH dropped me off at Pentagon City) but I have lots of experience squeezing on the train every day.
I was happy to have my headphones since every time I approached a band, they seemed to be on a break or not playing music.
I didn't have any problems with the water stations, it seemed to be plentiful. Maybe it's because you had a later start I was only 10 minutes or so behind the race clock.
Overall, I was happy with my time, but know I could have done better.
Off to the beach
DS 7/18/2010
Handy 2.0 Due Early August
2011/2012 Races
12/17/2011 Christmas Caper 10K
2/11/2012 Have a Heart 5K
3/17/2012 DC RNR Half Marathon
4/22/2012 10M Parkway Classic
10/28/2012 Marine Corps Marathon
Wow, I'm sorry it was so crappy for you
Overall I had a great experience, but I will complain about the people just stopping and walking in the middle of the road though, I probably lost a good 10-20 seconds in the last mile b/c there was a line of people blocking me and I couldn't get around them.
What corral did you start in? I'm just curious b/c of you mentioning they were out of water. I started in 16 and didn't have any trouble finding water.
There were definitely not bands at every mile, that's for sure. My personal fave was the drum corp though, they were rockin!
I don't wear a Garmin so I have no idea if the course was long or not.
Congrats on your PR though
That stinks. I'm sorry you had a crappy day. Congrats on pushing through though!
I got to the armory around 6:45 (we drove in) and jumped right into a port-a-potty with absolutely no line, but things got a bit more crowded as it got closer to the start time.
I started in corral 14 and didn't have any issues with aid stations running out either. Dodging people was a bit annoying, but not too bad, since I always stayed on the edge so I could pop around them easily. But I definitely had to hop up on the curb a few times. It was much, much better in the second half though.
My garmin was also long (26.48), but I didn't run the tangents super well, so who knows. I'm sure this course has been properly measured and whatnot, so that was probably my own doing.
ETA: I also loved Mr. Incredible. I caught him playing Gloria Estefan's "Conga" and MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This." He rocked.
2012 RACES
3/17 - DC RnR Marathon
(5:00:24 - an ugly PR, but I'll take it)
6/30 - North Country Olympic Tri
8/5 - Branbury Classic Olympic Tri
8/26 - Half VT Journey Tri (Half Iron)
10/20 - Beach2Battleship Ironman Tri (eek!)
Old nestie, new name
sorry you didn't have the race you wanted or trained for. that sucks. I can def comiserate.
I also had a crappy race. I severely misjudged the humidity (it was between 80-90% from 8-10AM) and didn't replace electrolytes accordingly. it's my own damn fault, but I was totally baffled from miles 5-9.2 as to why I was sucking so bad. then we turned onto north capitol and I saw the capitol building I was all 'the capitol doesn't usually look like that. why is it so hazy?? oh, it's crazy humid out! in March! and all you've had is water!'.
I find these widely divergent porta potty experiences very interesting. I think my last stop before heading to the corrals was at 740ish and I didn't wait more than 5 minutes or so. I was in my corral by 755, heard the national anthem, and made a note to myself never to buy a house on the 1900 block of C NE unless I intended on running this race every year from here on out.
Obviously, I wasn't there but I really think that what you said about capping the race is probably true. It seems RNR has been staying true to having about 5k+ too many runners for about a year now and it shows.
In Savannah, they had about 8-10k too many and the course was insanely crowded. It would have been an amazing race with fewer people.
So corral-wise, I ended up starting with 21. Fun story about that. I used an injury time for my expected finish time, since back then I was in PT and didn't know what to expect in training. I had been doing MUCH better in training than I had thought. Here is the conversation I had at the corral change booth:
Me: Hi, I'd like to change my corral
Corral Change Booth Guy: Why?
Me: Because I'm already running my long distances faster than anticipated race pace
CCBG: Well I don't care. I'm not letting you change.
Me: Uh, then why are you even here? Why aren't you letting me?
CCBG: It's not going to matter anyways, you have a chip. Starting sooner isn't going to change anything.
Me: Um, yes it is. It means I'll have 3-5k less people trying to run in front of me going slower than my expected pace on narrow DC streets.
CCBG: Tough noogies. Bye.
So NONE of that exchange ended up mattering, because of the Metro fiasco. By the time I had gotten out of the portapotty line they were counting down corral 18. I was being hustled to the front of the corrals to the start line by volunteers/coordinators. So for the first 4 miles I slipstreamed past a large number of people. Then I got hurt, and backed off on my pace. I guess it just had to do with timing with the aid stations? But WTF people. How can 6 tables in a row of Gatorade or water be all out at the same time? That's poor planning and poor coordination. Lame.
Blog
2012 Goal: working towards pre-pregnancy speed!
04/15 KI Metric Marathon/16.3 m (2:05:55, 7:43 pace)
05/06 Frederick 13.1 (1:41:09)
11/04 NYCM
Sorry you had a not-so-good race, but congrats on the PR! A friend of mine got stuck in the massive Metro fail. No bueno. No bueno at all.
DH and I have only good things to say about Shamrock. He was towards the back of the half pack. I saw the tail end of the half marathoners go by, and it seemed like the aid stations were fully stocked (probably because they still had to be prepared for the marathoners to come by later). Flat as a pancake, great swag (race shirt, finishers hat AND shirt, and a neat medal ... and don't forget about 4 beers and the post-race party) and one of the best organized and best aid-supported races I have ran.
Running on the Rhode
I hate you very much