DCRRC National Capital 20 Mile Race Report-Long

Race morning was beautiful. It was sunny and about 50 degrees, perfect running weather. The race was in Alexandria, about a half-hour drive, and as usual I was running a little late. I still needed to pick up my number, since I didn't do it on Saturday. It's a good thing I wasn't planning on much of a warm up.

I got to the race about 15 minutes before the start. I picked up my number and jogged around a little to warm up. I went over the plan in my head--stay conservative early, don't go out too hard and die. After a few announcements, we were off.

The race started at a school, and then the course went through a neighborhood and out and back in both directions on the Mt. Vernon trail. I hit the first mile in about 7:15, right on pace, and before the second mile marker we got on the trail. We followed the trail towards Mt. Vernon until we got to the turnaround just before the five mile mark. At five miles my time was 36:xx, and I was still on pace. I was taking Gatorade at each of the water stops (a quick aside: why do the fill the cups up so much?) and the next five miles passed uneventfully until I got to halfway in 1:13:27.

At the water stop just before halfway, I took a Gu and some water. I was going to try and pick up the pace, but I wasn't feeling that great. I just tried to continue to maintain my pace. Around mile fourteen I had lost a little focus and ran my slowest mile of the race, 7:44. Seeing that split combined with the fact that I had turned around and was headed back to the finish at the school woke me up. I got my focus back and began to work on the drive to the finish. I got to seventeen miles in 2:06:xx, and I picked up the pace. I felt like something had come over me--I had this new energy. Miles eighteen, nineteen, and twenty were the three fastest of the race. I split just under 21 minutes for the three miles. I also passed three or four people in those last three miles, including one just as we were getting on the track for the finish. I kicked hard on the three-quarters of a lap on the track to finish in 2:27:06.

I'm very pleased with the way this race went. I didn't quite follow my original plan of running the last ten miles at marathon pace, but I did pick up my pace by 15-20 seconds a mile over the last three miles. Plus, I ran my three highest mileage weeks thus far going into the race, so I wasn't tapered at all. This race was a big confidence booster for the marathon in a little more than a month.