The overview: this race did not turn out liked I had hoped.
When my alarm went off Sunday morning, I was not ready to get out of bed. I wished I had gone to sleep earlier last night and hit the snooze button two or three times. I finally got out of bed, had breakfast, and got going a little later than planned. After sitting in Saturday's traffic when I went to pick up my number, I took the Metro Sunday morning. Taking the Metro added a few minutes to my trip, and I made it to the race about a half-hour before the start. That didn't leave me with much time to warm up, since by the time I changed clothes and checked my bag it was time to get into my corral. As I waited in the corral for the start, I really had to go to the bathroom but by then the lines were too long for me to wait in and still make the start.
The race started at 7:40 and I still had to go to the bathroom. About a half-mile into the race, I saw some porta-johns and took a break. I thought it best to stop early and get rid of the discomfort. Once I got back on the course I felt much better and probably only lost about 45 seconds. When I was back on the course, though, I was weaving through runners while trying to maintain a steady pace.
The first half of the race seemed to go by pretty slowly. I was trying to stay under 7 minute pace, but my stomach wasn't feeling too great. In the days leading up to the race it felt pretty heavy a lot of the time and when I ate I would feel full quickly. When I tried to pick up the pace, it would get more uncomfortable.
About halfway through the course, we passed through the start/finish. This part of the course had most of the spectators and I picked up some energy through here. After that, the course went around Hains Point and then back to the finish. I heard that the Hains Point portion of the course was bad because it was desolate, but it didn't feel that bad. After we got out of East Potomac Park, we headed past the spectators to the finish. I was able to pick up the pace and finish strong.
Splits were 7:44; 6:49; 6:59; 7:02; 7:24; 7:10; 8:03 (must have been long); 6:40 (must have been short); 7:38; and 6:59 for a finishing time of 1:12:33.
I'm taking this week easy and then starting my 5k/10k training for a few races this spring and summer.
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