10K

I did it and in good time too - 1:16 - 12 minutes less than my 1/2 marathon 10K split. :) Since I had only run about 4 times from half marathon day until race day I considered that time awesome! I was not so excited about the 3:15 am alarm clock time on Sunday morning but the 4 1/2 hours of sleep did me well. Nicole and I woke up - showered - made coffee - packed bagels and left to meet the crew at TBC. We left Easton around 4:15 and headed to Crystal City- from there we took a Marine Corps Marathon shuttle to the starting line. After meeting with the full marathoners and sending them off Jenn, Julie, Nicole, Tracy, Taylor and I headed to our starting line. I was not excited to run and assumed I'd give up and just walk it - no such luck. After I started running and felt good I decided I'd run to try to beat my time from the 1/2 marathon 10K split. I ran about 4 miles of the marathon course during the 10K - thoroughly enjoyed the Marine eye candy along the route. The hill at the end was a killer - it was killer whether you've trained on hills or not but when you are from the FLAT eastern shore any incline is tough. I ran almost the whole final hill (walked a bit of it because my calves were cramping) and sprinted to the finish line where I quickly caught up with Tracy and Nicole who had only finished 58 seconds before me! Got medaled by a good lookin Marine - got pictures taken and headed off to find a bathroom and food. Great Times! We walked around the finish festival and headed back to the charity village to our tent to wait for our first marathoner to return - which never happened. After a while we walked down to the finish line and headed to mile marker 24.5 to cheer on the ROCKS runners. Got to see almost all the marathoners pass by and we ran to the finish line with Marian and Lea Ann. It was so great to be a supporter and see the amazing marathoner runners. I have NO desire to run 26.2 miles but am in true amazement of those that do. It was also way cool to walk and run on 395 around DC - sit and cheer people on running past the Pentagon and Arlington Cemetary. How Cool?!?! FUN FUN! So...no more races in the near future although I need to keep running when the weather permits - 2009 is the year for the VA Beach 1/2 followed by the Philly 1/2!