Potomac River Run Half-Marathon: Hey, at least I did it....

Alright, so not my best race but I did it and we should just leave it at that. MUCH slower pace time than the first half-marathon (See, Colleen - this is why I don't want to do a second half-iron). I think my time was around 2:15 which included a potty break. Barbiegirl not was ill so her husband took her place. I don't actually know my finish time because I'm listed as "TBD" on the race log. Probably because when Mr. Barbiegirlnot and I crossed the line they saw a man and woman, yet their scorecard read two females. Here's the kicker: of all the races I've ever done, I've never had my name called as I cross the finish line. We cross and they call Barbiegirlnot's name. The woman isn't even there and she gets her name called!

Had quite an adventure getting there. I eventually made it to the race after missing the exit for Rte. 1 (darn bridge construction) and venturing over to Maryland, where I missed the first exit (stupid misplaced 295 road sign) and the exit after that (daft area revitalization which made it not look how I remembered). So, after many a contributions to the swear jar, I finally turned around at St. Barnabas road. Hell, at the rate I was going, I should have just taken the Beltway all the way around back to Rte 1! Maybe I could have even gotten off at 270 and hit the Frederick marathon.

I have to say this was a very different kind of race…. The early start was 6:30 and some racers took off at 6:00 a.m. So we were just hanging around and went to line up for the 6:30 early start. They said we could start whenever. So we took off at 6:20. It was rather anti-climatic. You just walk up there, cross the mat, beep goes the timer and you're running. Lots of aid stations and great volunteers. On the way back we started passing those that had started at the regular time. Everyone was saying "good job", "way to go". I just felt so guilty. I just wanted to shout back, "Took an early start - not really running that fast!". I was hurting most of the way back. I made it to Stone Bridge and, with my running partner in the loo, I thought I'd sneak a walk in. Low and behold there's the race photographer. I sure as hell wasn't going to let her take a picture of me the one time I was walking. Grrr….

Great post race food too. Can't beat Whole Foods and Bruegger's bagels. Well, you could with Chick-fil-a, but of course they're not open on Sundays. I don't mean to sound snotty, but I just ran a half-marathon. Is it too much to ask for some cream cheese with the bagels? In retrospect, I have to applaud the B&A Half-Marathon because they had pizza AND coffee AND cream cheese for the bagels.

HEROES OF THE RACE:
Mr. Barbiegirlnot: for running a half-marathon on 12 hours notice AND giving the t-shirt to his wife. If that's not love, I don't know what is.

Me: for actually doing the whole flippin' thing after 1.5 hours of cycling while pulling Tri-Toddler in the bike trailer (about half my body weight) the day before and the only time I purposively slowed down was through the aid stations (thank God there were quite a few!)

The Other Idiots: All the other idiots who did the GW 10 miler last week and this race. I was glad to have the company. :)

Next race: Half Iron, baby! Cowboy up!!!

"It's good training!" - Just Tri Me