Arlington Running Festival Half-Marathon - 5th Overall

Pre-Race

At some point last week I decided that it would be nice to have a "fitness check" before I proceed to destroy my body at TNF 50 Miler next weekend. So, I found this half-marathon and signed up.

Overall, the week was rough. Coming off of my highest mileage week ever (96 miles), I felt rather flat and less motivated than usual. Regardless, I put in about 34 miles of running up to Saturday plus 35 miles of biking (mostly commuting/transportation). I didn't really feel like racing on Saturday night; but I'm not one to give up. So, I got up at 4:30AM Sunday morning and began "the ritual": I got dressed, ate breakfast, drank coffee, prepared my Nuun, and drove to the race.

The Race

I had hoped to get in 2-3 miles easy before the start, but a shortage of porta potties prevented more than a mile and some striders. At the start line, I decided to go out at a 5:50/mile pace. This was a bad decision. I was immediately anxious about the pace and found it difficult to run my own race. In reality, I should have gone out at 6:05/mile and stuck there; my splits indicate that this was about the right pace. I really dragged for the last 3 miles; my legs just wouldn't go any faster. This feeling was reminiscent of the last 10k of the National Marathon.

I finished 5th overall in a time of 1:21:53.

The Course


Was horrible. I'm fairly confident that I would have broken 1:20 if it weren't for the course. The first 3 miles were great - flat, open road. Then, the first (of about 10) 180-degree turn arounds hit and we ran into the park onto an 8-foot wide path. The path was OK for the first loop, but we still had a huge number of 90-degree or greater turns. The second lap is where everything kind of fell apart with regards to the course. The front-runners were forced to run past all of the runners who were on their first lap. This was nearly impossible on the narrow path and I found myself constantly yelling "On your left!" while trying to keep a 6:00/mile pace. This continued for the third lap as well. It was total chaos.

With that said, the volunteers were fantastic and everyone was super friendly; but that doesn't really make up for the course. I probably would not run this race again.