Rock 'N' Roll USA (DC) Day 1

Written on Saturday 3/16/2012
Today I set off for my next adventure running adventure…The Rock & Roll Half Marathon in DC. I am beyond excited for this race. Running through the National Mall, pass the white house, underneath the cheery blossoms. In all honesty, out of all the races I have ran to date, this one is by far the one I am most looking forward to. I just hope it lives up to the mental hype I have going on in my head right now.

On the flip side of things, the planning process has been a crap-storm for this race. As a compulsive planner, everything is always setup and ready to go weeks in advance. But because of a minor snafu, my husband had to work on Thursday and Friday. Instead of arriving in DC Thursday afternoon and enjoying the day seeing the city and attending expo on Friday; I left this morning by myself. Hubby will be arriving late tonight via plane because he has officially missed his bus. The most important thing is that we both get to the starting line.

Today started with a 5:30am alarm that taunted me until I reluctantly rolled out of bed after a brief 5 hours of sleep. I had to be on a bus in Manhattan by 7:30am. On our way to the bus station, we drove by the Today Show where I saw Matt and Al sitting in their newscaster chairs laughing about something. Here I am watching two ‘celebrities’ and thinking “If I don’t make this bus, I am going to miss bib pickup and I might kill somebody!” Oh how my outlook on life has changed. I arrived at the station just is time to climb on the bus; within five minutes we were on our way.

Long Line for MegaBus

The trip went smoothly, nothing too crazy. The bus was packed to the max and was slightly hot on-board. Not to mention the toilet must have backed-up because the smell started to seep through the bus during the last 30 minutes of our trip. During the trip I regretted not buying a cup of coffee and some breakfast before getting on board. Besides my deep thoughts of caffeine, I spent most of my time reading Running On Empty by Marshall Ulrich. Great book, but it did cause me to shed some tears. Probably not the best choice for a light read on a packed bus.

Once to the hotel, I got checked in and headed to my room. I reserved a room through Pricelines name your own price and I got the Hotel Monaco. This place is pretty cool, but the hallways do give off a slight “The Shinning” vibe. Once in my room I noticed no bathtub! So I called down to request a room with the right “half marathoner” facilities. They moved me to the first floor, which was right below ground level. The whole place smelled like stale cigarettes. After sitting in the room for 20 minutes I decided that it wasn’t worth the switch, so I called the front desk and ask for our old room back. They were more than polite and understanding.

What?! No Bathtub!

 After I finally got settled in I headed over to expo. I arrived at 2 on Friday so the foot traffic wasn’t horrendous. The shirts were pretty cool and we got one free Gu in our race packet. The expo was pretty interesting, with Brooks having a carnival type atmosphere right after you left packet pickup. Other than that the thing I found most interesting was the Brooks changing rooms. Totally hilarious!

After expo I went back to the room, started to do my hydrating, put out our racing gear, and ordered pasta for dinner.

Hydrating Time!

Seafood Pasta for Dinner

Running gear ready!

Now it is just time to sit and relax. I will probably do some foam rolling and read a little bit before we have dinner and head to bed. Race day tomorrow! 5th half marathon in 6 months!