The packed starting line!
Taking pictures while running can be difficult ...
It's the Kenyans!!!! (And Ethiopians.) They started 10-minutes before we did, or otherwise I'm sure K and I'd have been right there with them. ;) We all clapped and cheered them on as we gawked at how far they were along the course. We were still on mile 1; they were probably on 4, at least.
The run took us around several monuments in D.C.
A few times in the course, there were loops that made us pass other runners headed the opposite direction. When these loops took place under a bridge, we all cheered each other on. The echoes of support were pretty cool!
There are some characters who run this race! First we saw Santa ...
... and right behind him, the Jogging Juggler!
This was K's first organized run. Since he went to Iraq, being in a crowd can be an uncomfortable experience for him. He was anxious at the beginning of the run, and his crankiness made me wonder if this would be our last organized run together. He had his pacing watch on, so his constant, "Pace yourself. You're at a 9-minute mile .... OK, now pick it up. We're at 10-and-a-half .... Slow down a little," was driving me insane. We were crowded, so every time I bumped into him (which did happen fairly often in the beginning), he griped at me.
Thank goodness, by mile 6 or so, he had apologized and calmed down. I think he was caught off guard by just how crowded the course was.
Our goal had been to run the entire thing in a 10-minute mile. I wanted to finish at just under 1:40. We got pretty close to that, and I burned over 1,200 calories, according to my heart rate monitor!
We finished pretty strong, but we were glad to be done! I've taken this week easy, but I'll probably be out running again this weekend -- we've got a 10K at the end of the month!
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