diva women's half marathon race review

Well, this was without a doubt the worst race ever.  I am still annoyed by it, and it's been a whole week.

On Saturday morning, we left Erica's house at 5:45 so that we could make the hour-long drive out to Leesburg.  We were told that we had to be in the parking lot by 7:15, so we should have been there in plenty of time.  Unfortunately, the race coordinators failed to notice that there was only one road to the winery where the race started, and that road was exactly one lane.  The last 7 miles of our drive took an hour and a half, and we didn't park until 8:30.  (The race was supposed to start at 7:30.  Needless to say, it did not start on time.)  Nevertheless, we smiled and posed because everybody knows that whether or not it's going to be a good race, the least you can do is look good in pictures. (Can you tell that this is my favorite running tank?)

The half marathon finally started at 9:00.  I was still in line for the porta-potties, so I didn't start until 9:10.  The race was on a small, gravel country road, which was gorgeous, but also meant that if two people wanted to run next to each other, there wasn't enough room to pass.  I spent the first 4 miles of the race weaving around people or walking behind large groups trying to find an opening.  Kind of annoying.  At mile 5, I finally passed the 10-minute-mile pacer.

After about the halfway point, we finally got onto wider roads and I got into more of a groove.  This was, without a doubt, the hilliest race I have ever run.  The scenery was gorgeous, and one of the neighborhoods threw a big block party and all came out and cheered for us, which totally made my day.  

Finish time:  1:48.  I am pretty happy with this time, considering the hilliness of the course and my inability to actually run for the first few miles.  As soon as I crossed the finish line, I grabbed a handful of cookies (I was STARVING) and headed over to meet up with Erica and wait for Bethany to finish.

Look at how happy we were to be done!!!  

Now I am really excited for next week's back-to-back 5k/10k (after a 10 mile warmup).  Hopefully those races will run a little smoother than this one!