St. Patrick's Day 8K

It’s been quite a whirlwind weekend! Yesterday we took the 12-hour trek from Georgia to DC for the 8K race I’ve been telling you about. We arrived around 6pm and went out to dinner with my DC ladies (Emily, Katherine, and Becca) and Katherine’s parents who were up visiting from Charlotte. We had a great dinner at Red Rocks Pizzeria (same restaurant we went on our last DC visit, but different location).

Then I got up bright and early this morning for the race! I was a little nervous going into it because before today, the farthest I had run was about 4 miles…and this race was just over 5! But my wonderful friend Katherine was with me and that definitely put me more at ease. It was FREEZING outside when we got to the race location at Freedom Plaza…it had to be in the low 40’s.

 

(Cold and sleepy with my partner in crime…)

And there were WAY MORE RUNNERS than I was expecting! Over 3,000 to be exact.

What better view could you ask for when starting a race?

I started myself out near the back of the group in the 11 minute mile corral (Katherine is a speedy gonzalez so she was up in the front of the pack) and before I knew it we were off!

The whole thing was kind of surreal. Running right by the monuments was absolutely incredible and I was trying to soak up every minute of it. I realized at one point that we were running on the street were Obama was just walking during the Inaugural parade. How’s THAT for motivation? 😉

My goal was to finish the race in under an hour but I wasn’t really worrying about that. I signed up for this race purely for fun, and I wanted to just enjoy myself and the beautiful surroundings more than anything. I even stopped to take some pictures when we were running by the Capitol building! I found a like-minded runner who was taking pictures too, so we swapped phones and took pictures of each other.

 

I made it to the finish line in just over an hour! If I hadn’t stopped to take pictures I would have been under, so I’m counting this as an accomplished goal. 🙂 Jason took pictures of me right before I crossed the finish line!

 

Overall it was an amazing experience. Running a race in DC is something I really wanted to do before we move away from this area, and I’m so glad that I went for it. I will never forget today!

The event itself had a really fun spirit and even included a costume contest and Irish dancers to go along with the St. Patty’s day theme!

 

Thank you for running with me, KJ! It was epic.

 

After the race we met up with our other friends and went to brunch at Hawk ‘n’ Dove. Apparently this is quite the well known DC establishment, and it was recently re-done. We all enjoyed brunch cocktails and I had a mushroom omelet and a side of fruit for my meal. Jason enjoyed some corn beef hash.

 

 

 

And after our meal we went to walk around Eastern Market. It was my first time at this place, which is a really cool indoor/outdoor market where you can find everything from jewelry to deli cheese.

 

 

 

 

 

And now we’re back in the ‘Burg! I need a nap.

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren