Jeff’s Post – Rock ‘n Roll USA ½ Marathon Recap

I normally don’t like to wait too long to post race recaps but it has just been a busy week and I let Tamara post first and then fell behind!  Tamara did a great job with her review so I will try not to duplicate any of that.  I will say that the Rock ‘n Roll folks did an amazing job with this event.  We are Rock ‘n Roll vets and we pretty much know what to expect but I can’t say enough about how good our experience was – Great job Competitor Group!

I went into this race hoping to PR (isn’t that what we always want to do!).  All the conditions were in my favor to do that but this day was Tamara’s day for the PR and I was just thrilled to finish when I did!  Tamara and I normally run together for the first 6-7 miles in a half and then just slowly drift apart.  We discussed that we might run this one a little different and when we started I was almost immediately in front of Tamara (see pic below from local news if you can find us 🙂 ).

I looked back a couple times and didn’t see her and at that point decided to just run.  I also decided that I was going to try to run this race a little different and really focus on each mile and that worked well for the first few miles but then I started whole “You have how many miles left?” conversation in my head – not good!  I really began to struggle both mentally and physically at around mile 8.  I knew I had a few good miles in the bank but then started to lose it.  At mile 10 I looked down at my Garmin and saw that I was at a 1:17, I knew to PR I needed to be at a 1:15.  I was disappointed but was also happy that I was still on a decent pace given how bad I was feeling.  I also wasn’t expecting so many hills.  I need to pay attention to the elevation charts a little more (I have a tendency to just show up and run the course without looking at it!).  I know how much Tamara hates hills and I remember thinking to myself – I hope Tamara is doing ok on these hills.

Fast Forward to mile 12 – I’m struggling and just want this thing over.  I go around a turn and look to my left and who do I see – Tamara!  She doesn’t say anything but just gives me the ole “c’mon” motion with her arm.  I won’t lie, I was surprised to see her but so proud and happy at the same time.  I tried for a while to keep up with her but she just had more.  I had a vision in my mind of catching her and crossing the finish line, hand in hand, arms in the air but just couldn’t do it and this obviously wasn’t important to her because she was just leaving me in the dust.  This wasn’t one of my best races but I was so happy for Tamara that it didn’t even matter to me that I didn’t reach my goal.  I’ve seen first hand how hard Tamara has worked and this was her day!

I’ve pasted a few pictures below.  I love the one at the finish line – Tamara is at the bottom of the pic and I’m in the middle with my head down (pretty much says it all)!  I love the memories we made at this race.  Our conversation at the starting line, my arm around Tamara while the National Anthem was playing, running the streets of DC, watching Tamara pass me and finish strong, our conversation after the race recapping how we felt at certain points, standing together watching Michael Wardian win the marathon (amazing btw) and just relaxing at the end with all of our fellow race friends.  I’m thankful I have such a strong running partner and look forward to making many more running memories!

Have a great day and happy running.