This was a very fun race, most of the course is flat. I did reasonably well despite the fact that i had a slow morning with nothing planned well. My mistake was that I did not pay attention to my racing information the night before, as it indicated that runners were to park at the national harbor and catch a shuttle to the starting line at Mt. Vernon. There were conflicting times on when the the last shuttle will leave the Nat. Harbor, the brochure said 6:30, the website said 6:45, rumors said 6:00am. None of that mattered as i woke up at 6:00am. What a great morning, first they lost my registration, now i'm going to be late.

So now my plan was to have my mother drive me to the starting line. Now my problem is "Where?" The race day brochure nor the website did not indicate where in Mt. Vernon the starting line was located.

After a bit of internet research and a heavy foot, I got there 20 minutes before the race started. I had enough time to put on my bib and chip, and cell phone submitted to baggage check. The race started a bit tough, as there were some small bottlenecking from the bus shuttles that parked on the race path. By the time i reached the 2 mile marker, my feet started to hurt bad, so i had to make a quick bathroom stop and readjust my shoe laces (i tied my shoes on too tight). That took away 3-4 minutes.

Soon after, i found a hare to match speed and course.

Along the way, i saw the morning fog over the Potomac evaporate from the rising temperature with each step, and bursts of sun-rays between tree limbs. It was a beautiful site, now i know why George Washington chose this area for his estate.

At mile marker 4, your first glimpse at the Woodrow Wilson Bridge was too far to be obtained. By mile 7, the bridge was in your face.

The hardest part was near the end, where you had to run a quarter mile on a gravel path. There were a-lot of grunting from exhaustion, and feet pain due to shock from hard to soft pavement.

I finished with some energy left, which was odd because i'm usually wiped out. When i received my cell phone from baggage check, i found my cell phone battery drained. So much for my ride back home.

i made it home after 3 hours of walking from Maryland to Virginia.