My First Half (witted) Marathon

This Friday morning I’ll be piling my assorted run stuff into the car and making the drive to DC to run the first ever RnR USA Nation’s Capital Half-Marathon.  I’ve finished marathons before, so I guess technically I’ve run a half-marathon, but never with the added bonus of intentionally stopping at the halfway point and beginning the arduous task of beer-recovery.

Since this will be my first half-marathon, I have a pretty good chance of setting a PR.  Training has been going very well this year with the addition of swimming and riding the road bike, and I’m as healthy as I’ve ever been going into a race.  My fairly simple typical mindset of ‘if I’m going to run it, I might as well run hard’ would indicate that I’d be carefully plotting my goal time, pacing, hydration, etc., but not this time.  This time I’m running just for the fun of it.  I’m running to return the favor of running with my best friend growing up who ran with me through the brutal last 8 miles of the Marine Corps Marathon in the Fall.  The guy who got me through the toughest stretch of running I’ve probably ever experienced.  The guy here smiling and encouraging me while my mind and body were plotting evil things to spring on me just a few miles later:

Not to create the impression that this is some overly sentimental experience, the race will most likely just be a break to sober up a bit, and get all that unnecessary sweat out of our systems to be properly replaced with all things Irish and Stout on St. Patrick’s Day.  We will no doubt get all crazy and party like rock-stars until at least 8:30PM.  Maybe even 9:00 if we decide to step it up a notch and take our Geritol.

We’re going to run this thing together, and have had no conversations about pace, or finish times, or any of the usual details.  None of that really matters to us this weekend.  If we run fast – great.  If not – probably even better.  As long as I’m still healthy at the finish I consider it a success.  And to the finishers go the Guinness.