We arrived to the race itself at 7:15am and started to head to the bathrooms on the far side of the field next to the Washington Monument. After going only partway through the huge crowd I realized that we probably wouldn't make it to the start on time. So I turned around with one of my friends and we headed to the start. I knew that there were a few bathrooms along the course so if I became desperate enough I would brave the lines. We seeded ourselves directly between the 10:30 and 11:00 pacers, knowing that we could catch up or fall back as needed during the race.
Obligatory pre-race selfie!
Due to the wave start I didn't cross the starting line until almost 7:50am. For the first few miles I kept up with my friend from the carpool (which was really impressive for me because she's pretty!) But once we hit the traffic circle on the opposite side of the Memorial bridge I hopped up onto the grass and hugged the curb to pass a bunch of people. I should've taken this as a sign of things to come. (Spoiler alert: The crowding was TERRIBLE!!)
At about mile 3 I ended up catching up with the 10:30 pacers and I was super excited to be able to keep up with them (and get a little ahead of them at times.) However they managed to stay right in the crowd to the point where it was impossible to stay with them for very long. I think I was with them for about 2 miles before I broke away because another person in the pace group tripped me and I stumbled to the point where I had to grab onto the person so I didn't fall. (Take note: This has NEVER happened to me in a race, let alone a training run.) This kind of crowding is super easy to fix. I know the race is in a time crunch, but if they stagger the waves just a little bit more it could be avoided.
Up until this point I had been eyeing bathrooms. All of them had absolutely ridiculous lines of at last a dozen people. Once I approached the Tidal Basin and hit the bridge on Independence Avenue I remembered that there were bathrooms coming up. (So yes, I am revealing my secret bathroom spot for this race.) I remembered from the previous year that there were bathrooms without a line on the other side of the bridge. Sure enough, there wasn't a line for them this year either. I ran into a portajohn and soon ran back out feeling quite refreshed. (Especially since they were in good shape AND had plenty of hand sanitizer.) Before heading back to the course I took the opportunity to take a selfie with the legendary Cherry Blossoms.
I love that I got a picture with President Jefferson's statue in the memorial!
Then I sprinted back and merged into the crowd. The rest of the race was fairly uneventful. I spotted the medical runners a few times throughout the race and I saw somebody at about mile 9 who had fallen. A couple runners helped him up and I yelled out "Medical runners should be by shortly!" while a couple others ran off to alert a police officer on the course that somebody was injured.
I managed to finish about 30 seconds faster than in 2016, but minus my bathroom/selfie break I was a full 2 minutes faster.
I managed to finish about 30 seconds faster than in 2016, but minus my bathroom/selfie break I was a full 2 minutes faster.
After the race, once again we had a long walk to get to water, then out of the runner's chute to get post-race snacks and the medals. This part could DEFINITELY be organized better. In all honesty the organizers have the space and the ability to have all the water and snacks in the runners chute. The organizers already have the water set alongside the chute before the race starts. It really would not be hard to put out tables and then the snacks once all the runners have passed. (They have approximately 15-20 minutes between the last runners crossing the starting line and the elites finishing the race.) As somebody who works in the racing industry, this is enough time to get tables setup and food on it especially considering the amount of volunteers they have.
Once I exited the chute, I again had to fight the crowds to get to the food and medals. One of the big things I noticed was that a lot of spectators were getting in the way of the runners. (This could be avoided completely if all the food was in the chute!!) Granted, the mall was muddy so everyone was resigned to walking on mats that were 6-8 feet across, but there were some areas where spectators tried to enter that they should not have been. For example as I was making my way through the crowd to get to the medal tent, there were several spectators also trying to get through to the medals. Many of them realized their error and turned around, but that only contributed to the huge mess.
Overall, in all honesty I'm not sure if I would do this race again. The race is legendary because it goes past a lot of famous DC landmarks like the Martin Luther King Jr., Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, the Tidal Basin, the Cherry Blossoms (extra special when in bloom), and starting and finishing at the Washington Monument. (Which trust me makes for some great photo opts!) But I'm not sure if it's worth the crowding before, during and after the race. (The crowding was a pretty consistent complaint with a lot of the runners that I spoke to after the race.) It's definitely fixable, but the bigger question is will they listen to runner input and make the changes?
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