Why stop at 20? Marine Corps 10K

Oh yeah! Race number 21! Another Mark and Amy duo race!

We parked in the same spot that Jon, Leslie and I parked at during their visit and walked to the start on the Mall. It was an awesome morning--near 50. We arrived on the Mall as the sun was coming up. It was beautiful.



Several UPS trucks greeted us, ready to take our bags. With 15 minutes until the start, we stripped down to our running gear, and handed over our warm sweatshirts and headed to the start.




It was much more crowded than I had remembered from last year's run, although Mark assures me it was just as crowded last year.

Miss DC 2010 sang the National Anthem and we were off. Well...two minutes later we were off....

Our start was a slow one as all of the people who don't follow the pacing signs were up near the front. But we kept trucking and eventually found our niche in the crowd.

It was wonderful to only have a 10K to do....

At mile 3 I couldn't believe that I was half way over with the race. :) What a nice feeling! A nice way to finish up four weeks of road races--with the shortest one last. :)

I felt good and strong and the cool weather really, really helped. That, and knowing that while I was pushing it for 10K, there were thousands more who had another 20 to go after I finished. It was a good feeling.

Miles 4 and 5 were the hardest...primarily because it's a straight away along the Parkway without many other spectators and just the looming trees where the finish is far, far in the distance.

The last .2 miles are crazy in that a hill, that is deceptively steep is there to greet us all for the final push. Both Mark and I thought we were going to puke when we finished---but we didn't! I guess this is a sign of a race well run. :)

My final time? 50:47.20--a PR, not only for this season but in a long time. It was definitely worth the pain.
Mark and I walked into Rosslyn and met our UPS truck to claim our warm clothes. From there we walked across the Key Bridge into Georgetown to see the marathon go by.


All that was left along the Key Bridge were empty water cups--and Marines cleaning up the runners' mess....
And at the other end of the bridge, a steady stream of runners....


We got there as the 4:30 mile pace runner went by. The runners looked fresh. This was in between miles 8 and 9 for them.

We stood and cheered for a little bit--admiring the costumes that ran by--yes, some runners did dress up for Halloween and the marathon!

We particularly liked the sign outside of the Georgetown Running Company.

Another water stop and more cups, port-o-potties, and people!


Mark and I walked down the length of M Street...


and admired the awesome Lululemon cheerers...I've seen them in other races, and I must admit, they're pretty energetic and fun. They had music blaring from the store.




The race turned on Wisconsin toward the waterfront. There was a pretty good singer camped out on the corner, who had just begun to sing Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again" when we came by. He was pretty good and you could tell he was appreciated by the runners.


Mark and I walked the rest of the way down M Street and stopped for some much needed breakfast and coffee at La Madeline (like we did last year)...and then continued onto the subway to our car.

It was the perfect race morning and a wonderful way to continue our awesome weekend!

Amy's splits:

Mile 1 8:51.51
Mile 2 8:03.39
Mile 3 8:08.31
Mile 4 8:03.09
Mile 5 7:47.40
Mile 6 7:58.98
Mile .2 1:54.52

Total for 6.2: 50.47.20

Woooohooo!

Bib

FName

LName

City

State

Div

Age

Sex

ChipTime

ClockTime

Overall

SexPl

DivPl

AgeGrade

Ctz

Divt

Sext

Pace

45748

AMY

TRENKLE

WASHINGTON

DC

FEMALES 35-39

35

F

50:44

53:06

680

160

12

60.4%

Bib

FName

LName

City

State

Div

Age

Sex

ChipTime

ClockTime

Overall

SexPl

DivPl

AgeGrade

Ctz

Divt

Sext

Pace

45626

MARK

HANNUM

WASHINGTON

DC

MALES 30-34

34

M

51:14

53:36

748

561

102

53.2%

#20!!!!!!!!!!!!!!--THE ARMY TEN MILER!

Here it is! In October! Race #20! Race #20! In retrospect, it seems pretty fast! Where did the races go?

Mark and I arrived at the Stadium Armory for packet pick up after school on Friday. Somehow we ended up in different waves...with Mark in the wave behind me. Not sure how that happened.



Saturday night we went out to dinner with Tracey and David at Red Rock, a local pizza place. It was a great race meal--one for the two of us and Tracey as well. We agreed to meet up the next morning at 6:45 am at L'Enfant Plaza to Metro to the start together.

All went well and we got there with plenty of time to go! We went through a check point and it was there that an soldier told me that there were no electronic devices permitted past that point---arg! I had to put my music in a bag and bag check it. Double arg because not only did I have no music for ten miles, but I had to use my bathroom time to wrestle the masses back toward bag check.

I told Mark to hop in line and that hopefully we would find each other at the start. Surprisingly I found him at the port-o-potties when I returned, got in line myself (no, I did not cut) and we walked to the start. We got there with a minute and a half to go before the gun for the race went off! Talk about timing!

The race was a great course. It was pretty packed race---people, people everywhere! It was wonderful to run my 20th race with Mark.

And even crazier, we ran into Tracey at bag pick up and were able to catch up on our respective races as we rode the subway together back to L'Enfant Plaza.

It was a great day for all and a terrific way to celebrate the completion of my New Year's Resolution!


Mark and I headed to the City Diner and celebrated with yummy egg and cheese sandwiches on everything bagels, with double hashbrowns of course. :)

#21 to come next week! :) Yup, you didn't think I could just quit registering for races cold turkey did you?


Splits:

Mile 1 9:18.59
Mile 2 8:57.81
Mile 3 9:11.86
Mile 4 9:09.61
Mile 5 11:46.61 (bathroom break)
Mile 6 8:47.29
Mile 7&8 19:19.63
Mile 9 8:55.59
Mile 10 8:54.58

Total 1:34.18

Official time:

8780

TRENKLE, AMY

F35

WASHINGTON DC

9965

2895/9594

512/1682

1:03:53

1:34:18

Be More in B'More--the Baltimore Half Marathon

My 19th race was a race that I've registered for at least twice before but never run. I was anxious for the start of it this year...just making it to Baltimore for the start of the race was a victory!

I was pretty excited to run it. I loved that the race started at 9:45---getting from DC to Baltimore by 9:45 meant that we didn't have to get up ridiculously early and that I felt a bit warmed up.

But as I said good bye to Mark, my back froze up and felt so incredibly stiff. I know that I felt like I had tweaked it the day before, but it just tensed up....I couldn't bring my hands up behind my back and it hurt to turn from side to side.

I was worried as I walked to the start, but hoped that the more I walked the better I would feel.

I stood in the corral for my wave. And waited. And waited. I didn't feel much better, but hoped that when I started to run I would be ok.


The gun went off! I started to run. It was tense, but if I didn't turn much I was ok. Around the .5 mile mark I stopped to walk, wondering if I would be able to make it to mile one, let alone 13.1. I was glad not to see Mark because I think if I had, I wouldn't have finished this race.


It wasn't until mile 8 that I started to feel better. I loved the course. Probably because I seemed to know where I was but it was also a lot of new places. I LOVED the last three miles, which ran from Hopkins to the Inner Harbor---all downhill! I must say, there were more spectators than what I had hoped for--and they were awesome!

Around mile four, there were supporters who had a sign that said, "Nobody made you do this." I love it. Another sign called all the runners "smurfs" because of the color of the race shirts (which were quality by the way!).



In the end, I was happy with my time because I finished! By the end, when I was feeling better and knew I would finish I was elated. I will definitely register again for this race. I think the marathon would be a good one too....Definitely an awesome, awesome surprise.


Two thumbs up (and one joyous leg kick) for this race!


And always, thanks to Mark for supporting me along the way! We brought Soba this time which meant that Mark didn't have his bike. I saw him at the finish line just before I crossed it! :)




We enjoyed a tasty lunch at our favorite Baltimore diner, the City Cafe--a delicious post race meal! It took us FOREVER to get out of Baltimore because the marathon was still going on and all the cross streets were still closed. But it was nice to be sitting in a car, with Mark and Soba, on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon.

One more race to go until my New Year's Resolution has been met!


Splits:

Mile 1 9:45.68
Mile 2 9:18.17
Mile 3 9:17.13
Mile 4 9:09.16
Mile 5&6 18:40.93
Mile 7 9:17.12
Mile 8 9:25.17
Mile 9 9:20.16
Mile 10 9:31.60
Mile 11 8:59.78
Mile 12 9:20.14
Mile 13.1 9:23.43

Total 2:01:28.47

Bib

FName

LName

City

State

Country

Div

Age

Sex

ChipTime

ClockTime

Overall

SexPl

DivPl

AgeGrade

Split1

Split2

Divt

Sext

21632

AMY

TRENKLE

WASHINGTON

DC

USA

FEMALES 35-39

35

F

2:01:26

2:07:37

2477

981

139

54.9%

Boston Half Marathon

I was super, uber excited to run this race. The year before, on Columbus Day weekend, Jon and I went for an 11 mile run. It was a super cool run. As we neared Fenway, we saw all of these people who had just finished a race. We stopped and found out which one--the Boston Half Marathon.

I decided to check it out---and well, stalked it until race registration opened. I did a pretty good job, I think, since I ended up with race number 103. :)

Mark and I always look forward to going to Boston on that weekend and spending time with Jon. It had the added bonus of a race that I was really, really looking forward to.

The weekend was great--we flew in on Friday night, enjoyed the Thirsty Scholar and crashed around 11:30. We slept in a little, got up, went for a run together, cleaned up and headed to one of my fave brunch spots in the city: The Nutty Squirrel (although it's real name is the Friendly Toast). We saved ourselves the hour long wait when we nabbed some spots at the bar and hunkered down for some awesome food!

Bellies full, we went on the prowl to explore Boston. We did a lot of walking around--not to anywhere in particular, but enjoying it all. We saw go kart racing near Government Center and had a coffee in the North End. We ended up near the Common and watching a late afternoon show of The Social Network. We were all excited to see the pats of Boston and John Hopkins that we frequent (go Thirsty Scholar!).

Dinner that night was with Curt back at the Tavern in Central Square. Shouldn't have had them, but the tater tots and the pan o' fries were AWESOME! What a great meal! We called it an early night to get up early the next morning for the run.

We were on the road by 7:30 to drop me off at the park...Mark and Jon took off to find parking for the car and to stake out their claim.

Here's where my adventure began.

It was a about a 10 minute quick walk from the drop off to the start. It was a brisk morning. I had about 30 minutes until the gun went off. I knew I wanted to use the port-o-potty before the start....so I found one near the start line...separate from the long lines, but it had a line. I waited for about 10-15 minutes and then someone came by and said that we all had to go to the other ones because they were about to start the wheelchair race and since this was so close to the start (and probably in the pics) we couldn't use it. That was awful! After a sprint across the field, I got in line...again.

When the gun for the race started, I had one person in front of me.....I was bummed, but realized that with the large runner field I would still be able to jump in and be ok. I quickly went and ran in....it was the fastest, late (even though I was on time) start ever for me!

It wasn't long at all, just before mile one that I saw Mark and Jon---cheering me on! :) It was cool!!!




The run was a beautiful one---through lots of parks and green space....it was in a part of Boston I hadn't been to before.

I enjoyed the run a lot....and was on record to have a PR, until I had a bathroom emergency at mile 11. I really thought about not stopping but thought the consequences of not stopping could be worse. I literally had a two minute bathroom stop. Had I not stopped, and had disaster not struck, it would have been a PR. As it was it was a pretty good time--I'm just glad it was under two hours.

Jon and Mark caught some great photos of me finishing in White Stadium.



After a little bit of back and forth through the crowd I found Mark. :) Jon was in the stands cheering Curt in....

I was very excited to take my picture at the post run picture spot with my jazzy new top--for finisher's only!

And then we nabbed an egg and cheese burrito from a food truck they had. Yummy!!!


We met back up with Jon, Curt and Trisha back toward the finish line....

and took a group shot. I love this photo!


Jon had the perfect idea for brunch--a new place...Mike's City Diner!

We had a little bit of a wait, but with food truck burrito in our bellies, we were good to go...

and the wait was so worth it!


YUM!

As if our weekend weren't full enough we went to the Oktoberfest in Harvard Square--another Columbus Weekend tradition. So fun!

And full of fun, colorful cupcakes! This vendor learned from last year when they sold out....this year, chock full of great, fun colored cupcakes!

Thanks for another awesome weekend Jon! :) We can't wait to visit next year! :)

Race number 18--CHECK!

2249 123/352   103 F3539 Amy Trenkle   35 F Washington DC    44:44 1:29:24 1:59:33  2:03:05



Splits:



Mile 1  8:49.24

Mile 2  9:00.25

Mile 3  9:02.77

Mile 4  8:42.08

Mile 5  9:08.66

Mile 6  8:46.21

Mile 7  9:13.91

Mile 8  8:48.69

Mile 9  8:42.71

Mile 10  9:09.62

Mile 11 11:10.61

Mile 12  9:14. 14

Mile 13  8:51. 77

Mile .1  54.00

Final:  1:59.34

(without pit stop:  1:57.34)



Average:  8:32.48