Race Report: Jingle All the Way 8K

Sunday morning marked the seventh running of the Jingle All the Way race. This year it was an 8K and started in Freedom Plaza, which is a switch from when I ran the race two years ago. I must say, the switch was quite welcome in many ways: the start was later and Metro accessible, so that meant no cabbing to the race. Sure, there was some single-tracking on the Red line, but we were lucky that heading to the race wasn’t that bad.

Anyway, I say “we” not because I am wonderfully royal (though I am), but because IP accompanied me downtown. He sometimes joins me for races not only for the moral support, but also so that he can do some work while I run. And when I say work, it’s not work-work (for the most part), but projects he’s working on that are important to him. While getting up early isn’t always a treat, he gets stuff done, which helps set the tone for the rest of the day.

Getting downtown was not a problem—once in D.C., IP and I headed to his office so that I could do some last-minute race preparations before jogging down to Freedom Plaza. (An aside: you know what’s a bonus of having your husband’s office near race starts? Bag checks without the line!) Once at Freedom Plaza, I kind of wandered a bit, trying to find a registration tent because—gasp!—my race swag bag had not contained any jingle bells. I ask you this: How is one supposed to jingle all way without the aid of jingle bells? Is the purpose of jingling all the way not defeated by this oversight? Alas, I wasn’t able to find the reg tent, so I was jingle-less. Sadness.

Thanks to the jog from IP’s office to Freedom Plaza I was pretty warmed up by the time I got to the race start. And with a few minutes to go to the race, the announcer announced … that there was to be a 10- to 15-minute delay for the race start. Blah. Wasn’t I just saying last week that a race delay could be one of the worst things to happen to me? But no matter in this case, I kind of just went with the flow. The race started 25 minutes after 9am, so it wasn’t the longest delay. And the race organizers were super apologetic. However, my toes were frozen.

Which wasn’t the worst thing in the world, believe it or not! Remember these boots I wanted last year?

Well, I have them. And I can’t wear them because they apparently tear up the skin on my ankle bones and chafe my heels and toes. So the middle toe on my right foot is in agony, and I was seriously worried about a) my footfall being so painful that I couldn’t run and 2) the sides of my shoes hitting the scabs on my ankles and causing even more pain. But by the time the race started? The benefits of my warm up were gone and I couldn’t feel my feet. That meant that it took about two miles to shake off the cold, but it also meant that I couldn’t feel any of the pain associated with my various foot lesions. And they didn’t bother me the entire race.

Yay for numbness!

The race itself went by very fast (makes sense, since I got a course PR!) and followed the St. Patrick’s Day 8K course. I always enjoy this course—it’s flat, fast and just seems to slip away. The beginnings of the race were a bit tough; I was going fast, but my legs felt really still (not as wonderful a feeling as my cold feet) and the cold air was really catching in my chest. I forced myself to slow down a bit, measure the breaths I took, and it was like I was out for a run in Michigan again. If there’s one thing I do actually enjoy, it’s running in the cold, but you first have to adjust to it in order to have fun with it. The rest of the course was a relative breeze, and while the cheering crowds were thin, the spirit amongst the runners was more than enough to keep anyone going. I love running in race in D.C. (as opposed to training in D.C.—everyone’s just so freakin’ happy to be there!)

(The only thing I don’t like about this course? When you can see the finish line and then … the course jogs onto 10th (I think) in order to round out the mileage. Argh! I don’t know why it drives me crazy, but it’s kind of dispiriting for me. But not enough to get me to stop running.)

I finished relatively strong. I had tried to get some water at one of the final water stops, but runners ahead of me kept on taking the cups that I was anticipating, and I am not one to stop and wait for a refill. Consequently, I felt totally parched during the last tenth of a mile—I thought for a second I might have to stop, but seeing that my RunKeeper app had stopped made me keep going.

Yes, that’s right. Almost done with the race and the app I’m using to keep track of my time and pace crapped out on me. Way to go, RunKeeper, woo!

(This is a lesson to all—try not to forget your Forerunners at home.)

But at least I finished relatively strong, even if I was motivated by sheer annoyance to finish out the race.

So, that’s the race in a nutshell. A little late, lots of fun, and validation that I’m a powerful runner even when I don’t run for more than a month. And all this despite not having any jingle bells to jingle me all the way. Woot!

(Great job, Capital Running Company! See you in March for the St. Patrick’s Day 8K!)