Nike Women's Half Marathon

Nike Women's Half Marathon

Nike Women's Half Marathon

( 11 reviews )
90% of reviewers recommend this race
  • Washington,
    District of Columbia,
    United States
  • April
  • 13.1 miles/Half Marathon, Other
  • Road Race
  • Event Website

Jane

Brooklyn, New York, United States
47 15
2013
"I might be spoiled but...."
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
Jane 's thoughts:

Just as you don't go to gyms, restaurants, etc. right when they open. The same goes for races....

Straight up - hated this race.

Let me begin:
I was super excited to have gotten into this Half Marathon in December. Even though it was a steep price tag ($166). However, it was definitely not worth the excitement and the price tag.
I got down to DC Saturday afternoon and went straight to bib pick up. I asked the woman by the bib pick up if this was the line and she pointed me to the back of the line. Me: "wait, that's the line?" Her: "yes, its only 30 minutes"

UM ONLY 30 MINUTES?!?! Right...

I've done numerous other races and never had to wait...EVER. Not for NYRR races, not for other half marathons, never ever had to wait. Although it amused me that as I was waiting in line, other ladies were equally, if not more pissed about waiting in the hot sun for their bibs.
After picking up my bib, I was so pissed that I just did not even want to go to the Expo. We decided to drive to the expo which was a mistake because it was so busy but it was also in a random area of DC that was not close to the metro.

The next day was the race and since my hotel was right by the start I got there around 6:40. However the corral was packed! There were so many runners poured out on the side especially for the 10-11:59 minute corral. When the race started, runners tried to get into their respective corrals but the 13,14,15 minute runners just did not let that happen. Once I got into the corral, I stopped to take off my long sleeved shirt was watched in horror as 2 ladies who were 9 minute milers get SCREAMED at by a race official for trying to get into the race.....um are you kidding me?!?! REALLY NIKE? Talk about professional.

For the next 4-5 miles I was dodging so many runners, I've never ran a race where it was so packed. Or where there were more people walking than running. To a certain group of runners (okay walkers) that were wearing purple...coughcoughcoughTNTcough...you guys need to be taught race etiquette. I'm glad you raised money for a great cause. However, bringing the cash doesn't mean you get to act like an epic a-hole to other runners during the race. Stopping and taking pics in the middle of the road during the race is not acceptable. Walking 8 people across is not acceptable.

Despite the terrible course (most of it was in a random park in DC), the lack of bathrooms (I saw one woman who crapped her running shorts in the last mile - nice job Nike), and the lack or race course water support, the only good things were the race swag and vendors. The shirts were awesome as were the tshirts. I finished well before 9:30am so we went to brunch and came back around noon where there was no one left and got some free dry shampoo from Paul Mitchell, makeovers and free lipgloss from bare essentials and got to take pics in front of the Nike slogans. I got so much free swag. Immediately after the race ended, as I was grabbing food like bananas and such. There were also Luna bars, where each runner was only supposed to take one. Well okay Nike, you can't put food out and expected runners to only take one. You should probably do what NYRR does and give out bags with the food already in them. Either way, I probably grabbed about 20 Luna bars. Sorry I'm not sorry. I need to get my $166 worth of stuff (it's now over $170 to get in).

Either way, I can safely say that I never want to run a race with Nike ever again.

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