Follow my running adventures at http://runawaywonk.blogspot.com/.

This past weekend was the Nike Women's Half Marathon DC. It was my third Nike Women's event (San Francisco Marathon 2012 and DC Half Marathon 2013). Each time I run a Nike race, it is a more impressive experience than the previous race. Continue reading...

The expo.

I picked up my bib at the Citywide pickup in Fairfax the previous weekend, so no lines and really easy. Nike uses the point-of-pickup bib assignment, so that there is no rifling through boxes of pre-assigned bibs.

Based on my experience last year and this year, I would highly recommend picking up packets early. I did a separate review on the Expotique that you can read here. The whole expo experience showcased what Nike does best, which is advertise their brand. Nike leveraged social media to really capitalize on making the runners participants in the experience. There was a hashtag circulated months ago, #werundc, which was on all the materials - from race shirts to Facebook.

The premiums.

Gender-specific technical race tee, Luna samples, Whole Foods samples, a water bottle, and a Tiffany & Co. necklace were what was included in this year's premiums.

The shirt was a plummy purple and so incredibly cute! I love it! It is sized a little on the small size, but I cannot wait to wear it everywhere. It was true to Nike women's snug fit sizing.

The Tiffany & Co. necklace was a huge improvement from the previous two I have gotten from this race series. It was a circular pendant. One side featured a background pattern and swoosh. The other side was the race name and date.

The weather.

It was a cool start with the sun out and a light wind. The temperature was around 45 at the start and in the 60s at the finish.

The start.

The start area was near Freedom Plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue. The race reconfigured the layout of the start area this year making it very easy to access bag check and the corrals. You did not have to double back to get drop off your bag.

There were plenty of port-a-potties, so many that I didn't even have to wait in line. Winner, winner.

There is something to be said for standing on Penn Ave facing the Capitol and hearing the National Anthem sang. It was a chilling experience. I was in the third corral and there were thousands of runners behind me.

The course.

The course heads down Penn Ave toward the Capitol and then heads through the 9th Street tunnel. After coming out of the tunnel, the race moves onto the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler race course. It is a great course as you run by the Capitol, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Arlington Memorial Bridge, Arlington Cemetery, and the Kennedy Center. The course is relatively flat with the only incline when you go through the 9th Street tunnel twice.

The support.

Lots of things to keep your mind on during the race. There were five pep bands, three DJs, and multiple drum corps (three in the 9th Street tunnel alone). Lots of friends and families on the course cheering, including sororities from the local colleges. Nike also moved a lot of the large displays from the Expotique to the course, such as the We Run lighted sign and the wall signed by participants. Finally, Nike had split mats that would pick up your name and display it on huge screens along with announcers that would call out your name.

Water and Nuun were available about every two miles on the course along with some port-a-potties. There were Clif Shot blocks, oranges, and Luna bars on the course as well.

The finish.

The finish line was like hitting a wall of women. My friend and I crossed the mat, then waited in lines for all the post-race giveaways. Whole Foods handed out the post-race food - chocolate milk, almonds, water, electrolyte drink mix, Luna bar, and granola. But, there was no fruit! I could have used a banana. This canceled out the bonus points for no bathroom lines at the start.

After picking up the food bag, we moved to a line for the Tiffany necklace. This was probably the longest line I stood in during the whole weekend. It took us about 10 minutes to get the necklace.

My friend and I skipped the finisher tent because the line was INSANE. We went in hours later and they had a DJ, stretching area, phone charging station, and some "primping" areas. I have read some other blogs saying they thought this was sexist, but I don't mind it. This is a race about the experience, not just the run. The whole point is to love Nike, motivate women to run, and document it all with a ton of photos. I always bring "Yes to Blueberry" facial cleansing cloths for my post-workout clean up, so it didn't seem out of the ordinary to have a place where I could wipe down. I didn't "primp," and I don't think twice if another runner did before taking more photos.

Once you went through the finisher tent there was the finisher boutique. Where what else, Nike was selling more race gear. It was open on the sides, so you could see the merchandise before getting in the really long line.

There were a lot of areas for photo opportunities, including a finisher wall to pose in front of and men holding trays of blue boxes. See.

My take.

I had no expectations for my run when I lined up for this race, but came very close to a PR (more on that later this week). If you have never done a Nike Women's Series race, you should. It is a different experience and they do go the extra mile to make it memorable. I am not going to lie, I always balk at the race entry fee ($175 this year), but then love the race experience and look forward to my next one.

Follow my running adventures at http://runawaywonk.blogspot.com/.

The expo.

My friends and I drove up Friday, so we could enjoy the city and do some sightseeing/shopping. When we got to town, we headed straight to the expo at the convention center. We got there right before they were closing down for the night. The volunteers were helpful and friendly. The vendors were all local stores, clubs, and businesses. It wasn't terrible, but it was nothing to write home about either. Kayla, Nikki, and I were in and out quick.

The premiums.

Unisex technical race tee, coffee mug with the name and date of the race, huge medal.

The shirt was listed in the promotional materials as being gender-specific, but it was not. The design was so-so, but the materials were super cheap. The screen print on mine actually sticks together. Kayla donated her's to the housekeeping staff of the Westin.

The mug was nice. I will use it as my new officer mug for tea. The best part was when the college-aged volunteer gave us the mug premium and really emphasized that it would break if set down incorrectly. I will have to remember to treat it gingerly.

The weather.

If it wasn't raining the entire weekend, it would have been perfect. Race start was in the upper 40s and there was a light drizzle. The rain got heavier throughout the race, but was never heavy. By the finish the temperature was low 50s. If only the sun was out...

The start.

Kayla, Nikki, and I walked to the start from the hotel. It was in front of the Art Museum. We arrived about 45 minutes before the gun. The bag drop was organized and well staffed. The volunteer took the tag off my bib and wrote my race number on the clear plastic bag provided by the race.

The corrals were self-seeded, meaning that I could go where ever I wanted. There was signage where to start dependent on expected finish time as well as a pace team with people carrying signs for each minute pace. Nikki headed to the speedsters and Kayla and I went toward the back. We started new the 9-minute pacers, who were a bit of a mess and disorganized. One was wearing headphones. HEADPHONES! A PACER!

All in all, it was like any other start. Music, announcer, people hanging out.

10,000 people registered and 7,000 people finished, so it was a good size race.

The course.

I would say the course was the best reason to do this race. My friend, Kayla, described it was the first part of Rock n Roll Philly and the back half of the Philly Marathon.

The start and finish was at the Art Museum at Eakins Oval. We headed towards Independence Mall through downtown Philly and ran by the Art Museum to run along the river. The course was very flat with the exception of the one hill leading up to Fairmount Park on Martin Luther King Drive. We finished down Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It was picturesque. I would love to run it again, with better weather.

The support.

Despite the terrible weather, there was quite a number of spectators on the course. There was some good signs, including one with my name spelled correctly at mile 12. The course also had three bands playing, all good.

There were water stops almost every two miles with water and Gatorade. About midway, one stop had Hammer gels. Each stop was well stocked with plenty of volunteers.

Next year, the run should publish where the water stops will be located in advance. In addition, the stops should be planned on the out and back areas to leverage runners coming by on each side. There was at least two occasions where I saw runners crossing over the path of oncoming runners to get to water.

The finish.

Terrible. Just terrible. The run was so well done until I crossed the finish line. There was no one telling runners were to go. The heat sheets and water were not in a linear path. Runners were going every direction. I had no idea where anything was. Volunteers were just standing around doing nothing. Somehow I missed the coffee and hot chocolate. My goal was to get out of the mess. I grabbed my drop bag and fled to the Whole Foods.

My take.

This was not an "A" race, and my goal was 2:20. My finish time was 2:18. Not bad. I was happy. Soaking wet, but happy. For a first year race, it was well done. I think the race organizers will improve on the areas that need improving like the finish line and the premiums.

My shoes were left in Philly was being so caked in mud, and I got the best stack of post-race french toast. Philly, hope to see you again!

Follow my running adventures at http://runawaywonk.blogspot.com/.

The weather.

Perfect for running. 65 degrees. Mostly cloudy. Low humidity. Intermittent drizzle.

The start.

The race started at 7:30am. We were easily able to walk to the starting corrals from our hotel and along the way, there were plenty of signs to get us to the right place. The corrals was self-seeded with 2 minute intervals in between each wave. I settled into Wave 4, 2:15-2:30 estimated finish. My wave crossed the start line 7 minutes after the first wave and it was crowded, but people were not bumping into me. It was a nice surprise to not be overcrowded at the beginning of the race. I was not weaving in and out of people.

The course.

The course started near the convention center is a downtown area. The first few miles had lots of turns winding through downtown. Overall, the roads were nicely paved and this was the hilly part of the course. There was one or two short and steep hills, but it was not too challenging.

Once we got out of downtown, the race went over a bridge to a very cute neighborhood in Kitsilano Beach. Runners passed by a massive cheer zone at the Lululemon headquarters, and then made a button hook back over the bridge. I didn't mind running the bridge twice, but I hate button hook turns.

Once back over the bridge, the course lead to Stanley Park and the sea wall. Beautiful! The only negative was that the course went from city streets to a mixed use path, which meant it got narrow. 10,000 runners on a narrow path was a little claustrophobic for me.

It was breathtaking though. There were mountains, the water, redwood trees, etc. I had to steal some photos from others (Andrea C and Christy R), because I didn't stop to take my own. This is definitely a course I could run a PR - mostly flat, scenic, and very good surfaces, but I don't think I could PR in this race because of the narrowing of the course during the last half. Perhaps, longer times between the wave starts would have made it less crowded.

The support.

Lulu does know how to motivate. There were water stops/aid stations about every 2 miles. At the aid stations were oranges, bananas, and Vega gels. I didn't try the Vega gels because I had never had them before, but the bananas and oranges were great. The water stops had water and Vega hydrator. Yuck! This is one of the few races I didn't wear a fuel belt and wish I had so I could have Gatorade or Skratch with me. The volunCheers at the water stop/aid stations were amazing.

Plenty of kilometer AND mile markers on the course. I liked that they had signs as well as markers physically on the road.

The entertainment on the course were something to be matched. Besides the usual music, there were: dinosaurs, drag queens, Canadian vikings, mermaids, Bigfoot, an opera singer, ocean life, stilted Mounties, performers riding stacked bikes, and a drum band.

In addition, there were plenty of signs to read and keep you entertained on the 13.1 miles. The first one was in the portapotty at the start line.

Then, there were signs all along the course like this one.

The finish.

The finish line was not as well planned out as the course. Once we crossed the finish, we were handed our medals (that doubled as wooden commemorative photo frames). Runners meandered through the finishing chute collecting water, coconut water, and some premiums including special SkullCandy earbuds. The finishing chute was crowded and it was not clear where I should have been going. One of my running friends missed the earbuds, and they wouldn't give her one when she figured it out.

After exiting the finishing chute, there was lots of lines. Lines for massages. Lines for brunch. Lines for photos to put in your medal. Lines for shopping. Lines, lines, lines! Despite having 8 million signs on the course, there were not signs on where to go and what to do after you finished running. My friends and I just happened on the brunch line.

Brunch was amazing. There was a mini quiche, a waffle with blueberry compote (YUM!), fruit, and a healthy, delicious muffin. There was not anything else to drink. We got one bottle of water and a coconut water in the finishing chute, but by the time I waited in line and got my plate I drank both. There should have been second bottles of water at the brunch line.

My take.

I would definitely run this race again. For the second year, it is amazingly well organized, a beautiful course, and great premiums. While there are areas of improvement (e.g., post race organization), I imagine Lululemon will pay attention and make changes.