The race was huge, I heard more than 30,000 people. So it was crowded. No way around that, especially at the beginning. There was a spot in mile 1 where we were taking a ramp up to a bridge where the course narrowed so much everyone had to walk. But I think that was the only part that was quite that crowded. The rest of the course was full and I had to weave quite a bit but I never felt like I couldn't go my pace. But I was in the back of the pack. I imagine it was worse in the middle of the pack. One place the crowds were really felt, even in the back, was at the water stops. I'm really glad I had my hand held water bottle so I could skip most of the stops. They were really crowded with an unbelievable number of cups on the ground.

It was an absolutely beautiful course. It included views of the monuments, the river, the Watergate, the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian museums, and of course the Pentagon.

Miles 7 to 9 were the hardest for me. This was a bridge back to Virginia and no longer scenic. The bridge was also steeply banked and this started up the knee pain again.

Mile 10 perked me back up because I knew I was almost to the finish. It also had a section in the Crystal City neighborhood where there were a lot of spectators and that was a nice boost as well. The last bit of the race was another stretch of highway back to the Pentagon and we ended on the other side of the building from where we started.

After crossing the finish line, the organization continued to be efficient. I didn't experience any bottle necks. I walked along at a comfortable pace, got my finisher coin, water, a pre-packaged box of food in a plastic bag (so convenient!), and a banana.

There was a long walk from the finish area back to the start. There was a shuttle but the line was huge, so we just decided to walk. I think it took us 20 minutes plus another 10 minutes to walk to the garage where the car was. It seemed like everyone had parked there as it took forever to actually be able to drive out of the garage.

So that was my race experience! We had a great time overall and all felt we would do this race again.

Pros - great pre- race communication, well organized, beautiful course, mostly flat, 15 minute per mile pace requirement, really smooth post-race area, plenty of water stops, military bands along the course, and supporting the military and the environment that comes along with that.

Cons - difficult race morning logistics with the start at the Pentagon, crowded, long walk or shuttle line to get back to the start

Long story short, I ended up having a great time at the race and the weather was perfect.

I went to the expo on Friday. It was at the armory this year instead of the convention center like 2015. I was a little worried about that because I know that you have to go through security to get into the armory and that can lead to long lines sometimes. We got there around 3:30 pm Friday and it seemed like the perfect time. There was no line to go through security and no line to pick up the bib. Things went very smoothly. I will say I noticed that the traffic was horrible trying to get in there if you were driving. Definitely take the metro. The armory was right next to the station and it seemed so much easier than trying to navigate through the traffic.

After picking up our shirts (which were really cute this year), bibs, and shoe tags (why do they still have shoe tags!?!), we wandered over to the official merchandise area. It was Brooks but I was a little disappointed in the colors and designs for this year. The one thing I didn't like about having the expo at the armory is that it was much smaller than when it was at the convention center. Some of the vendors I like to see weren't there. We were in and out of the expo in less than an hour.

We all live in the DC suburbs but decided to go ahead and split a hotel room because it just made the logistics so much easier. And the hotel was an easy walk to the start line so that really helped race morning too. If anyone is looking at a good option for a hotel for this race, the Renaissance on 9th street was great.

Race morning dawned nice and early. The race started at 7:30 but we were back in corral 28. We were told at the expo we probably would go off until around 8:15 so we left the hotel around 7:15. We got to our corral right as the race started and the first corral went off. We then did the slow shuffle up toward the start line as each corral was released. It was a big crowd as the marathoners and half marathoners started together. I'm not sure of the exact numbers but I think it was around 20,000 people. Finally, around 8:15, we were off.

The course was the same as last year. The main thing to know is that it starts out downtown by the monuments and museums. It's a very scenic course for the first three miles or so. There's a nice out and back section as you cross the memorial bridge and come back where you get to see the runners going the other way and everyone was giving high fives and being super encouraging. That's the only out and back section since this is a point to point course. After you come back over the memorial bridge, you turn onto rock creek parkway. I like this section even though it's quieter because it's really pretty. There's a lot of greenery as well as the creek. Then you hit the big hill around mile 6. We walked up most of the hill but it was also inspiring as there were photos of fallen military and supporters cheering along the way.

After the hill, you start the section of the race that has you going through various neighborhoods. This is my favorite part of the race and I think this is the only major DC race that goes through this area. There is a lot of crowd support, a lot of people hanging out on their porches, playing music,
handing out food or drinks, lots of cute dogs and kids, people dressed up in costumes, etc. I think a bit after mile 9, you hit Howard University which also had a lot of people cheering, as well as this great all women afro-Brazilian drum corps that really kept us going. They were loud and you could hear them for a while. Then you turned and saw the Capitol before you. We ran toward the Capitol for a while and then made our way over toward RFK Stadium and the finish line for the last 3 miles. There continued to be great crowd support this whole way.

I think the big difference for me this year was the weather. It was beautiful running weather, overcast and cool but not cold. This really allowed me to enjoy the race in a way that I couldn't last year in the rain. The other difference to me is that it seemed like RnR really stepped up their game with the bands this year. There were some really good ones and they were all entertaining. The road conditions were a bit worse due to the potholes because of the Winter we had, but I don't think there's anything the race could have done about that.

After the finish line, we walked through the finisher chute and it was crowded but not too bad that we couldn't keep moving the whole time. We walked through steadily, picked up some nice, cold water as well as various snacks (power bars, bananas, cheezits, chocolate milk were all on offer as well as things I didn't notice, I'm sure).

One problem I had with the race last year was the messy logistics of having to take metro back. It was compounded by the rain last year and some technical difficulties the metro system was having. I don't know if it was better because we circumvented that whole thing completely this year. We also didn't check bags so I'm not sure how that process went. But as far as the logistics of the things we were part of, I felt like everything went really smoothly.

Good - Logistics and organization, weather, course, bands (this moved up from the meh category to the good category for me this year), nice medal, volunteers and spectators
Meh - Shoe tag (RnR is big enough that they need to move away from this!)
Bad - elevation

This race has both a 5k and 10k option, or you can do the double which is running both the 5k and 10k.

Packet pick up was at Pacer's stores the day before the race, and they also had a race morning option. Packet pick up was nice and easy and included a shirt as well as the bib. I did let them know I was planning on running the 10k instead of the double and they said that's fine and that I could still use the same bib. The only slight snag is they were out of safety pins but it wasn't a big deal.

Race morning dawned, but not as early as other races, which was nice. The 5k started at 8:15 but the 10k didn't start until 9am. This gave the people doing the double 45 minutes to finish up the 5k and get back to the start line for the 10k. We drove to the race and there seemed to be plenty of street parking available. We parked a couple blocks away and then walked over to the race getting there about 15 minutes before the start. It was also great running weather. It was cool but not cold and overcast but not rainy. I think it was a bit on the humid side but not too bad.

There weren't really corrals but there were signs indicating pace and I think most people tried to line up in the right spot for their pace. The race started right on time and it seemed like they were letting people start in waves so it was about 4-5 minutes after the official start before we passed the starting line.

This was a really fun race. First of all, there were a lot of people in fun, St. Patrick's Day costumes. There were also a lot of adorable dogs sporting festive green attire.

Another great thing about this race was the course. It was flat, and beautiful. It started right in front of the Washington Monument. And then we ran along the river past the Kennedy Center and toward Georgetown. That was an out and back section so we turned around and headed back around mile 2. Then we ran around the tidal basin with a great view of the Jefferson Memorial. After that, it was back to the Washington Monument for the finish.

And as icing on the cake, there was a nice medal too. Funny story about the medals, there was one medal for people who did either the 5k or 10k and than another medal you were supposed to get if you did the double. We had the bib for the double but had only done the 10k so we got our 10k medal and started to walk off. Someone actually chased us down to give us the double medal. We explained we hadn't actually done the double but he insisted and said he had to give it to us since we had the bib. So we took it and I gave my extra medal to my friend so she could give the 2 identical medals to her sons.

So as you can tell, I loved this race! The logistics were fairly easy, the course was flat and beautiful, and they had multiple distances available. If you're looking for a fun March race, I would definitely recommend this one.

I did this race with two people new to 5ks, and thought it was great for multiple reasons.

1. Welcoming to newcomers - I did this race with 2 newbies. It was their first big 5k and I could tell my dad was a bit nervous. I let him know that there would be plenty of walkers and that he didn't have to worry about being swept or not finishing. It's an untimed fun run and it seemed like a lot of people were taking their time and having fun with it. And that really helped my dad relax and enjoy it as well. This was a great even for people who might be new to races and are anxious about it, they even gave out medals at the end.

2. Costumes - Mike and I dressed up as Agent P and Dr. Doofenschmirtz from Phineas and Ferb. We loved the opportunity to be silly and dress up together. And we all loved checking out everyone else's fun costumes. Disney 5k's are a little easier to get elaborate with your costumes compared to the longer races since you don't have to worry about running for too long.

3. Characters - We were taking our time with this one and going at my dad's speed. Since we weren't worried about time at all, we had fun with it and stopped for multiple character photos. I love that Disney had a lot of characters out for this one. I remember at least 7, which is a lot in a 3 mile distance. And they were all animals in keeping with the Jingle Jungle theme.

4. Animal Kingdom - This race started out in the Animal Kingdom parking lot, ran around the parking lot for the first mile, went through the park for the second mile, and then backstage for the third mile. I loved the time spent running through the park. That's one of the biggest perks of the Disney races and we really enjoyed it here as well. Animal Kingdom is such a well themed park and there were a lot of details to check out and keep you interested.

5. Backstage - And I mentioned that the last mile was backstage. Which sounds kind of boring but I really enjoyed that peek at the backstage area of the park. It was cool seeing the back side of the Expedition Everest roller coaster as well as some old items they had hanging out back there. And of course, they still had characters and photo ops in that area to keep things interesting. But it was a fun way to see a side of the parks most people don't get to see.

In short, we all really enjoyed this 5k. There were a couple downsides, which were that the race was really crowded (so much so that you had no choice but to walk at a couple spots), it was expensive, and there were a lot of logistics with the expo and getting up early. But it was well worth it in my opinion.

By this point, I'm sure many of you heard about what happened at the Wine and Dine half marathon at Disney World but for those of you that haven't, I don't want to bury the lead. The half marathon was shortened to about 6.7 miles because of weather and timing concerns.

But first things first, the expo. We got to the expo pretty soon after it opened and the crowds were pretty big. The expo is split into two buildings, one for bib pick up and the second for buying stuff. So we went to pick up our bibs first. There was a huge line, but before I waited too long it was announced that the line was just for people who had pre-ordered merchandise. I don't know why they had to wait in a separate line instead of putting that stuff with their bibs. But thankfully for me, it meant I could get out of that line and instead go straight to the bib pick up line, which was only a couple people in front of me. I had to wait in two lines since I did both the 5k and half marathon, but both were relatively short and moved quickly.

There was also some official race merchandise for sale here, but the line was really long so I decided to go buy the stuff in the other building instead. This would turn out to be a mistake because the crowds were even worse! We went to the area to pick up our included race shirts first, and that moved quickly. But then we went to look at the official race merchandise and the crowds were crazy. I found the shirt I wanted and thankfully, Mike and my dad agreed to wait in line for me. It took them more than an hour :(

I was at the race start early and wanted to minimize time on my feet so I just found an empty spot and sat on the lawn and listened to the DJ. Around 8:30 or so, I went over near the area that opened up into the corrals because I figured they would open that up around 9. Shortly after I got there though, the temperatures dropped petty drastically, the wind picked up, and we began to feel a couple raindrops. I also saw some flashes of lightening. We then started moving and I just assumed that they were letting us into the corrals as I hadn't heard any announcements saying otherwise. But as I passed one of the volunteers, I heard her saying we were being evacuated due to the Lightning. I think this was around 9.

I ended up in the baseball stadium, seated on one of the steps. And we continued to wait. There were some announcements but we couldn't really hear them at all and I had no idea what was being said. But I figured it was ok because I'd see other people moving once it was announced. So I followed along with the crowd, back to the corral area where we were earlier and we were held there again.

I had put my phone on airplane mode as I was trying to conserve battery but other people around me were checking Twitter and the rumors were flying. This is where I first heard someone say Run Disney had tweeted that the race would be shortened, but still no details on what that meant. Most people around me assumed that meant Animal Kingdom would be cut out, but how much of the highway section would be cut out? We were guessing it would be somewhere between 6 and 10 miles but that's a pretty big range.

I think it was around 10pm when we were allowed into the corrals and this was a giant mess. Everyone just streamed towards the corrals en masse and it didn't seem like anyone was cracking whether people were going into the proper corrals or not. Now, runners obviously have to take some responsibility for this. You know where you belong and you deliberately chose to take advantage of the chaos and try to sneak into an earlier corral. Not cool.

Once we were in the corrals, more waiting and more listening to people getting information from the Internet. We were in corral H and so we couldn't hear any of the announcements back where we were. I later heard that the speakers where we were had malfunctioned, so maybe that's why? Nonetheless, we felt pretty left in the dark.

The good news is that people and me were pretty positive the whole time. I think people felt disappointed but able to roll with the punches. This helped me put a good face on it as well. At that point, I and most of the people around me, just wanted to start running whatever race ended up in front of us. Also, we were laughing about being pretty hungry so I think we just wanted to get to the food too!

I think the fireworks for the first corral start went off and 11:00 or so. By that time, we were pretty sure thanks to social media that the race would be between 6-7 miles. Things moved pretty quickly after that and I think our corral started around 11:30 or so.

Ok, so the shortened course at least included the best parts of this half marathon course. The out and back on the highway was cut out, as well as running in Animal Kingdom. There was tons of entertainment on the course, including the characters, DJs, the green army man motivating people, etc. And the best part of the race was running through the Osborne Family Christmas lights at Hollywood Studios.

After the lights, we left Hollywood Studios and ran on a path going toward Epcot. This part was very narrow. There were loud announcements warning that the case was going to narrow, and I was glad of the heads up. It was narrow enough that I had to walk a lot of this section. It turned into run when I could but walk when I had to due to the congestion. We got to the area by the Epcot hotels and the course widened a bit so I was able to run again with my normal intervals. And this section was nice because there were cheering spectators hanging out to encourage us on.We then entered Epcot and I knew this meant the end was near. We ran about a mile through the park. There were a lot of spectators and runners that had already finished cheering. And then it was out to the Epcot parking lot and the finish line!

The finish line area was pretty chaotic. Thankfully, I hadn't checked a bag. Therefore, I didn't have to stop in bag check or the changing tent. I just trudged past to get some water and a banana. I didn't take the food box since I was planning on getting food at the after party in Epcot. I did get my free beer and this is the first race where I've been able to do that! It was too cold at my first half marathon and too rainy at my second. So yay for finally getting my free beer. When I saw the line to get into Epcot, I was again glad I didn't have a bag. There was a giant line to go through bag check, even with the clear bags that you had just gotten from the race bag check :(. I was able to skip all that but I felt really bad for the people who had to wait in that line. I think I would have given up on the party if I had to wait in the line.

The party was a bit disappointing if you finish toward the middle or back because the lines made things seem inaccessible. But Mike said it was great for spectators. He was able to get into the park at 7, see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy in concert, catch the fireworks show, sample the food and wine booths using the $15 gift card I was given with race registration with very little lines as well as several of the rides. He said the character lines were also really short at the beginning. I heard the same from the faster runners, the party was great at the beginning.

Overall, I think Run Disney did the right thing. There was definitely lightning in the area and I was feeling nervous about running in those conditions. And I heard afterwards that there was a lot of debris on the ground in Animal Kingdom from the rain, so that part had to be cut out. I was obviously disappointed, but I understand why it had to be done. It was also really hot and humid, and I had a hard enough time with the shortened course.

The only thing I wasn't happy about was the communication to people in the later corrals. The majority of our information was coming from social media and the few people who were able to get service in the crowd were kind of reporting out to all of us. It would have been nice if the official race communication could have been filtered back to us somehow.

This race, more than any other I've done, felt like a really different experience for the back of the pack than the front of the pack, especially with the communication difficulties, the lines to get into Epcot and the lines at the after party.