My 20-Year Anniversary of Road Racing

Exactly 20 years ago I attended my five-year college reunion at the University of Virginia. My college roommate, Lisa, and I shared a hotel room and she was looking through the program. 

"Elizabeth, there's a two-mile race tomorrow morning," she said. "Why don't you do that?"

"2 miles is shorter than I usually run on the treadmill," I replied. "I was planning to run 5-6 miles on the
gym treadmill tomorrow morning."

"Yes, but wouldn't this be more fun?"

"I suppose I could run on the gym treadmill afterwards if I wanted to run more," I said, realizing that she was probably right. Why not do something a little different?

At the start of the race, I began talking with a guy friend of mine who I had graduated with. The race began and we continued chatting. I ran with him at his pace mostly focused on the conversation and not really thinking too much about the race. When we finished, I was informed that I was the first female finisher, which meant I won. I was handed a special silver tumbler. How cool! I wasn't even trying to be competitive - I was just chatting with my guy friend.

Lawyers Have Heart 2005

He then told me that there was a 10K race in DC the following weekend. He encouraged me to sign up for it. It was called "Lawyers Have Heart" and a lot of lawyers would be there. Seeing as I was single and actively looking to date, I figured that would be a good opportunity for me to meet a lawyer! I asked him how long a 10K was and he told me it was 6.2 miles. I knew I could definitely handle that because I ran that almost every day on the treadmill. 

The following weekend, I showed up at the 10K. There were hundreds, if not thousands of people. I was given a little computer chip to attach to my shoe and was told I would be officially timed. I wore cotton gym shorts, a cotton tank top, and no watch. I had no idea what a "good" time was - I would run it as fast as I could and that would be that. I didn't realize that you were supposed to use the porta potty beforehand and I learned that the hard way. After drinking so much water and pushing so hard in the heat, I couldn't control the leakage, which was extremely embarrassing. And I was wearing cotton shorts. Needless to say, I would not be lingering around afterwards to meet a lawyer.

My time was 53:09, which was good enough to be in the top 20% of the women. It wasn't an outright "win" like the 2-mile race, but given the fact that I had never done this before, I thought it was pretty good. And strangely, I didn't consider myself a "runner". I was someone who liked to workout at the gym and use the treadmill. 

Thus began my love of racing. It was a hard race. I peed a little in my cotton shorts. I didn't meet a lawyer. But the satisfaction of crossing the finish line and being in the top 20% was enough to make me want to do more. 

Lawyers Have Heart 2025
Fast forward 20 years and the Lawyers Have Heart race is still going strong. They've added a 5K and they've moved the race from Georgetown to Hains Point. If I had realized that this was my 20-year anniversary I would have signed up for the 10K. But with all the drama around my move and also my trip to Paris, it totally slipped my mind and I signed up for the 5K. 

This race bore little resemblance to the one that I ran back in 2005. It wasn't nearly as hot, the location was different, and I was running half the distance. But it was still fun to reflect back on my 2005 experience and think about this really long journey. I never expected that the 10K would lead to multiple marathons, a book, and a large social media presence. 

Before the Race
Even though we live much closer to Washington DC than we used to, it still took us 40 minutes to get to the start. The idea was for Greg to drop me off and for my friend Chad to drive me home. Greg always comes to my races, but we had literally just moved into the new house and there was so much unpacking to be done, and weekend time was limited! 

It took us 40 minutes because so many roads in DC were blocked off due to graduation ceremonies. Greg navigated us to the "ride share" drop off address that the race provided, but we couldn't access it due to road closures. So we drove out of DC, back into Virginia, along the GW Parkway, up through Spout Run, back over the bridge and he finally dropped me off as close as he could to the start. I didn't bring my phone, so I asked a few police officers how to get to Hains Point and they told me where to go. 

All of this made me very anxious because I didn't even have my bib yet and I was certain I wouldn't have a chance to warm up. Thankfully I got my warm up in by running all the way to the start line, which was over a mile away from where Greg dropped me off. I got in line to get my bib and a few minutes later, Chad lined up as well. So apparently I wasn't horribly late!

After pinning on my bib, I continued my warm up and made two separate trips to the porta potties. I didn't want a repeat of 2005! It was lightly raining during my warm up but that rain tapered off for the actual race so I decided not to run with my hat. It was about 68 degrees, overcast, somewhat humid, and windy (about 10-15 mph sustained). I give the weather a 5 out of 10 on my personal weather scale. Too warm and windy to be a good morning for a race, but the overcast skies and the fact that it was under 70 degrees was helpful. It could have been better, but it could have been worse.

15 minutes before the race started I took a few swigs of water and a caffeinated Maurten gel. And then I lined up at the start.

Goals and Strategy
Last year I ran this race in a time of 20:38. The weather had been cooler and I believed myself to have been in much better shape. But this year, I had not run any speed workouts since early April. It had been about 5 weeks. I decided I would not look at my Garmin and not have a goal time. I would run hard and relaxed and see what I could do. The race would be a good benchmark for future 5Ks this summer.

Mile 1:
We started running and I made a mental note of how many women were ahead of me. Five women. I would focus on trying to "race" and chase them down as opposed to hitting a certain time on my watch. I was surprised at how good I felt. Sometimes I feel just horrible at the start of a 5K, but this was not one of those times. My body adapted pretty quickly to the intensity and I told myself to work hard and focus on running the straight line tangents. My split for this mile was 6:40. I was pleasantly surprised by the 6:40 because even though it was hard, it didn't feel like 6:40. I would have estimated closer to 6:50.

Mile 2:
I mentioned that this race occurred at Hains Point. The 10K runs around the Point but the 5K does not -- it goes around the tidal basin and over the Memorial Bridge and back. It's still a fast course but it's not as flat as the Hains point loop. During this mile I was able to pass one of the other women, putting me in fourth place. I didn't think I would be able to catch the other three, but I kept pushing. My split was 6:44.

Mile 3:
The first half of mile 3 was up a hill (the bridge) and directly into the wind. It sucked the life out of me. I still felt strong, but I knew I had slowed significantly. I didn't let it bother me though because I knew soon enough I would turn around and I'd have a downhill tailwind. That did happen and I surged my way to a 6:51 final mile. 

I sprinted to the finish at a pace of 5:59. The clock was super close to 21:00 and I gave it all I had to squeak under but it wasn't going to happen. I was still happy with my time of 21:04.

After the Race
I waited for Chad to finish, and he came in about a minute later. We walked back to the start line together and he played the role of "Instagram photographer" and snapped some photos of me. We then ran back to his car which was just over a mile away. I later found out that I won first place in my age group and was the 4th overall female out of 528.

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
I wish I had signed up for the 10K because it would have been so cool to have a "then vs. now" comparison. But given the fact that it's not even the same course, it doesn't matter as much. 

Even though 21:04 is a "slow" 5K time for me and it's over 20 seconds slower than my time from last year, I am still happy with it given my lack of recent speed work. I'm also happy with how I executed this race, my mindset, and the fact that I had a lot of energy. Sometimes when I race I feel stale and my legs have no pep. That was not the case here and I was happy about it.

We moved into our new house the previous Sunday so I had a busy week of unpacking, getting everything set up, staying up late every night, etc. My body was out of its normal routine. I had very low expectations and I exceeded them!

I'm extremely grateful that I have been able to run consistently over the past 20 years and I that I continue to get joy and satisfaction out of racing.