Capitol Hill Classic 10K

This morning, Victoria, Liz and I met up to run the Capitol Hill Classic 10K this morning!  Beth had also originally planned to join us but the gravity in her bed this morning was particularly strong.   Must be a full moon or something.

I got up at the ungodly hour of 5:45am (for a Sunday) and made my way downtown toward Eastern Market for the packet pickup.  And when I say packet, I mean tshirt and bib.

The packet pickup and race-day registration was held at an elementary school, so there was the benefit of indoor bathrooms!  Except that the toilets were about 12 inches off the floor. Ha! 

I actually really like smaller races because sometimes the bigger races have nightmarish logistics and huge crowded corrals.  Smaller races allow you to just get your bib and chip timer, head to the start line, run, finish and be on with your Sunday.  And, because it was a smaller race, I ran into Emily who I met back in March at a blog meetup!  Hi Emily!

This race was a lot of fun!  It included both a 10K which started at 7:30am and a Kids 3K fun run which started at 9:30am.  Today’s weather was in the mid-60′s and misty at the start but by time mid-morning rolled around, it was pretty sunny and definitely warmer.   The afterparty was still rolling by about 10:30!  Lots of kids and families hanging around at Stanton Park where the race started and finished.

This was the elementary school Principal finishing the 3. The big tennisball and the students were cheering him on!

The course was fast and flat except for a short uphill around mile 5.5.  And the scenery was great because we ran through the beautiful Capitol Hill neighborhood and past some fun monuments like the Capitol and the Supreme Court.  I never really thought much about scenery during a race, but this was definitely a nice run! 

It really must have been a full moon or something because I managed to PR the 10k by over 4 minutes!  Chip time was 49:40, and I was the in the top 10% for both overall women and in my age group.  Sweet!

Liz and Victoria both also had great races!

After the race, we headed down the street to Le Pain Quotidien for brunch.

It was like reverse carbo-loading.  We shared a basket of artisan breads with jam and chocolate spread.  I got the Stone fruit steel cut oatmeal.  It was delicious!  I eat oatmeal for breakfast most days and I never get tired of it.

 mmmm peaches

All in all, I would definitely do this race again!  Registration was only $30 + active.com fee, and there was free street parking all over Capitol Hill as long as you got there before they closed the streets.