The Lincoln Memorial Half-Marathon went okay for me. I went in with a plan of taking it easy and taking in the historic route. As planned, they had an Abe Lincoln impersonator all dressed up for the occasion.* Also, as planned, I took it easy and ran it in 1:59:23.
Alternatively, NOT as planned, the weather was in an in-between stage in the mid 30’s. This temperature can make clothing choices tough, as, 40 degrees is my cut-off for wearing shorts and I knew it would warm-up throughout the race. Because it was sub-40 I decided to wear tights and stay warm as opposed to toughing with the shorts. Well, that one mistake made for a long day on the course. I could tell I made the wrong decision almost as soon as I got there because there were a lot of people in shorts at the starting line. A couple of miles in, I could tell once again because I was sweating profusely. There was only one thing I could do; adjust my top layers. So, there I am running along when I take my top coat layer off. Next was a long sleeve running shirt and finally my bottom layer, a long sleeve compression shirt. For a few yards I was running topless (woohoo…oh wait, jiggling isn’t hot), but I eventually got my middle layer back on and had the other two layers tied around my waist. Even then, I slowed my sweat rate, but not as much as I would have liked.
The course contained a few interspersed smallish hills, but overall the course was fairly evenly tempered. I thought it was only fitting that we ran past Lincoln’s grave site and remembered his body is there…under 6 feet of concrete.** We also started at the Lincoln Library and ran past the old capital building. I am sure I ran past other significant sites, but did not recognize them. Overall, the course was good, water stops appropriate, and the race shirts very nice, but if they could just get the weather to decide to be either cold or hot and inform the runners then it would be perfect.
*Alas, unfortunately, I did not get any pictures because I had to shower and checkout of my hotel.
**In case you didn’t know, he was buried this way because people kept stealing his body and at one point he was forgotten about for years under someone’s floor.
Alternatively, NOT as planned, the weather was in an in-between stage in the mid 30’s. This temperature can make clothing choices tough, as, 40 degrees is my cut-off for wearing shorts and I knew it would warm-up throughout the race. Because it was sub-40 I decided to wear tights and stay warm as opposed to toughing with the shorts. Well, that one mistake made for a long day on the course. I could tell I made the wrong decision almost as soon as I got there because there were a lot of people in shorts at the starting line. A couple of miles in, I could tell once again because I was sweating profusely. There was only one thing I could do; adjust my top layers. So, there I am running along when I take my top coat layer off. Next was a long sleeve running shirt and finally my bottom layer, a long sleeve compression shirt. For a few yards I was running topless (woohoo…oh wait, jiggling isn’t hot), but I eventually got my middle layer back on and had the other two layers tied around my waist. Even then, I slowed my sweat rate, but not as much as I would have liked.
The course contained a few interspersed smallish hills, but overall the course was fairly evenly tempered. I thought it was only fitting that we ran past Lincoln’s grave site and remembered his body is there…under 6 feet of concrete.** We also started at the Lincoln Library and ran past the old capital building. I am sure I ran past other significant sites, but did not recognize them. Overall, the course was good, water stops appropriate, and the race shirts very nice, but if they could just get the weather to decide to be either cold or hot and inform the runners then it would be perfect.
*Alas, unfortunately, I did not get any pictures because I had to shower and checkout of my hotel.
**In case you didn’t know, he was buried this way because people kept stealing his body and at one point he was forgotten about for years under someone’s floor.
