What a morning. Woke up on time with plenty of time to get there. Arrived at the National Harbor at 6:10, didn't need to be there until 6:30, but...roads were closed and we were diverted onto a ramp that took us toward DC. My husband made an illegal U-turn and got us back in the right direction. Then we hit the back-up. We had to park in an upper level lot and the buses would drive us 13 miles to the starting line. The last bus was supposed to pull out at 6:30am. After much worry and a few choice words by my husband, we made it to the parking lot only to be guided into a lot full of washed out gravel with 3 foot ditches. We were in our 4 x 4 truck so weren't too concerned. I jumped out of the truck and barely made it on the bus. The nice thing is the fact that the bus wasn't crowded and it had a bathroom. I found out later that my husband (with my niece) ended up getting stuck in one of those ditches in the parking lot. As I was running they were using a window squeegee to dig themselves out of the hole. Turns out the 4 wheel drive wouldn't engage and was worthless. The run was beautiful. We run along the Potomac river with gently rolling hills (until you get to the end). Weather cooperated and the rain held off. I met a nice lady at the porta johns and we decided we would claim our run as a training run if we did crappy and a race if we did okay. I decided to claim mine as a race. I never turned on my ipod. I kept my rhythm by repeating to myself "no excuses...no excuses". There were a few runners who made me forget about my rhythm. One was sock man...I met him at another race and he amazes me. It's a little old man who looks like he can barely run, and he wears socks on his hands. The funny thing is, he passed me. I couldn't have that so I sought him out and put sock man behind me! I also discovered bird lady. She wore a golden beak mask and had sewn beautiful boa feathers on her arms and across her shoulders. At the end of the race I was pleased when I came out of the porta john to find my niece holding bird lady's apparel (photo). AP: 9:48 The 10:13 and 10:31 were my up hills 9:49, 9:48, 9:47, 9:59, 9:55, 9:23, 9:40, 9:49, 10:13, 9:44, 9:45, 10:31, 9:20, 8:54 (last .26 miles) | 