Friday 5 - RnR DC Goals

This week has seemed to creep by!  But it's finally Friday and almost time for the RnR DC Half.  Before that though, Friday means it's also time to link up with Courtney, Cynthia and Mar for the Friday 5.  Today, I'm going to take this as an opportunity to talk about my goals for the weekend.

1.  Expo - The expo was at the convention center last year and it was great.  It is at the armory this year and I'm a little disappointed by that.  I'm worried about long security lines to get in, crowds, and a smaller expo meaning less interesting vendors.  According to the vendor list, KT tape won't be there and I was hoping to get my foot taped.  But my goal is to approach with an open mind and still have fun.  It's the first expo for one of my friends and I want to make sure she has a good start to her race weekend.

2.  Friends - speaking of friends, it's the first half marathon for both of the friends I'll be with.  I'm super excited for them.  We've been training together all Winter and now it's pay off time.  I want to make sure they have a good experience so they want to keep doing races and I continue to have training partners :)  I was initially going to treat this as a goal race but I'm signing up for another half in April that I can do for time.  My plan for this one is to stay with my friend (one is a bit faster and she's going to go ahead at her own pace to see what she can do!) to encourage her and keep her going.  This is my main goal for the race.

3.  Training - As I mentioned, I'm treating this as a training run for my April half.  So I also want to make sure I run a strong race and work on pacing and not going out too fast.  I clearly discovered I had a problem with that at the St. Patrick's Day race.  It will help that I'm staying with my friend and going at hear pace but this is her first big race and I don't want her to get too caught up in race day excitement and go out too fast either.

4.  Course - I did this race last year and enjoyed it enough that I signed up right away for this year.  But it rained the whole time and I felt like I didn't get the full experience.  I really want a chance to savor the course and hopefully all the spectator support that will be out there this year since the weather will be better.

5. Food - this goal isn't about the race, but let's be honest, food is a big part of my race weekend :)  We have some fun dinner plans but I need to make sure I don't overindulge and am still ready to go race morning.  Of course, it's another story completely after the race!  A friend of ours lives very close to the finish line so we're walking over to her place where she has generously offered to host us for brunch and mimosas.