Friday afternoon, I left work after teaching my last class of the day and trekked on over to Leesburg, VA to the Lansdowne Resort (the host hotel). I get my packet, check out the swag and head to the hotel lobby to wait for my friend, Kathleen. We get settled into our room, hit up the expo to get her packet, and then head on back up to get ready for dinner. I made the mistake of flushing the toilet which led to me breaking the toilet. No one in the hotel picked up the phone and on our way to dinner we had to go ask the hotel staff to send maintenance up to fix our toilet. By the time dinner had ended the problem had been taken care of and we went to bed. We were asleep by 9. Around 2 am some women went screaming down the hallway, luckily others were equally as pissed off about it as we were and yelled at them before we could.
4:30 am we start our day. In our race bag we received explicit instructions stating that we had to be at the Tarara Winery before 7:15 or else we would be turned away. So we were up and out and at the winery by about 5:45am. We were a little concerned that the one in/out road used to access the winery would become too crowded and boy were we right. Kathleen and I stood out in about 50 degree weather for 3 hours waiting for the race to start. The original start time was 7:30am, but there was a 90 minute delay and we didn't start until 9:00am. This was absolutely unacceptable, and at this point being out in the cold after hearing "15 more minutes of a delay" for 90 minutes led to my cough worsening and my muscles stiffening. To make matters worse, I now had to use the bathroom and I was hungry. Unfortunately, way too few bathrooms for the approx. 6000 people that were there.
The race was hands down the toughest course I have ever run. It was advertised as a relatively flat course with a few rolling hills. Bull! Others who mapped their run posted that it was well over 1300 ft. To make matters worse most GPS' also reported that the race was between 13.6-14 miles long. So the course was over measured. Not to mention we ran 5 miles on gravel which was very slick and slippery at times. People were getting injured fairly frequently. The constant up and down on the hills really took a lot out of me since my lungs weren't operating at normal capacity. However, many other of my fellow divas were having to walk a majority of the race because we couldn't handle it.
Leaving the site was also disastrous as well! It took over an hour to go 2 miles in order to leave the winery. Sadly this was no comparison to the 7 mile back up that occurred in the morning to get to the race. Oh and there was no champagne like we were promised! Instead we got sparkling cider! It was very irritating.
On a positive note: The volunteers on the course were amazing. They were super friendly and eager to give water and cheer you on. The medal was very nice. It is probably one of the best quality medals that I have ever received. The shirt, the back pack, and the expo were great as well. Sadly, I wish there were more positives and that it was like the previous Divas Series race that I ran. Last year, my friend, Annie, and I ran the Divas Race in Long Island. It was the most incredibly well executed event. The course was challenging, but not overly so. Tons of race support and most importantly it started on time! I would love to give the Divas Series another chance in DC, but I am going to have to take a long hard critical look at what they do for next year. Right now it is unlikely if the course is still at the Winery that I will be participating in the event. Sad, but true!
Well, until next time. Happy running!
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