When Natalie suggested I run the National Press Club’s Beat the Deadline 5K, I was apprehensive. I’m not good at 5K races, but this one looked like fun, so I figured “Why not?” Since I do triathlons, I’m running a lot more 5Ks as part of my races, so why not give this a shot?
This race was super well organized. I don’t know what I was expecting, but this was amazing. Great crowd control, and Tony Horton as the MC! He did an event on Thursday night that I was bummed to have to miss, but having him doing warmups before the race for the runners was a bit intimidating.
I loved all the various teams from the press organizations. The guys above were from U.S. News and World Report. I LOVED that they had ranked themselves as runners. Too funny. And there were a ton of them out there.
This course was awesome! It was just a simple out and back in DC, but where else can you run past such great scenery?
My race was pretty good. 40:45, with stops for pictures. Not bad. Not great, since I wanted to run under 40 minutes, but I’ll take it. When it comes to short races, I’m really battling my heart rate, because I can only push so hard. I think I may need to play around with my run/walk intervals for shorter races to find out what works for me. For longer distances, I do one minute intervals. For the run portion of triathlons, I’ve been dropping to 30 second intervals. That just didn’t feel right here, but I felt I could have done more than 1 minutes. I’ll figure something out.
And then, if that weren’t enough, after the race, there was a catered breakfast inside the National Press Club. Eggs, bacon, pancakes, pastries, fruit, and my beloved coffee. Lots of awards and a generally friendly vibe.
One big discussion during and after this race was the story of Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter who has been in an Iranian prison since July 22, 2014. To help spread the word, we got an option of shirts at registration – either a standard race shirt or a Free Jason shirt. You can see what I chose.
This race was a lot of fun, and I will definitely be back next year. Who knew I could enjoy a little 5K this much?!
I had never heard the story about Jason Rezaian. What a horrible time for his family, so scary!