Shutdown but we're in it to win

For the past three or so months, my friend Meagan and I have been training for a half marathon- the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon.  This half is pretty cool because it starts at George Washington's house (Mount Vernon) and then goes over a bridge into DC, ending at National Harbor in Maryland. It was ranked as one of the 27 best half marathons in the country by Runner's World.

This is the view from the porch of GW's house, Mount Vernon.  Not a bad starting line, right?

Between the very hot days of DC's summer and working while going to law school, training has been a real challenge for us.  Meagan has been making it out about 3-4 times a week and I average about 2-3 (one short and one long run).  I realize this isn't "Hal Higdon perfect," but we ran enough so that we both feel mildly confident we'll cross the finish lines and not hurt ourselves.

When the government shut down, my first thought was a mix of, "no work! hooray!," and "I'll have time to do the last little raining runs before the race!"  I was almost dismayed that I couldn't take this week to push out a few longer runs, but the race is Sunday, and I don't want to overexert.

Then, yesterday afternoon, I saw a Facebook message from the race coordinators.  They were letting the runners know that they were trying to figure things out, but if the government doesn't open, it doesn't look good. It hit me; George Washington's house is, of course, a national landmark, and therefore is paid for by the federal government. The race people also let their Facebook audience that the expo would still go on, regardless of if the race was postponed (sounds like a case of the non-refundable deposit to me). 

Needless to say, Meagan and I went into panic mode.  We have been training for what feel like an eternity.  We've been slowly working our way up to faster miles, longer distances, and less blisters. 

Meagan and I decided last night that we were running a half marathon distance regardless of if other racers were doing it with us.  We have trained our bodies to accomplish this feat, and nothing is going to stop us from being able to check this off of our bucket list.  We'll have all the gels, etc. from the race expo so we'll be prepared to run the distance.

Hopefully the race is still on, but if it isn't, we'll be ok - if we're running it alone, there is a much higher probability we'll place!