Made my way to this race at Fletcher’s Cove last night after work. It should be noted that this location is likely the most difficult place to get to in DC during rush-hour as it is on Canal Road, which is two lanes going only one way. To come from Arlington, you must take the Key Bridge, or go up Chain Bridge, cross over, up the two-way portion of Canal Road, left at Arizona, right at MacArthur, right at Foxhall, and then you’re faced with an illegal right on to Canal, which I opted for, or making a u-turn somewhere in Georgetown.

Anyway, the race was on the Capital Crescent Trail (paved) as opposed to the C&O Canal (dirt), which the Hugh Jascourt 4-miler was held on a few weeks ago. As usual for a mid-training race, I went in planning on not really caring and just running a nice comfortable pace. As is also the usual, once we started, the adrenaline began to pump, and I realized I was going to race this one despite being sore from my foray in to swimming the day before and a 9.2 miler at a decent clip the day before that.

Unfortunately, as seems to always be the case with these 4-milers, the course was not marked for splits whatsoever. Rather than a simple out and back, it was again a “Go 1.3 miles out, come back, cross the line, go .7 miles out, come back, finish.” I’m not sure why they run them this way, but I don’t particularly care for it.

I can’t give any splits, but I finished in 25:40, 6:25 pace for four miles, and 25 seconds faster than my previous best. I’m very pleased for having trained through this one so hard.

What is crazy is that I got 29th place; the level of competition in the DC area/DCRRC is astounding. A performance of this caliber would leave me in a similar place in an ordinary race with 3000 entrants. This event had a mere 175 or so.