Lawyers Have Heart Official Website

The "Nitty Gritty" Details (User Opinions)

Charles L.
San Francisco, CA

  (03-19-2010)

"If you've never been to Washington, DC then you may not understand what a power hungry city it really is. The place is full of law firms, tech firms, lobbyists, politicians, diplomats... Most of those listed have or ought to have folks with JD degrees. So it make sense that there would be 1 race dedicated to all those lawyer types, 1 race for them to go all out, and blow off some steam. Its fun for non-lawyer types too of course!

The race starts and ends in Georgetown, underneath the Whitehurst Freeway - you actually get to run on the Freeway itself (unless the course has changed since 2005). Its a good experience, but it can be lonely with no real crowds lined up along the first mile or so, you also enter into Georgetown right before Canal Road. That said, you really aren\'t going to be blown away with crowd support. However you can be delighted by the few folks that decided to come line up along both sides of Canal Road during the race (the entire stretch of road until the turn around point is blocked off for the race - a nice touch).

After the turn around under leafy foliage and right alongside the C&O Canal you come back from whence you came. Its a good thing, it offers the first timers out there an opportunity to tear it up for the last few miles (if they\'ve got anything left in the tank that is). You make your way down the off ramp and under Whitehurst FWY where its nice and shady. The finish is about a quarter mile away, and once you pass through it there are like 50 volunteers grabbing your timing chips and offering you water, gatorade, bananas and the like. You can wait for your friends over near the Georgetown Waterfront or pack it up and head out before the weekend traffic gets too messy.

All in all the race was a great one to run, my first officially timed race actually. It was a really nice way to get my racing career started."

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2005

Kimi J.
, NV

  (06-15-2009)

"If you somehow missed the fact that DC is full of lawyers (or future lawyers, like myself), all you have to do is register for this race. Over 5,000 type-A law-freaks racing down a two lane road in the summer heat. Pretty scary!

I was impressed by all the team gear that surrounded me - almost every law firm had their own team shirts with catchy phrases. I was also impressed by how smoothly everything went, considering the out-and-back course goes along a two-land road. It can be motivating (or maybe demotivating?) to see the fast runners already heading back when you're just reaching mile 2.

The positives: plenty of water, ice cold wet sponges, and enough determination in the crowd to go around.

The negatives: it was my first out-and-back race (as opposed to a loop or just a one-way course) and the sharp turns could get bottlenecked. The road was so crowded for the first few miles that I found myself simply running with the herd - it was too difficult to establish my own pace.

All in all, it was a good, quick, morning run for a good cause. I'll probably be there again next year. "

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2009