Marine Corps Marathon

*Actual post date: more than two months after the marathon* I got busy with life, so this post is really late, but I wanted to finally get this recorded so I can remember it. So much of my life during the past summer and fall was spent preparing for the Marine Corps Marathon. It was an epic goal race that I will probably only run once, but now I can forever say I had the privilege of running MCM. My thoughts and feelings may not be as fresh, but I'll write down what I can remember.

When it started to get close to the MCM, I started to get antsy and nervous, just like my last marathon. I had put so much time and effort into training, that I was scared to get sick or injured and not be able to run. Not making it to the starting line is my biggest fear with marathons. I actually had some hip pain a few weeks before the marathon, but I was already tapering, so I was able to take it pretty easy and rest my legs a little bit.

On Saturday (the day before the race), I drove to Fredericksburg, picked up Tristan, and we drove into DC together. The line for packet pick-up was ridiculously long, but somehow we approached the building from the opposite side of the crowd and got into a shorter line. When we left, we saw that the other lines were wrapped around the building! They had a huge expo with lots of free stuff, which was fun. We got some free Dunkin Donuts coffee, Nuun, veggies and dip, and smoothies (very small samples, but still yummy!).

That night my mom met us in DC and we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, one of our go-to places to carb-load. We looked up the weather and found out there was 0% chance of rain, which was good, but I also realized that meant there wouldn't be a cloud in the sky. There wasn't. On race day the sun was beating down on us, and it was blinding at times when we were running towards it. It was actually quite hot for late October, so we were glad for any shade!

On race morning, we took the shuttle to the metro stop at Crystal City, and discovered it would be easier to just walk from there rather than taking the metro two stops. It was about a 10-15 minute walk. When we passed the Pentagon metro station, people were pouring out of the trains and we followed the crowds to the starting area. It got very, very crowded and we were at a standstill as we waited to go through the security checkpoint. I started to get worried that we weren't going to make it there on time, but once we passed through the metal detectors, the crowds thinned out. We passed through the runner's village, where they had tons of port-a-potties and tents set up. We stopped at the port-a-potties far away at the edge of the runner's village and didn't have to wait very long at all. That was pretty much the last time it wasn't crowded during the whole race.

We made it to our corral and were getting so excited to run this thing! They did a flyover at the start and had people parachuting down holding giant flags. Then we were off! Even though there were corrals, each group started right after the other, so it was crowded from the get-go. With 30,000 runners, it remained pretty crowded throughout the whole race, but I can say the first 5 miles or so were the worst. I really think they need to wait 2 minutes between the corrals to space everyone out more to make the first few miles more enjoyable. You can tell by our pace that it was difficult to run very fast the first few miles, because our pace for the first 5k was 10:23.

After the first 3 miles, we were able to pick up the pace and settle into a comfortable rhythm. We still had to weave in and out of runners, and had to separate and then find each other again. I'm amazed we were able to stay together for the whole race, because it wasn't easy! It also got hot real fast. I took off my long sleeve shirt after the first mile. My mom met us at mile 11 with gatorade and gummies, and we dropped off our extra layers with her. There were SO many spectators lining the streets, I was worried we wouldn't spot her, but she found a spot further down the line that was a little more secluded.

We ran mile 11 in 9:03 because we were so excited to get to my mom!

Mile 12 was a little slower because of our stop to refuel. Miles 13-16 were along the water, so it was really scenic. Plus we were looking forward to mile 16 where my mom was going to meet up with us again. I would have preferred to have my mom at mile 19-20, but it just worked out better for her to meet us at mile 16 with the way the course was laid out. We refueled again, and we were still feeling good!

Miles 17, 18, and 19 were fun because we got to run by the Washington Monument and the Capital Building. Running right by the Capital Building was really fun and one of my favorite parts of the race. Then we were looking forward to "beating the bridge"- by this point we had no doubt we'd make it in time. After crossing the bridge, things started to get a little less fun. Before this, we always had something to look forward to- my mom at mile 11 and 16, the Capital Building at mile 18, getting to the bridge at mile 20. After mile 21, we were really only looking forward to the finish- but we still had 5 more miles to go!

Miles 23, 24, and 25 were really hard. It wasn't scenic, we were tired, it was an out-and-back section, and it was getting really, really hot. I was disappointed because our pace had been great until that point. For those three miles, our pace increased to 10+ minute miles, but we couldn't help it. I literally felt like I could not have run any faster. Of course, the last mile motivated us to kick it up a notch, but only very slightly, because we were already giving it everything we had. We got to the last 0.2 miles, and it was up a freaking hill! I was like, "Who puts a huge hill at the end of a marathon?!" We struggled up it and finished at the statue of Iwo Jima, which was pretty awesome. Marathon #2, run and done!

The crowds at the end were not so awesome. They had everything barricaded off so that we had to walk about half a mile before we were out of the fences to get some breathing room. I felt sick and overheated and had to sit on the ground for awhile. We were supposed to meet my mom at the Arlington Bridge, so we had to walk back the way we had come, but there was no easy way to get there. We had to stop and ask for directions, then ended up walking along the highway and along an exit ramp for what felt like forever! It probably took us 30 minutes to walk back to our meeting place. When we got there, we couldn't see my mom anywhere. This was definitely not the race to not have our phones with us.

We took the metro back, because I was not going to walk another step further than I had to! We eventually made it back to the hotel and found my mom. It took so long for us to get back to the hotel, that we had to pack up and leave in 15 minutes (even though we had set up a late check-out). We went to Starbucks to get some coffee and spend a little time with my mom before she had to drive back to Mass, and we had to drive back to Virginia. My mom gets a mom of the year award for this one: she drove 20 hours round trip to spend 4+ hours hanging around DC to see us twice for 1 minute each time! I am so grateful that she was there to cheer us on!

Our splits:

1	10:49	(crowded)
2	10:28	(crowded)
3	9:41
4	9:13
5	9:32
6	9:04
7	9:28
8	9:15
9	9:17
10	9:14
11	9:03	*fastest mile
12	10:34	(1st stop for fuel)
13	9:19
14	9:37
15	9:31
16	9:23
17	10:09	(2nd stop for fuel)
18	9:33
19	9:16
20	9:38
21	9:26
22	9:45
23	10:04	(tough)
24	10:05	(tough)
25	10:13	(tough)
26	9:55
27	9:35

 Our official time was 4:17:51- a marathon PR (at the time)!