Monthly Archives: October 2015

Where To Begin? Marine Corps Marathon Recap

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What a whirlwind of a weekend!  I’ve spent all day yesterday and most of today trying to figure out which way to approach telling you about this amazing weekend.

*For starters, I’m sending my most heartfelt apologies to all who met me for the first time this weekend.  It was an emotional time for me and I tried to hide it by talking non-stop Friday when I flew out through Monday when I flew home.  Y’all put up with listening (probably with half an ear~and I wouldn’t be surprise if it was a quarter of an ear or less!  HA!) to me babble on.  And on.  And on!

Having just come off of running the Berlin Marathon and recognizing that a large portion of that race was run in what just a few short years ago (the Berlin Wall came down in 1989) was a communist country and then three weeks later having the opportunity to run this marathon in the capital of the greatest country in the world~a free country~it was simply overwhelming!

MFH (My Favorite Husband) and I went out for flu shots at lunch today.  Afterwards we hit up Jimmy John’s for lunch.  While I was eating my #13 (no lettuce), the magnitude of this weekend hit me all of a sudden and it took everything I had not to start bawling like a baby.  So, I’m going to try to hit the highlights.  The wonderful runner friends I met.  The fabulous patriotism.  The struggles on the course.  The funny things…this promises to be a looooong blog post so grab a cup of coffee or something so you don’t fall asleep.  HA!

Friday morning my friend (we’re going to call her Kathy) and I left my house for our drive to Birmingham, Alabama, to catch our flight to Washington DC.  We left a little early but had a few errands.  We had a lovely drive chattering along as I drove.

We landed in DC and grabbed a cab, got to the hotel and crashed for the night.

The next morning while on FB, my FB msg went “Ping!” and then, “Ping!” again.  Two people were msg me at practically the same time.  The first was MFH:  “Some guy named _____ just called the house looking for you….”  The second was that guy:  “I just accidentally called your house and talked to your husband.  Hope I didn’t cause any problems.”  HA!  *All’s well.*

The guy was a friend from a FB running group and was offering a ride to the Expo.  Kathy and I took him up on it.  That was the first time I had ever met him.  Super nice guy!  He is one of the people with whom I talked non-stop.  Poor guy!

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While we were at the Expo, we ran into another lady from that same running group!  How awesome was that!?!  Of course that meant another photo opp:

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When we were just about ready to leave the Expo, I was very fortunate to meet a man from my Endurance Obsession Racing Team!  He was here for the race along with his wife and FIL.  I got to meet his wife at the Expo and his FIL after the race.  Super, super nice people!  I talked their ears off, too.  *I’m so sorry, y’all!*  More about this man later.

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Race day finally arrived.  The ladies in my room (4 of us), we all slept pretty well.  I showered in the morning and was trying to get that silly sports bra on (TMI)~it was quite the wresting match!  My left hand slipped and my thumbnail put a nice gash in my chin.  Can you believe that!?!  Good grief.  I had to stop and try to get my chin to stop bleeding.  What a mess.  Finally managed to get myself dressed and we walked across the street and towards the starting line.

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It was raining for the beginning of the race.  Before you could walk to the corral, you had to go through metal detectors.  Seeing as everybody’s bib’s were put on their race shirts/belts with safety pins, those metal detectors were beeping like crazy!  The Marines working that area were patting people down and wanding them.  They were doing their best to get us to the start.

Once you made it to the start, there were porta-potties as far as the eye could see.  It was a glorious sight!  I was sticking with Kathy.  Our other two roommates had headed off with some of their other running buddies.  All was well.  While Kathy and I were walking to where we wanted to start, they started the pre-race prayer.  I stopped for the prayer.  Immediately after the prayer, they sang the National Anthem.

At this point, I had close to a dozen Marines standing right next to me.  I mean, Right. Next. To. Me.  When that National Anthem started, they SNAPPED to attention and saluted.  Not like the people in the movies.  This was the real deal and made Hollywood look very, very lame.  Color me Impressed!  These guys and gals were all business!  I took my visor off and put it in my right hand and my right hand over my heart…just like at all my other races but I felt like what I did was so lame and insignificant.  My feeble efforts to show respect to my country paled in comparison. Then again, I didn’t know what else to do!  So, I did that.

When the National Anthem was over, I looked around for Kathy and I couldn’t find her.  Oh Noooo!!!!  This was her very first marathon and I lost here!  What kind of a friend was I!?!  AGH!!!  *We never did find each other before the race.  She did great!*

I did manage to find my Endurance Obsession Racing Teammate in that crowd.  He was there with his wife and we decided we would run together as long as we could AND keep our eyes open for Kathy.  I was frantic trying to find her!

The crowd started to “Ooohhh!!!” and Awwww!!!” We looked up and there were skydivers.  They had made a jump.  The loudspeakers announced that during the jump, they would be unfurling the largest American flags ever!  It was too cool!

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The helicopters did a low pass:

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The Howitzer went off:

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and 9 minutes later my Endurance Obsession (EO) teammate and I crossed the starting line and began the race!

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We ran and chatted easily through the first 8-9 miles of the race.  We had hit some hills and all but it was a pretty easy run so far.  The thing we quickly discovered, though, was the long distances between the water stops.  This was my one and only complaint about this race.  They were too far apart and not well manned.  We would stop for water/gatorade and there would be empty cups on the tables!  Some poor Marine would be frantically trying to pour stuff into the cups.  Those poor Marines working the water stops were seriously outnumbered by runners. They simply couldn’t keep up with the demand.  Due to having to stop and wait for water, I would venture to guess  that it added close to 5 minutes to my finish time.

We were enjoying the run.  So was everybody around us.  Easy race banter was going on.  We were having a great time!  All of a sudden, it was dead silent.  We had arrived at the Blue Mile.  The Blue Mile is where fallen service members are commemorated along the roadway.  There are photos of those fallen service members.  As we entered this area, the runners were removing their hats/visors in a show of respect.  There was no talking.  That wasn’t in the rules anywhere, it was just instinctive or something!  I saw runners stopping and touching each photo and saying prayers over each one.

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Once you pass through all the photos, you reach the part where family member and friends are holding American Flags. This is incredible!

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Finally we arrived at “The Bridge.”  This bridge is located at the 20 mile mark of the race.  They close the bridge to runners a little after 1:00 PM gun time.  You have to maintain a 14 min pace to cross the bridge before they open it back up to traffic.  There are sag wagons that follow the runners around this time and if they haven’t successfully crossed the bridge on time, they get swept and do not get to complete the race.  No medal and a DNF on their record.  Runners turn themselves inside out to “Beat the Bridge.”   *The 14th Street Bridge is a complex of five bridges across the Potomac River, connecting Arlington, Virginia, with Washington, D.C. A major gateway for automotive and rail traffic, the complex is named for 14th Street (U.S. 1), which feeds into it on the D.C. end.*  Source: Wikipedia

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My EO teammate and I made it to the bridge easily.  It was at the base of the bridge that I crossed 1900 miles run for this calendar year!  My mileage goal for this year is 2015 miles.  Almost there!!!

Where I ran into trouble here is due to the unfortunate lack of water from the undermanned water stops.  I became dehydrated on the bridge.  We had gone quite a ways without anything to drink before we reached the bridge and I became very dizzy. Things were getting dark.  I was having trouble seeing and things were closing in on me.  It. Was. Bad.  I needed something to drink and there were no water stops on the bridge.  As a matter of fact, we had a long way to go before the next water stop!

This is where my EO teammate get major Kudos!  This guy is the best!!!  He was wearing a hydration belt and had Tailwind in the bottles.  They were his fuel for the race.  He had extra Tailwind with him to mix more at the water stops.  He had planned well.  This guy made me drink some of his Tailwind to get me to the next water stop.  Bless him!  If he hadn’t of shared with me, they’d still be scraping my carcass off that bridge.  I was in a bad way.

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At the base of the bridge, your spirits are lifted for a little bit.  You think, “Only 10K left!”  My 10K PR is 1:02 and I about killed myself for the 1:02.  I knew there was realistically a good 1:15 if I ran well before I finished.  I was not running well.  That bit on the bridge had hurt me.  Hmmm…maybe I could do the 10K in 1:20?  We would see.

We got off the bridge all set for a water stop.  Instead, they were handing out donut holes.  I couldn’t believe it!  Hahaha!!!  You had to laugh or else you would cry.  All I wanted was a drink of water!  Hahaha!!!  Finally, around the bend a little further, there was a water stop.  I got a cup from the first person and tossed it down.  I grabbed both the cups from the next person.  Pounded both of those down, too!  I was a little pig at that water stop!  I took 7 cups of water there!  I needed it!  Had to happen.  I felt guilty but much, much better.

Right about here is where I lost my EO teammate.  His knee had been bothering him for quite a while and he told me to go on.  He was going to try to stretch it out to make it happy.  I saw him again after the finish.

Finally turned the corner and saw the “hill” I had read so much about.  Yea, it was ugly.  This hill was the last .20 of the race. I would swear on a stack of Bibles that looking at that thing after having run 26 miles that it looked like a 45* hill.  HA!  I know it wasn’t that bad but it sure wasn’t pretty.

As soon as you reached the top, you cross the finish line.  My head was ready for this!  I charged that hill.  BOOM!  That .20 hill was lined with Marines yelling at you.  Encouraging you.  The poor souls who tried to walk it got a good old fashioned boot camp yelling.  It was AWESOME!  I seriously loved that last part of the race.

I crossed that finish line so grateful for the opportunity to have run this race.  Yea, I suffered on this due to dehydration but boy, it was great!!!  As soon as I crossed the finish line (and was out of the way of other runners who had just crossed) I grabbed me a Marine and we had our pic taken.  I had put my 1900 mile bib in a zip lock and put that in my SpiBelt before the race.  I took out the 1900 mile bib and that sweet young man stood next to me and we had our pic taken.  I couldn’t think of a better way to mark hitting 1900 miles for the year at such an incredible race!

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The finish line is at the base of the Iwo Jima Memorial.  It gives you chills when you realize this.  Now, on race day, it was a zoo there so when Kathy and I were getting ready to go to the airport yesterday, we asked our cab driver to take us back and take our pics.  He very kindly did that (the meter was ticking so why not!  Right?  HA!)

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Now tell me, in all honesty, can you ever in your wildest dreams envision a more fabulous finish line!?!  *goosebumps*

So, yes, I talked non-stop all weekend because I needed to be home so I could process everything I was experiencing…later.  In privacy.  I have been sitting here with tears streaming down my face reflecting on this weekend.  The awesome runners I met.  The difficulties on the course.  The bond runners share.  My EO teammate who very generously shared and saved me from a DNF.  The love/respect of country I witnessed in those actively serving in the Marine Corps~how truly humbled I felt when that young Marine put that medal around my neck and said, “Congratulations, Ma’am.”

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