Finish time: 4:17
I didn’t have high hopes for the Marine Corp Marathon - but I didn’t think I’d do this poorly. But considering I walked around 30 miles in the few days prior to the race and felt like my lungs were filled with snot - I’ll take the finish as a personal triumph.
I signed up for this race months ago (it sells out early). It was before we knew we were moving and before I knew how much time we’d spend attending baseball games and practices over the summer. As a result of all of this - I came into the race unprepared.
I had been doing well and was increasing my mileage for a couple months before MCM, but with a little over a week to go - I started feeling sick. I had a fever and a bad head cold. My cough made my body hurt and my breathing was about 60%. My daughter was also feeling under the weather. However, the tickets were bought and the family had never seen the Capitol - so we got on the plane anyway.
If you love history, you have to love D.C. Despite feeling sick, we had a great time.
We walked everywhere. I wasn’t worried about walking too much because I really didn’t think I’d feel well enough to run the marathon. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
The day before the race, I started to feel stronger, my head got a little clearer and I wasn’t coughing every few minutes. I still felt weak, but having traveled all that way, thought I might as well waddle through the marathon.
So I found myself tired and sore at the starting line - wondering how I’d keep from coughing up a lung as I meandered through D.C. My strategy was simple - go out slow and plan on getting slower.
The start of the MCM is congested - it took about 10 minutes to get to the line - and I wasn’t that far back. But the course opens up pretty quick after you cross the start and you run without too much restriction from other runners.
The first ten miles of the race are hilly, with a few tough uphills. It goes mostly through some park and residential areas - not much crowd interaction - but certainly not lonely. I took these miles in without too much trouble. I had no delusions that I was going to be able to go fast - I simply tried to keep my breathing shallow so I wouldn’t cough.
Around mile 15, runners start to approach the mall and with it the monuments, the Smithsonian and the capital building. It was also around this time when I started to falter. It was no surprise to me. I hadn’t recovered enough from the flu or the walking. My goal was to keep running as long as I could - because , in my experience, once you start walking it becomes a run walk run walk race. You may think that you’re going to walk just this once, but it always turns out that once you’ve been broken - you may start to run again - but you’ll also walk again.
I got broken in around mile 18. The mall that was just a short walk the night before now stretched out forever. In addition the heat was starting to kick in - I settled into trying to walk a little at every mile.
As is always the case after you hit the wall, the last miles are a long blur. There were crowds, then there were none. There was one long portion around mile 24 that I thought was a quick up and back - but the up kept going on and on. In short, it was a long last few miles.
The finish is in front of the famous Marine Corp statue. Unfortunately you can’t see it when you finish. I guess you have to go over to where they are taking photos of runners and their medals - I don’t know because I was too tired to go over there.
The final few yards are at a sharp incline. I nearly blanked out as I pushed it in. I’ve never walked into the finish line - but I felt like it on this one.
I heard it takes forever to get out of the finish shoot and back to transportation - it does. But probably not as long as Boston or Chicago.
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