Marine Corps Marathon 2019: The one where we all drowned

It has been a week since my Marine Corps Marathon experience. I could make this a short post, and say that it has taken me a full week to dry out! (but I won't do that. that would be too easy, even though it is true.)

So yes. 8 days ago I was prepared to take on the challenge of a marathon on the most undertrained legs I have ever lined up with. I had zero expectations, zero time goals, zero plans, and only hoped that I would not be unpleasantly surprised with an uprising of my previous injury at mile 16. (why 16? because that was my longest run for this training cycle. and was on September 12th. So, yeah...)

The forecast was cycling from being ominous (warm, heavy rain) to terribly ominous (cool, heavy rain, thunder, disaster, certain death.) So, I filled my bag with throw away clothing of one sort or another, threw my hands up and said "whatever" (spoiler: overpacked)

I met Danielle and Tyler (her very tall husband) at the airport at some god forsaken hour. For the first time in the history of EVER, I was actually the first one to arrive. I proclaimed that this would be the ONLY race that I would win all weekend.

An uneventful flight landed us in DC just before 8 (AM. told you it was early.) We successfully dropped our bags at our comfortable, convenient, and reasonably priced hotel (Courtyard Marriott Crystal City. There were many choices in the area, and this one was pleasant.) We then called an uber to take us to the expo (or, Danielle did. I managed not to buy a single uber all weekend because I am a terrible moocher/bad person.)
By the time we got to the expo there may have been some whining about being hungry. I will not deny or confirm if this whining came from me. But it might have.

Mission: breakfast

Rage hunger aside, we made it happily and swiftly through the expo. None of us were in the mood to part with cash (except for Ubers) so it was not a lengthy trip. As far as expos go, it was decent. Fast bib pick up, a good number of shopping opportunities, none of which we utilized. This expo was not on the scale of Boston or NYCM, but was certainly more impressive than Philly and Hartford.

Must Do. Can Do. Will Do. (get out of here and eat bacon!)

The remainder of the day was spent eating (YAY!!!) checking the weather (BOOO) doing a little sightseeing (But not tooooo much!) witnessing a hobo fight!!! (they hugged it out???) and touring several grocery stores (which I rarely do, so fun!) Oh, and we also took adult naps which are possibly the most underrated activity (and very important if you have been up since 2:30 AM)

Not a very busy day today...

After meticulously designing our morning outfits (so many plastic bags. duct tape. ponchos.) We were in bed before 9:00. Except Danielle who woke suddenly, and angrily, and proceeded to sleep walk around doing something critical that only made sense to her. Normal activities, all in all.

Morning dawned.
And by dawned, I mean it was pitch black dark until the absurd hour of 7:20 AM. WTF?

We were BY NO MEANS wishing to spend hours outdoors. Danielle, the cruise director extraordinaire, had calculated exactly what time we should depart to make it to the race start on time. And not one minute before.
We donned our race attire.

This is reality. Ridiculous.

At 6:30 we walked from the hotel to the busses that would take us directly to the start.
(straightforward 0.4 mile walk)  We found an amazingly long line, in decidedly steamy conditions. The layers started to come off early.... We lined up with 10,000 other people in a parking garage, and it was far from cold.

600 degree parking garage. dry though, so that's good

In pretty short order we were on the bus for the trip to the pentagon.

Gotta have the bus selfie

OH, AND IT WAS POURING. As we reached our destination, I expressed my concern regarding the long porta potty lines, the deluge, and the amount of time we had prior to the 7:55 start (we reached the Pentagon area just after 7:00) Danielle, in a stroke of pure genius, said "don't leave the bus. we are going to use the bathroom that is ON HERE!!" And THAT is what we did. Sooo smart, the bus driver was totally cool with it, and it saved us standing in a loooong, sopping wet line.

From there, it was quite a long walk. Down a road we went (sweating all the way) through security and a huge parking lot, and into the masses of runners. Feeling a bit disoriented, we concluded that we would simply follow the crowd to the start. (it was just a little bit of a cluster. nothing major, but lots of people/bad weather/chaos.)

Danielle's cruise director status was rewarded when we made it (close enough) to our corral just in the nick of time. Layers off, and in we went just like sardines. Cozy cozy, moist and sweaty.

Pro tip: if you plan to run quickly be very certain to line up at the absolute front of your corral. We did not do this. If anything, we were closer to the 4:00 hour area.
For the first two miles, it was jam packed. Total gridlock. On top of that it was pretty wet, very hot (it was well into the 60's from the get go) and randomly uphill. Pretty disgusting. I was feeling a premonition that it was going to be a fairly hideous day. Danielle said "I'm really concerned about overheating" just before we were separated by the hoards of humans. And yes, I was feeling the same way (especially as we trudged up what seemed to be and endless hill.)

Luckily just after mile 2, what had been going up, FINALLY headed down. My legs got it together, and things began to feel as good as one could hope for. Even better, the rain basically stopped and it was *almost* dry for several miles. I had a quick stop at mile 3 to pee, and then I was off again.

As un-crowded as it got

I ran along with very few thoughts until mile 7. At that point, I realized that I had reached the mileage of my "longest run" in weeks. Thankfully, I was feeling fine. Very shortly after that, I was able to locate the 3:50 pace group. I had no specific time goal in mind, but decided to stick with them until I was no longer able to do so. I certainly had doubts about my ability to maintain a sub 9 pace for 18 more miles. Around that time, we began to get some serious weather. The skies opened up in complete deluge several times between miles 8 and 15, and steady rain in between downpours kept everyone nice and damp. The conditions were so warm that I had no worry about hypothermia, but it was simply impossible to do more than focus on the ground one foot in front of ones feet. I needed windshield wipers.

While I realized that we were passing lovely landscape (the river, the Mall, many monuments) I was just not able to take any of it in. The weather was an all consuming problem, and at one point became so extreme that the roads simply turned to rivers!!!

This was after I had passed through this area- but it is a good summary of the conditions

(I will come clean and say that this is not at all the worst conditions I have run in. That award goes (easily) to Boston 2018. This was ridiculous, but I never feared for my health. Maybe my mental health, but not my physical health.)

At mile 20, while leaping over lakes, I slowly edged ahead of the 3:50 pace group. I had no intention of scampering away from them, it just seemed to happen. I expected to see them again shortly, but my motto for the race was to "run each damn mile the way it needed to be run" and that particular mile needed to be faster. I never saw them again (although I found someone from the group at the finish- and determined that they did not start when I did, so we were basically running different timelines.)

The masses of runners from earlier in the day somewhat lessened as the race went on, but it was extremely crowded for the majority of the race. It wasn't until mile 21, around the 14th street bridge (the infamous "beat the bridge" bridge) that the streets really opened up.
Of course, as one would expect, this is also the time when my legs had had enough. Done running. Sore and stupid. I basically sucked it up (as the skies opened up YET AGAIN) and decided to keep on trudging. I really feel compelled to mention how hard it rained. Just when you would think it could not actually, possibly rain any harder: it would. That is how it went. A person could not possibly have become more soaked, with rain such as that!

The final 4 miles were dumb. Mostly because my legs had ceased to work. I saw Tyler somewhere around mile 22, and he promised to locate us with dry clothing at the finish. I also saw fellow Mainer Jaimie around this time, which was fun because it's hard to find friends in a crowd that large.

With 1.5 miles to go, the sun came out in absolute blazes and the temps absolutely skyrocketed. I said to some guy "well, this is fun. I preferred the rain." he looked at me like I had two heads.

Anywhoo. With every step feeling like torture, I ran (we use that term loosely) the final COMPLETELY UPHILL stretch and finished. 3:51:13. Quite respectable, given my lack of long runs/speedwork/training. I was quite satisfied. The only reason that I continued to run those last few miles was out of pure stubbornness, a quality that I actually find useful on a regular basis. I was in no shape for such an excursion.

Done! And now to find watermelon.... 

My main concern was how damn hot it was. Just boiling! I skipped all scenic photos and beelined for the water and shade. After a LONG walk to the where the finishers party was (on legs that were just incredibly shitty) I discovered that small tubs of watermelon were being passed out. With zero thought, I promptly ate 4. What happened next was this. Tyler located me in the throngs of people, which must have been a real chore. And (like the fun person I am) I promptly announced that I was planning on being sick soon, and needed to the care of that. He offered to take photos. I declined. I dry heaved a little and then sat sadly on a curb until I recovered.

Thankfully, things improved quickly after that little fiasco. I felt better. It was a nice day! I was sopping soggy wet. Danielle finished and fought the crowds to find us! We took selfies.

Winners!!!

Then we escaped the crowds and headed back to the hotel to take wet nap baths (as we were both departing for various locations and we had no hotel room shower....)
I was deeply offended to discover that my bad weighed considerably more than it had on the trip there. I assumed removing a significant number of throw away garments would leave me with a lighter load. I did not take into account the weight of absolutely sopping race kit and shoes. Gross.
I made it to the airport, and (annoyingly) it was a lovely day...


Despite the mess, I would say that this is the best big fall marathon I have attended. I liked the course (the puddles and white and yellow lines sure looked nice) The race was run in an organized way and transportation was pretty straightforward for a big city race. This race was less expensive to attend than Boston, or NYCM in both entry fee (it is not a major) and hotel (about half price from Chicago, for example, and so very much less than you would pay to stay in Boston or NYC.) Flying from Portland was a piece of cake, and took less than 90 minutes (we paid about $280 for tickets if I remember correctly, which was annoyingly expensive for a quick trip.)

The aftermath was pretty painful. Thankfully, no sign of my injury even thinking of making a comeback! Just days upon DAYS of being more sore that I can remember being post marathon since my first Boston (those hills get you the first time.) Considering my training, it was to be expected.

So here I am, in recovery mode, with Boston training looming on the horizon. It is too bad that this training cycle didn't come together well enough for me to claim a 2021 BQ last weekend, but I knew that would not happen. It looks like I am going to have to get after it in Boston yet again, if I want to participate in 2021.

Good things about this race:
-Pretty friendly lottery . I don't know anyone who did not get in!
-One of a kind. It is a rare day that you get to run past so many national monuments, and then be given your medal by a Marine! Very fun experience.)
-DC is a user friendly city, and shockingly quiet which none of us expected.
-Many choices for lodging, food, beers
-Many runners, you will never be lonely
-Start and finish are essentially in the same place. No point to point logistical hassle.
-solid medal. and (this year) nice shirt for participants. this seems NOT to be the case yearly (see 2018 for an example...)

I had to find proof of how bad the 2018 shirt is. BAD. This bad. 

-I imagine that if you have close ties to a Marine/are one, this would be a very moving and emotional race experience. It certainly is unique.

Bad things about this race:
-If you require frequent hydration, carry your own. There are a couple long pauses between water stations (which are otherwise excellent. also, several food stations)
-If you did not bring a cruise director (I did!) navigation to things like shuttles could take a moment to figure out. (if you don't know the city)
-big hill in final 0.1 mile. That sucks.