This marathon was an entirely different beast than Los Angeles – and more beastly she was.
The HARDEST part of the race was running with my sister. She pretty much hit her wall and had a meltdown at mile 16 that lasted the rest if the marathon. She had told me that mile 16 had been her breaking point in training runs, but I wasn’t expecting audible sobs and whimpering. It was SO. MENTALLY. TAXING. I had to be strong for both of us. I mentally and emotionally carried her those last 10 miles. I was as supportive as I could be, but I mostly turned up my music volume and insisted she stay behind me while looking over my shoulder every few minutes. I limited walking breaks to Gu breaks and an occasional 1 minute break every mile or so towards the end. It’s harder to get yourself back in gear after an extended walking break.
As challenging and exhausting it was to keep my sister in the race it was INSANELY rewarding to cross that finish line holding her hand. She was so thankful that I pushed her and wouldn’t let her quit. It’s a marathon – it’s FUCKING HARD – if it wasn’t then everyone would do it, but she’s been through WAY more tougher things than the marathon and I wasn’t going to let her give up – even if it meant PHYSICALLY dragging her across the finish line.
So we ran it in 5:27 aka 23 minutes slower than Los Angeles. According to my garmin our moving time was 5:18 – damn crazy long bathroom break and two water fountain stops for sister on the national mall.
I also know my training wasn’t nearly as strong or consistent as Los Angeles.
I was prepared for the worst weather-wise (much like LA), thankfully the rain held off, but it was VERY humid the first hour or so of the race and then winds by the water were realy strong at times.
Drank more fluids due to the humidty and needed a potty break (which was a race day first in nearly 2 years) around mile 13 .
The race was not nearly as organized as LA and I told ‘em so in the post-race survey:
-Better communication all around. If I was not from NoVa I would have been very confused. The last e-mail I got from them was 2 weeks before the race.
-I wasn’t expecting a 1 mile walk from Pentagon metro to start.
-The bathrooms BEFORE the security checkpoint race day should not have been there. Stood in line for 35 min (and they had no TP) I was told there were “some” portapotties after the security line. I later find out there were HUNDREDS – I blame myself partically for not knowing better.
-Was still at the bathrooms when the race started – the long walk from the metro and the stupid bathroom lines were to blame. thankfully the 5 hour group was still queued up when we got to the start, but we missed all the pomp and circumstance.
-Not enough portapotties on the course.
-Lack of spectators throughout most of the course was very disappointing.
-The shirt is a COTTON mock turtleneck, why not a tech shirt? I will never wear it (at least to run in)
-the water station during the last mile was UNNECESSARY and caused more harm than good – slowed people down and was super slippery.
– the bottle neck at the end was terrible. So much walking and waiting post-race. Literally it was nearly a mile from the finish line to the “finishers festival.” It took over 2 hours from the end of the marathon for us to get our checked bag, wait in the MASSIVE metro line and metro home.
So there was the good, the bad, and the ugly of the marathon. I don’t think I’ll run Marine Corps again, but I know I have a 3rd marathon in me, however I don’t think it’ll be until perhaps Spring 2014.
