Notes
Arrived in DC, got my rental car, and started driving to the Expo to pickup the packet. The Expo was being held at the US Armory Building right next door to RFK Stadium. I was meeting Brian at the Expo and as luck would have it we arrived within 5 minutes of each other even though he was coming from Baltimore via the Metro and I was coming from DC via a rental car.
The Expo was great, Marines were everywhere directing traffic and calling everyone sir. I felt very safe. Bought a hat and a jacket and a pasta lunch because that’s what everyone told me to do. I nervously laughed a lot trying to act cool. I don’t think it worked.
Made it to the hotel after many, many wrong turns in DC. Our main problem was we were looking for exit 8 off of I-395 but exit 8 in DC is different than exit 8 in Virginia. It would have been far, far easier to have not rented a car and relied on the Metro. So we finally arrive at the hotel around 3pm, head upstairs and watch one race of the Breeders. I forget the race but I had two horses who stalked perfectly (Daytona was one of them) until the stretch when all of a sudden some filly came from nowhere to steal the race.
Brian and I then decide to head to a nearby mall for something to do and for dinner. I had Subway. We then walked through pouring rain to buy some Gatorade for our fuel belts and some morning bananas. We ran into another guy who was racing and he was buying Pop-Tarts to eat at mile 20. More nervous laughter as we talked about the race with this stranger and found out this was his 5th but his 1st in 15 years. We wished each other good luck.
Headed back to the room, Brian wanted to watch the History channel and I wanted to watch the World Series. No wonder baseball ratings are down. The nerves were getting fun now as I simply could not think of anything else other than the race. Finally made it to sleep and had a surprisingly uneventful night and a good night sleep.
Awoke around 6am as we were targeting a 6:45am departure for the “5 minute walk” to the start. The race was scheduled to start at 8am but with bag check, a huge crowd, and any necessary stops we wanted to get there in plenty of time. Although there were runners everywhere, the crowd moved very well and we hit all our stops with relative ease. Lots and lots of nervous energy now not only from myself but from everyone else as we moved to the starting corral.
And just like that we were off. We could not have timed the pre-race events any better and I swear about six strides into the marathon all my nerves were gone and I was just jogging through the early miles. Running in that big of a crowd was pretty crazy and I saw two people get tripped trying to pass. Around mile one Brian and I went by the Washington National mascot who was running the race in full mascot mode. The crowd was nuts, for the first mile or so it was easily three to four people deep cheering and waving signs/banners. It felt great.
My favorite memory of the run was crossing the Potomac for the first time at mile 4.5. We had been running down a parkway for about 1.5 miles with very little crowd support but once we climbed a slight incline up to the bridge we were back running through a narrow strip of the road as the crowd had swelled so much they were coming into the road. Plus there was a fog on the river so you could not see much of the water but the entire scene reminded me of a Norman Rockwell painting. I was having a blast.
I started going a bit faster during this stretch and pushed the pace until around mile 10 where I caught the four-hour pacer. I was still feeling great and even went ahead of her during mile 13 until she caught me at mile 16. The next two miles was when I slowly realized my goal of four hours was not going to happen. My legs felt fine but they felt non-responsive. I slowed down to try and relax but the damage was done. The last seven miles were a walk/shuffle/jog to the finish.
At mile 22 a rest stop was giving free beer. No joke.
At mile 23 a band played. (I think there were 9 or so bands on the course. Some were high school marching bands, one was the Marine Corps Auxiliary Band, a few rock bands, and one bugle and drum corps). Bands, like the monuments, seem like they’d provide much more of a distraction than they actually do.
During miles 21-24 each lamp post was decorated with a long colorful flag. Not sure if this was marathon specific but it was a nice sight.
And then it was over. I struggled through the finish chute feeling rather defeated and entered a giant corral of other runners trying to make their way through the mess. The crowd control was about as good as you can expect but it was still a chore. Once I hooked back up with Brian (he ran a 4:07 and we went through the half about a minute apart) we found a cab and headed back to the hotel. I drove Brian up to the Baltimore airport and along the way we enjoyed one of the finest bacon cheeseburgers I’ve ever had. I made it back to the DC airport and all the other marathon goofballs were wearing their t-shirt (just like I was) so it was cool to give everyone a thumbs-up as if we had just climbed Everest.
Without question a positive experience and well worth all the training even if I can’t really quantify why it was worth it.