Marine Corps Marathon Weekend Recap!

I'm not even sure where to begin this report. This race has been in the works for me for over 11 years now...5 years before I even knew what the Marine Corps Marathon was. I had incredibly high hopes for this race from the moment I signed up. I won't re-hash the "jacket story" if you haven't heard it by now...you have likely had me on snooze for the past six months. But, I will go back to early in the year, when my friend Suzanne sent me a link to the fund raising team sign up for the National Down Syndrome Society. Suzanne has two amazing kids who both have Down Syndrome, and she has been advocating and running on behalf of the organization for many years. When she found out about my dream of running MCM, she offered me the "in" to bypass the lottery and register for the race by running for #TeamNDSS with a charity bib. Knowing that I "had" to do this race, a guaranteed entry was a no-brainer. Little did I know how much more I was going to get out of being part of something so much bigger than myself. So, I'll start my recap by thanking Suzanne for bringing meaning beyond a jacket to this journey.

I also won't start this recap by boring you with stories about my ankle injury...you've heard it all...walking boot, MRI, six weeks of no running, blah, blah, blah. It sucked. I was scared I wouldn't be able to race. I rehabbed, whined a lot, built back up slowly...things many of you have also done during marathon training. It wasn't really that special. But, as I started to build mileage, my runs got stronger, I was running faster than I thought I could after being off for so long. I started to think, "Hey, maybe this marathon won't just be a 'finish it" kind of race anymore. Maybe, just maybe I can still eek out a PR". It was exciting to think that maybe I could run fast, maybe I was going to be trained just right to make magic happen. I went into race weekend excited, nervous, and hopeful...what if...what if?!?

I will get to some of the parts of the weekend that weren't so fun, but let me say that sharing this trip with Jennifer Gillen Sprain was the best part. My running friends are vitally important to my day-to-day well being...but being able to share something this epic with one of them will be a memory to last a lifetime! We headed to the airport Friday afternoon, after a quick "Oh my god I have too much energy to contain myself" shake out run. Our flight was full, but scheduled to depart on time. We settled in a few rows apart and contemplated our movie choices (mine was Book Smart, and I think Jen opted for something she downloaded). About 10 minutes into our flight the captain came on to tell us we would be hitting some "weather" and that we should expect the ride to be a little bumpy for the next 20 minutes. Pretty much immediately the turbulence started, and about 5 minutes later, the captain was back on telling the flight attendants to sit down and buckle up. What came next was literally the worst 40 minutes I have ever spent on a plane. The turbulence was so bad that there were several times I seriously contemplated turning on my phone and calling Bill to say good bye. I was trying to get myself to breathe and focus on the movie, but there were others around me crying and clearly freaking out too. I happened to be in the row facing one of the flight attendant's jump seats, so I told myself "If she starts to look panicked, call Bill". She thankfully stayed pretty much cool as a cucumber the whole time, although SHE kept texting someone on HER phone...probably stuff like "can you believe how much these passengers are freaking out, geesh it's just a little turbulence!" to the other flight attendants. Things finally smoothed out with about 30 minutes to go, so I got my $145 cup of club soda and pack of almonds. You'd think after that they'd at least throw in a free pack of cookies or something. Anyway, we landed, and several of us shared stories of our harrowing experience. I even got a high five from someone when I said to Jen that I was going to kiss the ground. Book Smart was cute...at least what I can remember seeing of it in between bouts of praying and trying not to cry.

We took the metro to a stop near our condo, it was so easy. As we walked the five blocks from the stop to our street, we happened upon the "Modern Liquors" store and decided that whisky gingers were definitely on the menu after that flight. We got to the condo about 8pm, dropped our bags and googled the nearest restaurant. We found a cute place called Lincoln that was almost completely deserted...so I assumed the food would be terrible or the drinks would be outrageous...thankfully neither were true. We both got ginger-ale based cocktails and an order of deviled eggs that inexplicably only came with three halves (where did the other half go?) and soon met up with two of our house mates for the weekend, Rachel and Julie, along with a couple of their friends. After lively conversations and delicious gnocchi, it was time to head back to the condo to meet our third house mate, Kimberly, and get some sleep!

Saturday morning we had intended to do a quick shake out run on the Mall...but on Friday night we decided sleeping in a bit sounded better. So we headed out to the Expo around 9:30. Suzanne generously offered to pick us up and drive to the expo which was in Maryland of all places! (Okay, it's not like Maryland is far away...it just sounds funny that it was in a different state).
The place was busy and I got very excited to see the banner welcoming us. If you didn't know this, race expos are my FAVORITE THING EVER! Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but I think I could probably live in a race expo and really not miss the outside world. The MCM expo did not disappoint. We walked right up to the bib pick up which was manned entirely with uniformed Marines. I mean, I know this race is put on by the Marine Corps, I guess I just didn't realize they would be doing everything. Next stop was to pick up our race shirts...the infamous "mock". Last year there was much controversy over how hideous the mock-turtleneck top was...but this year, it was lovely (somewhat making up for how hideous the weather was). We tooled around the expo for awhile, I bought many things I didn't need and then we headed to brunch, where I ate many things I didn't need.

Gator's jury is still out on me!

From there we went to Suzanne's house to kill time until our manicures (we also watched the Badgers get killed by the Buckeyes, sorry Jen). A little before 3:00, Sara showed up (she was spending the night at Suzanne's) and we went off to get festive race manicures in Arlington. Suzanne again picked us up to take us to the #TeamNDSS fundraiser dinner. I was so excited to meet the rest of the team, especially Michelle Ray who was such a fountain of information and an amazing support leading up to the race. Dinner was lovely as was the company. With some final hugs and a lot of "Good luck tomorrow!"s, Suzanne dropped Jen and I off at the metro station and we headed back to the condo to get ready for the big day.

We awoke Sunday morning to the sound of rain. Not the "pitter patter" of rain, not a light drizzle, no...this was a steady stream of significant water. Now, we knew it was going to rain, we'd been weather stalking for a week and the percentages only went up as the days went on...but it was still a little disheartening to hear how much was coming down. One of my Ragnar teammates, Dana was also in town, staying just a few blocks from us, so she joined us at our condo to have some company getting to the race. We decided to take an Uber to Rosslyn, which was going to put us a ways away from the start area, but near a hotel with indoor plumbing. My jury is still out on whether or not this was the best way to go...the metro would have gotten us closer to bag drop, but I did hear from several people that they didn't have enough time based on when the trains started. Regardless, this did leave us with was a very wet slog to get from our drop off point to the bag drop.

We had tied plastic baggies around our feet to try to keep them as dry as possible, but about 15 minutes into our walk, my left baggy was full of water. I pulled it off and trudged along. We finally started to see some semblance of the race, and after about 20 minutes of walking we hit the security lines. We went through a bag check which was thankfully quick as I didn't want all my after-race dry stuff to get soaked. Then we started the next leg of the journey...finding the bag drop. It was really coming down now, and my right shoe baggy had to go. My poncho hood would not stay up. so I pulled out the throw-away umbrella I packed and opened it up. We had been walking so far now that I was afraid we had missed the bag drop, but thankfully we finally found it after about 50 minutes of walking in the rain. I asked Jen to check her watch for how far we had gone from drop off to bag drop...2.9 miles. Three miles of walking in the rain, only 26.2 to go. Dana, Jen and I got our bags dropped and headed back to the start area to get in the porta-potty lines.
I have never been in a race with this many people...I would say about 50% of them were in the porta-potty lines, and the other 50% were just peeing out in the open. Because of the rain we knew we weren't going to have the flag brought in via parachute like normal, but all of a sudden, someone was singing the national anthem....we still had a half dozen people in front of us in line. I was really looking forward to hearing the Howitzer fire to signal the start...I was now pretty sure I would be on the toilet when it happened. I finally got in there and did my business, and got out just in time to hear the faint "boom" that meant the wheelers where on their way. We hustled back to the start area to try to catch up with the rest of our group. The start area is on a divided highway, so we jumped the median to get on the left hand side which was moving much more quickly. We spotted Sara's Target poncho and she and Suzanne came over to meet us, only for us to be corralled back over to the other side since we were in the "fast" runner lane. I dropped my poncho and my throw-away jacket before we passed under the starting arch. It was raining cats and dogs but it was also humid as hell....so I knew starting to run with all that on was going to be a disaster. Before we knew it, we passed under the banner and were on our way!

As relentless at the rain was prior to the start, it actually stopped raining shortly after we got going. I gave Jen a high five and said "We're going to run a marathon today!". We noticed an unofficial pace group in front of us with a sign that said "11s" on it. We both looked at our watches and noticed we were running at an 11:00 per mile pace. Suzanne had taken off, Sara and Dana had fallen a bit back, so Jen and I just settled in figuring this was a good place to be. We hit a hill right at the the beginning and slowed down a bit to tackle it, getting right back into our 11-groove on the downhill. We stayed here for the first 6-miles and that idea of a PR started to creep back into my thinking. It was drizzling/raining on and off, but with the heat, it actually was feeling good at this point. Then around the 10K mark, Jen asked for a walk break. Her heart rate was really high thanks to the heat and we walked a bit to get it back down. I didn't mind walking...we were on a bridge and the break was nice. We started back up with Jen telling me if I was feeling good I should take off. I really didn't want to leave her, but I also recognized that letting her feel however she needed to feel was important, so I put my head down and tried to get into a zone. We kept eyes on each other for another couple miles, but around mile 8 the rain started to come down in sheets, blowing sideways, and I decided that it was time to just focus on putting one foot in front of the other. My pace continued to hover around the 11:00-11:30 mark, but at this point I could start to feel the blisters on my feet taking shape. I for sure had one on the arch of my left foot and another under my left big toenail. There was blister pain on my right foot too, like I had a blister on the top of each of my toes. The rain was still hammering us and avoiding running in ankle deep puddles was useless.

My ankle had been feeling fine, but now, after 12 miles of slipping around in wet shoes, I could start feeling twinges of pain there too. I was starting to mentally prepare myself for the Wear Blue Mile (google it, it's amazing) when I heard "Linda!" Now, I had my name on my shirt (thanks Carrie) so I had been hearing my name here and there all morning, but this one was familiar. It was Rachel. I really hadn't expected to see her knowing she was going for a 4:30, but like most of us out there that day, she was also not having a great race. I had to chuckle when she said "I'm so glad I found you, I need someone new to bitch to!" We entered the Wear Blue mile together.

I knew what was coming, but between the giant river running down the middle of the road, the bodies packed so tightly in the chute, and not being able to look up lest I get rain in my eyes, I didn't get to really appreciate the pictures of the fallen service men and women as I would have liked. It wasn't until we were through the pictures and got the the families with the flags that I got chocked up. I mean, there were people out on the course cheering us in this miserable weather the whole way, but this was something really special. As we came out of that I finally admitted out loud that I was not going to PR today. Looking at my watch at that point I would have had to hold 11's for the whole second half of the race and between the pain in my toes and my uncertain ankle, that just wasn't going to be possible. I told Rachel that I would still maybe try for a sub-5 hours, but at the very least I should be able to do a sub-5:30. We hit a water stop after that, and I lost Rachel in shuffle. There were just so many people on the course the whole time. I'm guessing it seemed more congested since everyone was avoiding the sides of the streets lest they step in calf-deep water.

It was finally around mile 14 that I had to give in to the walking. So much walking. Everyone was walking...I honestly have never seen so much walking, and a lot of it was hobbling. We were all miserable. Being rained on for over half a marathon is no fun. I was doing my best to enjoy some of the sights I was passing, monuments, cool buildings, but I really was just telling myself "one foot in front of the other". I thought about getting into a pattern of intervals. Run five minutes, walk one minute. That worked for a bit, but then one minute turned into two, turned into, oh hell, just walk. By mile 18 the rain had stopped and the sky started to clear. Now, you might be thinking "yay!" but, you'd be wrong. Clearing skies after rain means only one thing...humidity that will curl your already blistered toes.

Some spectators called out "Smile, the sun is coming out!" I wanted to yell back "Bring back the rain, it's too f@#$&ing hot!". I kept on with my inconsistent intervals when I finally heard the drums indicating I had made it to the bridge of the infamous "beat the bridge" lore. There is a very strict time cut off to make it over the bridge. I looked down at my watch...a little over four hours passed since I started. I was at mile 20. I knew the sub 5 was out of the picture...but I felt like if I really pushed I could at least pull out a sub 5:30. My new plan was to run to each mile marker then walk two minutes. I held this plan for the next few miles, even though my run pace was really barely faster than my walk pace. At mile 22 the sun really started to blaze and I was a sweaty mess, but I smiled and sped up a bit as I passed the team NDSS cheer zone. They were streaming live on Facebook and I was going to be damned if I didn't look cheerful! As I approached the mile 23 marker, I was really looking forward to my walk break, but it was then that I saw the one and only Katherine Switzer standing right in front of me. I stood a little taller and held out my hand for a high five. I grasped her hand and said "Thank you so much for being out here!" she squeezed it back and said "You are doing great, keep going!". At that moment, I thought I could fly. Unfortunately, a Katherine Switzer pep talk only lasts about three minutes when you are in the pain cave and I took my walk break just past the mile marker. I got one more small burst when I finally saw Jen on the final out and back of the race. My biggest fear was that she was off course, but I knew in my heart she would keep fighting. I shouted "I love you! Keep going, you are going to do this!" intending it as much for her benefit as for my own. I kept running to the mile 24 water stop. I gulped down two glasses and filled the small bottle I had with me. When I started up again, I noticed a man running in front of me...a man with two prosthetic legs. Now, I had run alongside a few other runners with prosthetics earlier in the race, but here was a guy who had been through everything I had been through today, only he went through it without his legs. I started choking up and I said to myself, "as long as he is running, I am running". So, I started to run...again, my pace might have been slower than turtle walking through molasses, but it was running. I got to the 25 mile mark and remembered my "intervals", but at that point a Marine on the side of the road yelled "You have one mile left, go, go go!" So I went, went, went. The crowds were crazy at this point...over five hours into this race and these folks were cheering us like we were about to beat Kipchoge! I had long before given up on looking at my watch. I had been about a half mile ahead of the mile markers all race, so I didn't want to rely on it to tell me how far I had left, and I certainly didn't want to know my pace. but I looked down just for a quick glance to see that it read "26" for my miles. I knew I was close. I also knew I had one hell of an uphill to get to the finish line. I had since lost my prosthetic-clad beacon but there was no way I wasn't running this out. We passed under the huge blow up banner that said "Beat Yesterday" and I charged up that hill. My legs actually had a little juice left in them. I was looking for the big red finish arch I had seen in the pictures, but before I knew it a Marine shouted at me "M'am, you're done!"
I looked down and sure enough, there were the double timing mats. I was a little disappointed at how anti-climactic the finish was, until I found out that the arch had deflated earlier in the race due to the power generator getting flooded with water!
I followed the herd to the medal corrals where the Marines were waiting to congratulate us. I got my medal and snapped a selfie (I had a REALLY cute Marine!) and stumbled on to the muddy mess of a hill to try to figure out where the med-tent was...my ankle needed ice stat! I heard another "Linda" shouted at me and looked up to find Michelle and many of the other members of Team NDSS waiting for the rest of us. It was so great to get hugs and congratulations from these folks...we had all been through hell together today. I finally hobbled over to the medics who wrapped a big bag of ice around my ankle and headed back to the team to find Suzanne and Jen. Even though none of us had the races we had hoped for that day, we all finished and that was a victory itself.

The sun was shining (it was 80-derees for crying out out!) so we headed for the exit and the food. I was started to feel a little nauseous, so I kept putting my head between my legs. We got water and bananas, then a big box of food before heading out to find Rachel, Kim and Julie. Rachel and Kim also struggled but Julie...the rockstar...ran her first 50K and kicked it's ass.I can't wait to see what she will do when she does an ultra in good weather! We sat and ate for a bit, rehashing the worst parts of the day with each other. Finally, we decided it was time to muster the strength to go the beer tent before it was all gone. We barely had to wait before we all said "cheers" with our mediocre, but cold beer cups...and I'm telling you, that was the best tasting beer I've ever had!

After a bit more hobbling, we got our gear bags and found an Uber to take us back to our condo. I will spare you the story of how much silent screaming there was in the shower due to having both rain-chafed and sun-burned skin, but after getting into dry clothes for the first time in about 8 hours I was so ready to relax with some cheesy pizza and not so cheesy conversation with friends. Bed time came early, by 8pm I could barely keep my eyes open any more. So we packed up and drifted off. An early flight back home meant we were up and out of the house before everyone else, but I left knowing I had made new sole sisters for life. So, the moral of this story is...you can have the worst race you've ever run but still manage to have the best time you've ever had at a race.

Part of the conversation after the race was that I was done with marathons. Now that I sit here three days later, I realized that is some BS! This was the only "bucket list" race I've ever had, and even though I earned my jacket...I want a do over. So, it might not be next year, or even the year after that. But I'll be back for you MCM...I still have something to prove. Oorah!

The jacket that started it all!

An upgrade for 2019!