Marine Corps Marathon & 10K, DC Trip Oct/Nov 2022

 

Marine Corps Marathon

October 30, 2022

5:22:24  8,078/11,255  Overall 28/77 in 70-99

Jodi 10K: 1:01:23  2,321 overall 71/258 in 50-54 

            The longest part of this race was the “getting there”. Jodi and I got up at 3:15 Friday morning in Fresno and went to bed in DC at 3:15 Saturday morning. We were supposed to arrive at 4:45 Friday afternoon in DC, but we were delayed 2 hours leaving Fresno due to weather in Dallas and had to reschedule our connecting flight to DC. That flight was supposed to leave at 6PM, but ultimately left at 10PM and got us into DC at 1:30AM. We managed to sleep until 10 Saturday morning and get breakfast with our friends who were also running the race, but had arrived on Thursday.

            We ended up going to the expo to get our bibs and facing the longest expo line I’ve ever seen; it took about 50 minutes to get in. We all got together for our pasta dinner at Carmines and a fine time there.

Sunday morning Jodi and I got up at 5 and then joined the others for the subway trip to the Pentagon City stop. From there it was a nearly 2 mile walk to the staging area; longest warm-up ever! But all went smoothly and we enjoyed the flyover and National Anthem to get us started.

            My legs felt sluggish early on and we had mile long hill around mile 2 to get our heart rates up. Another 50 stater who was pacing the 5:15 group started talking to me. It was Tom Perry whom Jodi and I had met at Hatfield-McCoy’s back in June. He’s run over 600 marathons and all the states 6 times. More amazingly he has run over 200 marathons since being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in 2019. A few miles later, I caught up with Melissa and enjoyed running together for a few miles. I was doing 4/:30 run/walk and keeping my miles around 12. Jodi had told me to pay close attention to the “Blue Mile” where fallen marines were honored; it was very moving.

            Just after the halfway point I had to make a pit stop was lasted 4 ½ minutes. After that I felt much “lighter” on my feet and ran faster the 2d half than the first. The second half is where we saw most of the monuments including Washington and the Capitol. The finish was up a steep hill to the Iwo Jima monument and the receiving of my medal from a Marine.

            Jodi did the 10K and then went to mile 22 of the marathon to encourage me and then meet me at the finish so we could take the subway back to our hotel together. With the walking before and after the race, I had 31.1 miles, a 50K. Jodi was also on her feet after her race waiting to cheer all of us and the other runners so long day for both of us.

            The medal displays the Marine emblem and actually opens up. We finished the day with gelato, meeting Clare Hernandez who lives in DC and gave us some great food tips for next few days.

            Our touring of DC started with an interactive International Spy Museum tour. We also had tours of the Capitol and the White House and enjoyed seeing Mt. Vernon and the changing of the guard at Arlington National Cemetary. We got to see the Library of Congress, the National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of the Bible, the National Zoo (with the Pandas) and even take a night cruise on the Potomac. I also took a walking tour on our last day (Jodi needed to rest) of WWI and WWII memorials as well as Korean War, Vietnam War and Lincoln and Washington memorials. Even with extensive use of the metro (right next to our hotel), we ended up walking 6-8 miles a day so no need to run that week.

This was Marathon #178; 37 states+DC on 2nd go-round; All 10 Canadian provinces.

Next marathon: Las Cruces, NM Jan. 7, 2023

Marathon photos: https://photos.shutterfly.com/album/1749132124062671

DC Touring photos: https://photos.shutterfly.com/album/1749136513106573