I'm a week late, but it's been busy since I got back from DC on Monday. Short version: I survived the freezing cold start (complete with a long trek to the official line by the Pentagon), beat the bridge, and crossed the finish in 6 hours and 18 seconds. I would've broken six hours had it not taken so long for a bathroom break at mile 7. There were not enough bathrooms along the course, and the lines were super long. But--the weather was beautiful (once I got warmed up), a vast improvement over Saturday, when it actually snowed in DC.
My amazing family gathered for dinner on Saturday night (after I spent a great day with K; lunch at her place and a trip to the expo, where I ran into another friend). I stayed at my cousin's place near the start on Saturday night. She got up at the crack of dawn and drove me as far as she could before the road closed. She definitely gets the best cousin award! She dropped me off and I joined a crew of runners schlepping for what felt like miles in the dark through the Pentagon parking lots. I didn't prepare for temperatures as cold as it was, so I was absolutely miserable. For a few minutes, I actually wondered if I'd be able to run, since my legs were too cold to move. I was too cold to appreciate the parachute jumpers over the start or Drew Carey marshalling the race. But we got underway at 8--I crossed the start about 8:15am. The first few miles are a blur: through Roslyn, along a really pretty stretch of road with beautiful foliage overhead, along the canal near Georgetown, along M street (which was great after seeing the runners ahead of us pass by on the right) and over the bridge into DC. I saw a friend from Eliot as I was passing by the Kennedy Center, which was so great. I love seeing familiar faces along the course! I was still feeling good at that point, but beating the bridge was always on my mind. Right around the Lincoln Memorial (mile 10ish?) I saw my parents with a giant "We love M" sign that cracked me up. I stopped for pictures with them and Dad had issues with the camera. Gotta beat the bridge, gotta beat the bridge! Still feeling good, I continued along, past the Jefferson Memorial (my favorite) and around the point that I don't remember the name of. I felt good up until the halfway point, when my back end started to hurt. I still had 13.1 miles to go and was stressed about beating the bridge, so I ignored it and kept going. I'm sure it was because I'd started too fast in my frenzy to avoid the stragglers' buses! I started to see some really great signs along the way: "26.2 miles, because 26.3" would be crazy!" and "Hey total stranger, I'm so proud of you!" and some Halloween themed signs, such as "You're goblin up the miles!" and "Run! There's a ghost chasing you."
Right around mile 14, there was a big crowd of frat boys dancing to loud club music. It reminded me of the frat on the corner of 19th street in the middle of the GW campus. Ahead of me, I saw my Galloway teammate I'd been hoping to run into (ha). She's a marathon maniac, and had run Hartford two weeks prior and is doing NYC tomorrow. Crazy, right? Anyway, she was a lifesaver. She dragged me with her for the rest of the race. We saw my family again along the mall at about mile 18. The sign made it hard to miss them. My parents have really become super spectators. I promised I wouldn't make them come to my next race. Anyway, we kept plugging along. C (my Gallo friend) and I were keeping pace to beat the bridge. By the time we hit mile 20 and actually made it on to the bridge, I was thinking, "what do you mean, I'm not done?" So much mental energy went to getting to mile 20 and not into running the whole race. I was starting to feel heavy in my feet and super sore in my low back and hamstrings. But we kept on. The bridge was endless. I thought it was awful before we even left the on ramp for the actual bridge itself. C was laughing at me. She's run MCM before and was trying to prepare me. Oh, it was a struggle. Mile 21 was on the bridge. We finally passed that and got off the bridge in Crystal City. I had a donut hole courtesy of the very nice marine at the food station. Delicious. I was hungry, and the bag of peanut m&ms I had with me had gone quickly, as soon as I started to hurt around mile 14-15.
Crystal City was mostly an out-and-back for the last few miles of the race. It was a huge drag to see the runners ahead of us pass on the right. (Those were definitely the worst parts of the race!) My internal monologue was something like, "Where do we turn? Where in the world do we turn?" (cleaned up for posting purposes). When we finally did turn, I grabbed another donut from the nice marines and we kept going. Mile 23 and 24 have escaped my memory. Mile 25 and 26 were on a stretch of highway with no spectators. Ugh. It felt like we'd never finish. There was a guy next to me who said he was going to take his time and use the full 7 hours now that he'd beat the bridge. (We saw the stragglers' bus when we turned, about 2 miles behind us. So disappointing to put in all the training and not be allowed to finish!) That guy could do what he wanted, but by that point, I just wanted to get off my feet. There was a police tower at mile 26, and once I hit that, I took a hard left and ran up the hill (gasped and said a few choice words) to the Iwo Jima memorial toward the finish. Thank goodness. A marine gave me my medal and congratulated me. I thanked her for her service. It was really powerful to see all the marines along the course volunteering and cheering us on. I kept shuffling along, trying to figure out where my bag and my family were. After another two miles or so (at least that's what it felt like), I found my parents and my warm clothes. Best feeling ever, to put on a sweatshirt and take off my sneakers. I was walking pretty slowly, but I felt good.
The next day, I woke up feeling incredibly sore. My feet hurt worse than they did after last year's NYC marathon. But I was proud of myself and thrilled it was done. I can't wait to sleep in for a few weekends before getting into a winter running routine. It was a fun race, really moving to see all the runners out in honor of veterans, and so many cute marines everywhere! I'm almost fully recovered a week later, and excited to cheer my fellow Gallos and all the other runners on tomorrow!
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