Monday, October 29, 2007

The 2007 Marine Corp Marathon



Wow! That's about all I can say after running in the MCM. This is a mega-event! The crowd support is tremendous and fuels you as you run those long miles. My wife Audrey and I traveled up to DC on Friday morning and had a great time seeing the town Friday and Saturday. I picked up my packet at the expo on Friday afternoon. The lines were very easy to navigate. The expo was by far the largest I had been to. It was a runners dream as far as shopping goes. You could buy shoes, clothes, supplements, orthotics, etc. Free samples of power bars, gels, vitamins, etc. Saturday we visited the International Spy Museum and the American Gallery of Art.

On Sunday morning we awoke about 4:30 am. I didn't sleep but about 4 hours I think. We boarded the Metro in Dunn Loring for about a half hour ride to the Pentagon at 5:30. The closer we got to the Pentagon the more packed the train became. I was excited but not nervous. Things were very crowded by the time we arrived. Audrey and I just followed the crowd in the morning darkness. After walking about a mile we arrived at the runners village. There were areas set up for baggage claim, stretching, questions, etc. The actual start of the marathon was about another half mile away so we began walking to it. There were corrals to line up in according to your expected finish time. I was hoping for a 3:55 but I lined up in the 3:20-3:40 corral just so I would be amongst faster runners and not get held up. Soon it was time to say goodbye to Audrey so she could go ahead and take pictures. she was going to have to walk plenty far.

It was cool, probably in the low 50's. I gave Audrey my jacket and put on a plastic poncho to stay warm. I was wearing shorts and my VT Hokies short sleeve running shirt. I talked to this older guy beside me. He was going to run NYC marathon the next weekend and admitted he was crazy. I had about a half hour wait there in the corral. I felt loose from the two miles we had walked getting there. There were people everywhere by now. It was shoulder to shoulder in the corral.
After the singing of the National Anthem, a fly over by two Osprey aircraft, and a big Marine oorah, it was time for the cannon to fire.

We were off and I remember the feeling of just floating along that first mile. Waving to the crowds, hoping that Audrey would see me in the mob. Then something funny happened about 2 miles into the race, we were running down a 4 lane divided highway. I was in the right two lanes. Our two lanes stayed flat while the left two lanes went up a significant hill and then came back down where we all rejoined. I heard someone in the left two lanes say "hey they don't have to run up this hill!". I was glad I was in the right two lanes. The course of this marathon consists of two long gradual hills in the first 8 miles and then after that it is flat until about mile 25 where you are basically going uphill all the way to the finish.

I just took things easy on these initial hills. My goal was to stay under about a 9:30/mile pace for these hills. It was really easy to do this and most of the time I was in the high 8's per mile. I was wearing a fanny pack that had a couple granola bars, some energy gel, gatorade and water. I wanted the gatorade and water to get me to about mile 10 that way I wouldn't have to stop at any water stop. About mile 6-7 I had a feeling coming on that wasn't good. I had to find a place to go, seriously go. We were out in a park like area with steep hillsides but were about to come back into the middle of DC. I finally spotted a flat like area up on the hillside I could retreat to so I did a little trail running and got away from the pack. This whole episode took at least 3 minutes. My IT band was aching a little by this time so I went ahead and downed an 200mg ibuprofen. I didn't want it to ruin my day. I rejoined the pack and tried to make up some ground but it was hard to do so. That mile ended up taking about 11+ minutes.

I didn't stress over this as soon we were into the monument/mall area of DC and the crowds were tremendous. Everywhere I heard "Go Hokies!". Up to about mile 12, the running was easy. At about the half way point (13.1), the running started to feel like work. I hit the halfway point around 2:02 which I thought was pretty good although it is probably the slowest I had ever hit the halfway point in my 3 marathons. However, I remember thinking, man I feel strong at this point and was sure I could finish in less than 4 hours. About mile 15 this feeling started to go away so I ate a granola bar. I had been eating energy gel about every 45 minutes up to that point and I had been drinking water about every 2 or 3 miles. The water stops were kinda hard to navigate because many times even if you didn't want to stop you had to. The flow of runners would come to a slow crawl so it was about impossible to run through a water stop.

I had slowed down some from 15-18 miles as we went out onto Hanes Point. This is a difficult part of the marathon because you realize you have a long ways to go and there are no crowds around to cheer you on. The wind and the sun was hitting us in the face through most of this section. It is a beautiful place to run though. You are running right along the Potomac here. About mile 18 they were handing out sport beans which are like jelly beans but they are supposed to be like energy gel in jelly bean form. They were very good. I noticed alot of sport beans were laying on the pavement where runners had dropped them. All of sudden I felt this very sharp stinging pain in my right elbow. I looked down just in time to see a yellow jacket or honey bee flying away from my elbow. It was stinging pretty good. For a couple of seconds I wondered if I should do anything about it. Then I just resolved that it was only minor pain now compared to the way my legs were starting to feel. My quadricep muscles, the big muscles in the upper front portion of the leg were starting to ache. This is totally normal for me but it is still painful. Mile 20 came and went. I knew that the Crystal City portion of the run was coming up and that Audrey should be there. That was something to look forward to.

We hit Crystal City which is sort of like a little metropolis within the city. The buildings here are tall and new. The crowds here were tremendous as well. People yelling, cheering, shouting, as we ran through this portion turned around and ran back out taking me to about mile 23. About halfway into this I saw Audrey on the other side of the street and gave her a wave. I had always thought I would stop and give her a kiss and talk to her real quick. By this point in the race though, I had one mindset... just finish. After we turned around I was going down the side of the street where she was at and I was looking hard for her. I wasn't going to stop. I knew if I stopped bad things would happen in the legs. They would try to lock up. I never saw her but she saw me and took a video clip.

I then entered the toughest part of the race. Mile 23 to 25.5 was pretty lonely. I also knew at this time that it would be impossible for me to finish under 4 hours. I was fine with that because at this point in a marathon you just want to finish. You just want to stop. The roads were wide and the runners were spread out. Runners everywhere were stopping to stretch, rest, and walk. They were dropping like flies. This is also where my right calf decided to cramp sharply. The first time it did it hit me so hard I almost hobbled off the road and sat down. Fortunately it was sharp and quick. I learned to modify my stride to more of a shuffle to keep it in check. It would hit me about 10 more times until the finish. Each time it would be a sharp pain down the back of my leg. I would concentrate on short quick strides and it would go away. At about mile 25 we ran near the finish and we could hear the massive crowd there cheering. At mile 26, we turned right and headed up a very steep hill for the finish. At this point I couldn't believe how steep the hill was and all I could think of was I've got to finish, don't stop, keep moving. I was getting pain sensations from every part of my legs. My breathing was heavy and I was struggling.

As I neared the finish, I felt this big sense of relief come over me. I raised my arms knowing that I had done it (and that the photographers were taking my finishing pictures). It was a really good feeling as I crossed the line. We entered chutes where a Marine put the medal around my neck. My official time was 4:02:51. I would later find out that I finished 5023 out of almost 21000 runners which put me in the top 25%. I was in the top 31% of all the males running the race and in the top 34% of all the males ages 30-34 running the race.

I really wanted some water but after the finish there was just a big mob of runners shoulder to shoulder again making our way up the hill. I stopped at the Iwo Jima Memorial and had my picture taken by the photographers. I reentered the mass and got some water and food and walked the half or mile or so to the family meeting area to meet Audrey. I could walk but very very slowly. I found her under the P section and I felt really good. The Marines really know how to run a good marathon. At some of the water stops they would yell, "Move out!" which really helped. It was just a beautiful day to be alive, to see all those young Marines serving their country, and to run a marathon... Semper Fi, long live the U.S. Marines.

I'd like to thank the Lord for giving me the strength to do this. After I took that ibuprofen my IT Band never was an issue again. I think the Lord helped me with that. I would also like to thank my silent training partner, Audrey. She is so supportive of my running and that is what also makes this possible. I would also like to thank several guys (and a gal - Sandy) that give me the drive to keep going and and throught their own efforts push me to new heights. My friends, KA (K2), KT (K1), Kenny, Shawn, and Lee.

My stats are shown below. I never could get my GPS to agree with their mile markers. I honestly think the commercial GPS around DC has been rendered not that accurate just so terrorists can't use it as effectively. I kept resetting where the miles started so I could try to keep my mile with their mile. The GPS said 27.14 miles. It sure felt like it was that far.

Total Time (h:m:s)






4:02:55






8:57 pace






Moving Time (h:m:s)






3:59:09






8:48 pace






Distance (mi )






27.14






Moving Speed (mph)






6.8 avg.






90.7 max.






Elevation Gain (ft)






+6,804 / -6,749














Temperature (°F)






56.3°F avg.






59°F high






Wind Speed ( mph)






NNW 17.5 avg.






NNW 20.7 max.






Time Miles Mph cal
1






8:56






1.00






8.1






120






2






9:37






1.00






12.3






127






3






8:53






1.00






11.2






125






4






8:29






1.00






11.4






128






5






2:56






0.29






6.9






37






6






8:48






1.00






8.3






123






7






9:11






1.00






7.6






127






8






6:39






0.77






7.6






98






9






11:41






1.00






9.4






130






10






8:20






1.00






8.3






127






11






8:24






1.00






8.1






126






12






8:46






1.00






17.0






116






13






8:29






1.00






8.1






127






14






8:50






1.00






7.4






125






15






8:42






1.00






7.8






126






16






9:03






1.00






7.6






125






17






8:57






1.00






7.8






126






18






8:38






1.00






7.6






126






19






9:23






1.00






7.8






124






20






9:28






1.00






7.4






125






21






8:46






1.00






10.5






127






22






1:52






0.21






7.2






26






23






9:05






1.00






7.6






127






24






9:18






1.00






10.3






126






25






8:57






1.00






10.7






128






26






9:59






1.00






8.5






123






27






9:25






1.00






7.8






127






28






9:19






1.00






20.8






127






29






3:50






0.41






7.4






53






Posted by Mark at 8:10 PM 1 comments

Sunday, October 14, 2007

A week without running

This week I resolved not to run at all. I biked to work one day. I went on a 56 mile ride with KA on the new river trail which was great. I went on an intense bike ride this morning for an hour. Later in the day I went on a hike in the woods and I ran a little bit. The knee felt fine. I'm going to try running a mile tomorrow if nothing seems to hurt. I hope I can get back in the saddle again and get some runs in before the MCM. I have to ease into this and not overdo it. Thank goodness for the bike. I am really starting to realize that it complements running very well. Running tends to emphasize the back of your legs while biking emphasizes the front. If you only work the back of your legs, tension can actually build up in your legs when the back muscles outgrow the front muscles. Biking helps and I want to make it a routine.

Posted by Mark at 7:28 PM 0 comments

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Taking a big chance


Well with 3 weeks to go to the marathon, you typically run your last long run. My IT band hurts when I run on it. If I don't run for a couple days it sort of feels better. With three weeks to go and 3 20+ mile runs behind me I ran another 20 miler today. My leg hurt every step of the way. I took an ibuprofen before I left and two more during the run. They seemed to help some. Had it not been for my knee hurting, I think it would have been my easiest 20 miler ever. I ran it in 3:21 which counts all the stops I made. I think this is the faster I've ever run 20 miles in training. I had recorded a 3:08 on one of my earlier runs but I had not included stops. I hope I didn't completely mess up my knee today. The pain was subdued after the run with a hot bath. I would rate the pain as about a 6 when the run ended. Well I got through it, mentally I know that even if my knee hurts I can make it through MCM.

Posted by Mark at 7:19 PM 0 comments

Friday, October 5, 2007

3 weeks till the marathon and I can't run!

After the 21 miler at Pipestem. I had one day of rest and then decided to do an easy run with a couple of the guys at work. It was my idea to run a trail near work that's only 1.75 miles but is tough. The first mile is basically up a rocky creek, and then the rest is flat to straight down a very steep hill. When I got back to work, I noticed my IT band in my left leg was aching. I took a day off and tried a tempo run on Wedensday, about 2 miles into it, the IT band started really acting up. By the time I got back to the office the pain was evident and here to stay.

I guess I'm going to have to resort to rest and some cycling! I'm trying not to panic or get depressed but it is tough with only about 3 weeks to go to the MCM.

Posted by Mark at 7:05 PM 0 comments

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