Race Report: Marine Corps Marathon

Location: Arlington, Rosslyn, and Crystal City, VA and Washington, D.C.
Date: 10/27/2013
Time: 7:55 AM
Weather: Start - low 40s, Finish - low 50s

Time: 3:27:17
Overall: 1221/23,380
Division: 172/1628 (25-29)

THE COURSE

It's not exactly easy to describe 26.2 miles through the DC area. There are just too many landmarks to use as points of reference. I'll do my best to sum them up as quick as possible.

The marathon starts in front of Arlington National Cemetery (which comes after getting off at the Pentagon Metro stop and a long walk in the dark) and heads north into Rosslyn. After a quick jog to the west (up the biggest hill on the course) we headed back east and crossed the Potomac into Georgetown. From there the course heads north up Rock Creek Parkway before turning around and heading south, following the same stretch. Once leaving the Parkway, we headed south past the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Memorial, and FDR Memorial. We continued south until we hit Hains Point at the half-way mark, where we turned back to the north. At mile 16 we passed both the MLK Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial again, where we turned back to the east and made the long run from there to the Capitol. From the Capitol we headed back to the west passing in front of the Air and Space and Smithsonian Museums. After "Beating the Bridge" at mile 20 and heading southwest across the Potomac, we looped through Crystal City before one last lonely stretch in front of Arlington National Cemetery again. Finally, at mile 26, you make one last left turn and head up a short steep hill. This stretch is lined with cheering spectators and hundreds of Marines, who made me feel at least, that I couldn't show weakness, even though at that point I could barely walk. After a right turn half-way up that hill you can finally see the finish line and the Iwo Jima Memorial (Marine Corps Memorial).

WHAT WAS GREAT ABOUT THIS RACE

Just about everything...

Out of the six marathons I've now done, this definitely had the best course, definitely had the best weather, and likely had the best spectator support (it's been a long time since I ran Chicago, so it's hard to compare).

Course - It's not hard to put together a decent marathon route that is 2/3rds contained in Washington D.C. If you put together a checklist of things you want to see, this course crosses most of them off. Georgetown, all of the Memorials (Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, FDR, MLK, WWII, Marine Corps... I've likely missed a few as well), White House, Capitol, Smithsonian...

Weather - This is never under the control of the race organizers, but late October on the eastern seaboard is typically great marathon weather. (Read that as the temps are cool, but not too cold that you need to layer for everything.)

Spectators - Honestly, there are very few places along the course that the spectators haven't managed to get out to. Most of those are because the cops just wouldn't let them there. Another piece of this that was great was that so much of the course (~10 miles) was contained in the Mall area of D.C., which allowed for friends and family (or in my case wife and family) to see you in multiple places.

WHAT WASN'T SO GREAT ABOUT THIS RACE

Very few things...

The walk from the Pentagon Metro station in the cold and the dark kind of (did) suck...

The line to get into the expo (about half an hour) sucked...

Transportation getting out of Rosslyn on the Metro would have sucked, but we called an audible (called my awesome Aunt and Uncle who were a couple miles away driving to the Metro stop they were going to pick us up at) and were picked up about two blocks from the finish festival.

OVERALL RACE THOUGHTS

This is one of those, "Oh, what could have been" races.

Last August I had a bad case of Plantar Fasciitis pop up in both feet. I manage to heal enough to run Disney this past January, but the pains never fully went away. I managed to do most of my training runs during the lead up to MCM, but I never felt quite right in the weeks leading up to the race. I had ankle pain on any longer run, and still some residual pain in my Plantar Fascia.

My hope going into the race was that I would run about 3:15, which would have been almost a 12 minute PR. I knew that would be difficult, but if everything went well, attainable.

As the race started, I tried to stick with the 3:15 pace group, but lost them (ran away from) after about two miles. The first half of the race was pretty uneventful, other than I ran too fast...

As I hit the 12 mile mark, I knew I was in trouble. My ankle started to throb, and got pretty bad, pretty quickly. I pushed through a bit longer until I hit the half-way point. I crossed there in 1:34:27, which being just under four minutes slower than my half-marathon PR, was way too fast.

At this point, due to my ankle, I had to start walking. (Yes, it becomes quite depressing to go from trying to PR to just worrying about finishing.) At first it was run the next mile and a half, then walk for a couple minutes, but soon it was down to walk for a minute or so, then run the rest of the mile (and repeat to the next mile marker). I'll spare everyone the splits of my running/walking as the miles went by, but they slowly got worse...

Eventually I got back in front of Arlington, where I saw Vanessa and my Uncle Ed one last time, made that left hand turn and ran up to the Iwo Jima Memorial. (The one funny story I'll take away from the race was going up that hill, there were Marines lining the right-hand side of the road. As I went up the hill I gave them all high-fives and thanked them for their service, the only problem was that a Marine giving a high-five to a runner 26.1 miles into a marathon is not a fair fight. I'm pretty sure I was nearly knocked down once or twice.)

Eventually I crossed in 3:27:17, which is only 23 seconds behind my PR. Not bad, but nothing close to what I thought it could be.

Special shout-out to my beautiful wife and my amazing Aunt and Uncle, Katy and Ed Johnson, for getting up early with me, dropping me off at the Metro, running around the Mall to see me as much as possible, and just generally putting up with me.

BLING

The globe in the center of the medal spins!

Vanessa and I after the race (the jacket is awesome)

Race Report: Disneyland Half Marathon

Location: Anaheim, CA
Date: 9/1/2013
Time: 5:30 AM
Weather: Not 100% sure,  probably upper 60s at the start, mid-70s by the time I finished, extremely humid

Time: 1:32:21
Overall:82/15868
Division: 16/867 (25-29)

THE COURSE

Having never been to Disneyland before the weekend of this race, it was definitely interesting to compare and contrast the area that they had to work with for Disneyland and Walt Disney World outside of Orlando.

The course starts towards the western edge of Disney property, in the Disneyland Hotel/Downtown Disney area and immediately heads south, follows the street that forms the southern border of property before turning north and then into the backstage area of Disney's California Adventure (which is the park they opened in 2001 on what used to be Disneyland's parking lot). The most unique part of DCA was running through the new Cars Land, which was built to look like Radiator Springs from the movie Cars (obviously). Since the race started at 5:30 in the morning, it was still dark out as I ran through this part of the park, which made the scenery awesome, due to the neon lights mostly. It reminded me of car shows with my family when I was young, so there was a nice nostalgia feeling to it.

Moving out of DCA, we entered Disneyland, ran a small loop before coming through Sleeping Beauty's Castle. After Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, and Mickey's Toontown, we headed out into the streets of Anaheim. The next 3 1/2 miles or so were basically a non-event. Non-descript street, turn, non-descript street, turn... you get the picture. Once we got close to the Honda Center, it was nice to see some local old car clubs out similar to how they were out at the WDW Speedway for the marathon in January.

After running around the Honda Center (the old Duck Pond of Anaheim for those Mighty Ducks 2 fans out there), we followed a gravel trail along the Santa Ana River before running into Angels Stadium. (I have a love hate relationship with running through baseball stadiums, I'm up to three now, so I feel like I can officially give my opinion. I love the scenery, but absolutely hate running through non-domed stadiums. Miller Park, which has a retractable roof, has a dirt warning track, which is where you run for all of these races, any non-domed stadium has a gravel-like rocky warning track, which always gets kicked up into my shoes...). 

The rest of the race is pretty non-descript, you head west from Angels Stadium, eventually getting back to the same backstage road behind DCA. Instead of heading into the park though, you run behind Downtown Disney, take a right-hand turn and head north to the welcoming finish line.

WHAT WAS GREAT ABOUT THIS RACE

The atmosphere at Disney races is always a little different than other races, and this was no different, at least at the start. (There is a completely different feel between running at DL and WDW, I guess it really depends on if you'd rather kill your miles running through forest/swamp, or through a city.)

WHAT WASN'T SO GREAT ABOUT THIS RACE

Getting to Anaheim. The I-5 sucks, at least in LA County. We'll just leave it at that.

I also realize they can't have Disney characters off property, but I would have loved to see some in the last mile, maybe some welcoming us back to Disneyland property...

RunDisney is finally correcting an issue that they've had with all of their non-female oriented races. They are finally having women's specific shirts (sizing, not themed). I only bring this up, as Vanessa put herself down for a small shirt during registration, and due to the sizes running large (in general), she and hundreds of other women wanted to exchange their small shirts for extra-smalls. Obviously, they ran out of extra-smalls and not everyone was happy... Sadly, they aren't correcting their issue until next January for the WDW Marathon...

And the weather... oh the humidity...

OVERALL RACE THOUGHTS

When trying to run a PR, some friendly advice, don't spend six hours on your feet in an amusement park when its 95 degrees and humid. It just doesn't work.

Beyond that, for the most part, the race went well. It was slightly disappointing not to PR, but when considering the weather and previous day, I should have known it wasn't going to be in the cards. Also, it was disappointing to take a couple of walk breaks. They probably amounted to only a minute or so of walking, but when you are aiming to run sub-7:00 miles, any walk breaks hurt that goal...

BLING

Disneyland Half Marathon medal

Coast to Coast Challenge medal (half marathon or longer at both Disneyland and WDW)

Race Report: Madison Mini-Marathon

Location: Madison, WI
Date: 8/17/2013
Time: 7:00 AM
Weather: Starting in the low 60s, rising throughout

Time: 1:30:30
Overall:129/3927
Division: 24/272 (25-29)

THE COURSE

WHAT WAS GREAT ABOUT THIS RACE

I get to sleep in my own bed... I know just about every inch of the course... The after race party location...

Beyond the obvious, Vision Events does a top notch job with the race logistics. The expo was located at Union South, and had a nice variety of races/vendors/other booths. I don't go to expos with the plan to buy anything, and I didn't here either, but it was so much easier to walk around here than at others, such as the WDW Marathon weekend expo (of course there were 40,000 plus people running there, but it was crowded beyond belief).

As far as the race, getting to the starting line was extremely easy, and for the few minutes that I was in the corral, they were playing short pieces of songs rather than letting them drag out for too long, which not surprisingly, kept my attention just a little bit better.

WHAT WASN'T SO GREAT ABOUT THIS RACE

I love the Terrace just as much as any UW Alumni, but damn, its just a little crowded after the races. Without lowering the number of people that can run, I don't really have a good fix for this issue. The congestion may be relieved a bit once the construction is done at the Union, but... I have to think the after race location is one of the big draws of the race, so even finishing the construction may not relieve anything.

The corrals at the beginning, two beefs. First, it really shouldn't be that hard to put people into the proper corral. My friend Tim shouldn't need to "big time" anyone to get into the first corral when he finished 6th at the same companies half marathon in Milwaukee (Rock and Sole Half Marathon). I can't remember what I put down for a predicted time, but I'm guessing it was 1:35. How is 1:35 in corral C? That time would have finished in ~238th place, that's still the first corral when taking into account the size of the waves... (Here's a hint, Excel will sort based on the values of a column.) Second, I know it's easier to shoot a gun to start the race once, and let everyone work things out, but take a hint from Crazylegs, start the corrals at short intervals, it just helps get people going when there are this many people packed into a small area.

This one is my own fault in the end, but it is fairly typical now for even half marathons to have an aid station with gel/GU/PowerGel packets. I remembered at mile 3 that I hadn't brought one, which didn't end up being a big deal, but I believe I would have run slightly faster with one.

Last complaint, and this one is small... They couldn't find anywhere else to get the proper course distance? You had to make a tiny out and back in the middle of Lot 60? I know that a half has to be 13.1 miles, so the distance has to come from somewhere, but at that point in the race to have that is almost a killer. I haven't ran the race before, so I can't say what changed in the course to require this, but I much rather would have run an L across the parking lot rather than the tiny out and back, which forces you to slow down a bit when making the U turn.

OVERALL RACE THOUGHTS

I love Madison, I've spent 9 of the last 11 years of my life here. That being said, I tend to only run a couple races in the area each year (Crazylegs and the Berbee Derby). The popular place for races is the campus area, the Arb, and the Warner Park area, all of these I've ran numerous times in my life, so the draw just isn't there for me.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoy the vast majority of this race.

My original intention for the race was to use it as a dry run prior to the Disneyland Half Marathon the day before Labor Day. That course is much flatter than the Madison Mini and I knew I'd have another long run under me as well. That being said, I wanted to go out and see what my legs would do.

From the start, I went out at what has become a comfortably hard pace for me, which is ~6:50 minute miles. The first few miles of the race are essentially flat (save for Langdon/Wisconsin Ave right at the beginning of the race), so it allows everyone to string out a bit and get sorted in place around others running their own pace.

I knew once we hit the Arboretum at mile ~4.5, I would soon find out how my legs were going to hold up. Starting at mile ~5.5, the Arb loop gets into a few rolling hills that will eat legs that are having a bad day. During these hills, I was somewhat surprised to find that my legs felt strong. As others around me faded back a bit, I climbed the inclines without issue. I knew this feeling wouldn't last forever, and I was right.

Just after mile marker 9, the course goes up about a ten block long hill, which isn't necessarily long, and the hill isn't overly steep, but it just keeps going. It was at this point that my legs started to go. Thankfully after that hill there was a fairly long flat/downhill portion, which allowed for some recovery, but the course eventually made it's way to Highland Ave, which passes directly in front of UW Hosptial. The site of the course turning onto Highland nearly made me shed a tear, as it is a short steep hill that seems to kill the best of legs.

Eventually the course makes its way to the Lakeshore path for the last couple of miles before finishing in front of the Memorial Union. This last bit is a nice quiet respite during the last few minutes of pain. Coming up by the Limnology with people lining (in a non-Chicago Chinatown sense) the street gives a great last bit of artificial energy to allow for the runners to finish strong (except for that one girl that puked on the other side of the street while Tim, Laura, and I were waiting for the Kowols Running Club and Kendra to finish).

Will I do the race again? Maybe someday, it's not terribly expensive if you sign up early, it's convenient, and I like most of the course. That being said, I want to run a half-marathon or longer in every state, that's hard to do if you keep doing the same race over and over. Also, the weather is always going to be a roll of the dice. This year, it was great, but eight days later, as I finish this post, we had a high in the 90s, with temps well in the 70s early into the morning with plenty of humidity to go with it. (Yes the race starts in the morning, but I hate humidity in general.)

BLING

Not my picture, but I'm too lazy to take one of my own.