I really don't even know where to start with Marine Corps Weekend! All the emotions, the highs, the lows, the friends, the Marines, the spectators, the Mile 20 group, etc.! So I'm going to do this post in sections. This will be Part 1.......
We were monitoring the weather constantly. Hurricane Sandy was looking to make this a very difficult race, but what's a little rain and wind, right ?? :/
The morning of the MCM started with a 4:15am wake-up call at the hotel. Although, it didn't matter, I saw the clock almost every hour with race anxiety/excitement!! Grabbed some breakfast, then got dressed and ready. My friends and I headed down and put the bags in the car (that valet took FOREVER)!! Once we finally had that dealt with, we headed to the Metro! At least that was uneventful, except for seeing a prostitute broker a deal, and then have a black cat cross our paths LOL!! Washington D.C. at 5:30am !!
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| Our view walking to Runners Village! |
Met up with a lot of other MCM runners along the Metro and headed to the Runners Village at the start. Probably about a mile walk to get there. Found the UPS bag drop, and we were all set!! We made it there by 6:30 to meet up with the awesome RFRC group. The RFRC group was created to support first-time Marathoners, and I was so happy to have found them during my months of training! We met, we huddled, we prayed, and we cheered!! OOOOORAH!!!
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| UPS Bag Drop! |
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| RFRC Huddle! |
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| RFRC! |
Off to the Start line now! Had to head up that way to use our special "VIP Potty" priviledges. This was a perk to spending too much money at the Brooks store during the Expo. I had to have my MCM Finisher jackets, so my credit card melted that day ;) These were "porta potties on trucks", but they had running water and flushed! And I can't forget the VIP Potty Butler handing out mints!! So this was a much better potty experience for race ! Definitely worth it!
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| VIP Potty ! |
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| VIP Potty Butler - this guy was great! |
Now we're moving to the START line!
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| I had to stop and get a picture with the Marines!! |
We headed into our corral. We chose the 4:30 projected finish, just hoping we'd get settled into a nice pace right from the start (eventhough our goal was to #1 - FINISH, #2 - Rock it under 5 hours)!
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| Almost ready to go!! |
Once the National Anthem was played and the Osprey military choppers flew over, I really got a big punch of nerves in the gut! I had to completely just take a deep breath and tell myself "you've trained for this, you've got it"!! Not sure I believed myself though LOL
The race began with the National Anthem, and then two Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 22 MV-22B Ospreys flying from the Pentagon over the starting line!!
They fired the Howitzer and we were off!! It took us 10 minutes to get to the actual start line from our corral !!
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| And we're OFF................ |
Stay tuned for Part 2 !!
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