Marine Corps Marathon is a little too large scale of a race for my personal taste, yet there always seems to be someone every year that manages to convince me to sign up for it. I decided that if I was doing it this year, it would most definitely have to be in costume because that is the only way to draw attention to yourself in such a large crowd and I missed out on being ketchup last year when Chris ran as hotdog. However, I had no intentions of actually racing this event until a stress fracture set me back a month on training and caused me to skip out on the early October marathon than I was intending to race. With my other fall marathon not until December, I felt like I needed to put my Next Step training to good use while it was fresh and race MCM.
I woke up with a bad sore throat and stuffy nose, which is never a good way to feel before a 26.2 mile run. I carpooled down to Crystal City with Bromley and Caroline and took the shuttle buses in. This worked out way better logistically than my 2009 metro experience and I even took advantage of the bathroom in the back of the bus. No lines (although the starting area was filled with so many porta-pots that lines weren't an issue at all)! With snow the day before, this was probably the coldest marathon race start I ever experienced and was thankful for the foil blanket I saved from Baltimore and brought with me because it blocked out the wind so well (thanks Chris Farmer for the tip of saving the foil blankets to use at the next race). While waiting for the race to start, so many photographers approached me to take my pre-race photo because of my crazy pink outfit and wig that I ended up turning a few down after 5 photos were taken already.
At 7:45 AM when they started the wheelchairs, I turned to my Garmin watch to lock it onto satellite, only to find that the screen was completely dead! After a few failed attempts to reset it, I began to panic. I have never run a marathon without a watch before. Even before my Garmin days, I at least had a stop watch to keep track of overall time. I considered the idea of running with the official pace group before deciding they were going to be too chatty for my personal quiet running nature. I decided I would just have to run the entire race on feel, relying on my internal pacing and whatever race clock splits were available.
I lined up in the 3:20-3:39 corral and was surprised to cross the start line only 36 seconds back from the clock. Unlike when I liked up in the 4:00 corral in 2009, there was no wall of people disrupting my pace. I ditched the foil blanket and hand warmers about 0.5 miles into the race but my hands did not stop feeling numb until mile 3. The whole first half of the race went off without a hitch. I was dead on 8:00 min pace at every mile marker where there was a marine shouting out the clock time and feeling good. I was able to jog through all the aid stations, practicing the water drinking technique Next Step taught me (who knew there was actually a skill to this?!). The crowd support was amazing and I heard some variation of "Go Pink/Pinky!," "Nice wig/outfit!," and just straight up chuckles every few feet (I only heard "Go Amanda!" once at mile 9 and knew that had to be my coworker because I told her to look out for a pink fro). I almost started feeling bad for the runners around me for having to be subjected to that, but it definitely brought a smile to my face because I didn't feel as ridiculous as I probably looked.
I passed the halfway point in a time of 1:44:46 feeling good, but then things started to go downhill from there. At mile 14, I started feeling nauseous and my mouth was dry. We were around Hains Point at this point in the race and the sun was beating down. I could feel the sweat dripping down my face and my hair was completely drenched under the pink fro. Although comfortable to run in, I didn't account for the fact that I would be sweating more and hadn't been hydrating enough. To make matters worse, there was a 3 mile stretch between miles 13 to 16 without a water stop, so I had to suffer through 2 more miles before getting any more water into my system.
When I got to mile 16, I slowed to a walk and made sure I got two full cups of water down. I continued running but didn't really start to feel better until around mile 19. By that point, my body was ready to push again but my legs were starting to feel dead. The marines at the beginning mile markers were really good about shouting out the times, but in the second half, I didn't see as many of them at the mile markers and some of them were slacking on calling out times when I passed, so I really had no idea what kind of pace I was running. Nor did I really care, I just wanted to get to the finish line safely and not be that girl in a pink fro passed out on the sideline. Since I was running in costume, I didn't have any serious time goals/expectations for this race and just wanted to have fun. I had planned to pace around a 3:35 time with my watch, but since that died on me minutes before the race, my plan B was just to run as fast as I could comfortably and see what would happen.
The 3:35 pace group passed me as we were crossing the bridge, but I honestly didn't really care cus I had already tossed all goals but to finish out the window. I was running the little out-and-back stretch in Crystal City lost in my own little world when my cousin yelled my name out from the other side of the street. I did not expect to see him at all during the race, especially only a mile behind me, but I was so proud of how strong he was looking in his first marathon. His longest run in preparation for the race had only been 12 miles but I guess he could get away with that and still kick ass being in the Naval Academy and only 21 years old.
As I was making my way through the final stretch to the finish line, the announcer called out my bib# and was asking to get a name. He then announced to the crowd "Here comes Amanda An from Ellicott City wearing all pink!" I was pumped and put my arms up in the air as the crowd cheered. I waited in line to have a marine put a medal around my neck and he joked that he wasn't sure he could get it around my big hair. The medal was the coolest one I've received from a race thus far. It was the Marine Corps logo (the eagle, anchor, and globe) with the globe part spinning and having the Iwo Jima Memorial in the back.
The post-race amenities were an improvement from 2009. They had the standard bagels and bananas but also gave out these snack kits with hummus, pretzels, trail mix, edamame, and chocolate. I didn't see too many Hoco Striders after the race, but was able to find Hai pretty easily, who unfortunately had to miss out on the race but still came out to cheer.
I finished the race in a time of 3:37:17, which was a 1 min and 31 second PR, but I felt like crap the whole second half of the race. There are certainly a lot of things that I could/would have done better, like hydrate more and pace better with a watch, but I am happy with the way I handled the circumstances. It was definitely a great experience to run such a large-scale race in costume. If I ever do it again, I definitely don't think I'd wear a costume AND race it.
I definitely look forward to the Rehoboth Marathon in December, which I will be racing more seriously (the watch better not fail me then!). It's a much smaller race field with more personal attention, amazing post-race buffet food, and hotels within walking distance of the start/finish.
Go Pinky!!!
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