Race Reports, Kudos, and Encouragement for Oct. 27th and 28th

[Jodi]

Mike - I don't only use that Chi for running ya know...You're just jealous 'cause you had to wait longer in your line AND your porta potty smelled worse than mine . Loved your race report!

OK, here's mine.

DH & I arrive @ BWI around noon & drive straight to the Armory for packet pick-up. Well, we got lost first, then got there. Pouring rain/miserable day. I walked into the expo, looking for packets for about 20 mins. b4 finding out that they were in a different building. So we went over there & unbeknownst to me (found out all this @ the WISH meet later in the evening) you had to go through metal-detectors & wait in line to get your chip read . I just kinda walked up & missed all that line stuff ooops.

Friday night's WISH meet was so neat , the only downside was that Dave & his dad were late in getting there...and, of course, that Colleen wasn't there at all . You were there in spirit, though, Canada! It was weird sitting down w/ people I'd never "met" b4 but feelt like I knew just the same. Sara, Dave & I were all in the same hotel, so I got to ride over to dinner in a hotel shuttle w/ Sara, her DH & the above mentioned angels of hers. 2 better behaved & pleasant kids would be hard to find! . My son would've been, well, forget it.

Did a little sight seeing w/ the hubby on Sat. & turned in early.

On race am Dave, Sara & I met in the lobby, along w/ Dave's dad, & took the metro to the start line. When we got off our stop Mike & his wife were there, then somehow, Chester & his wife were there, too! It was so cool! So we all got to head over to the start together. Shivering (well I was) & needing to pee badly, I searched my inner Chi, entered a "Zen-like" state & found the quickest porta potty line (much to the chargrin of others who shall be nameless, & picked longer lines ). Once that was done, we were all standing in a circle & my phone started ringing...and who was it? but Colleen calling to WISH us all good luck. What a sport!

The race began & we all hung together for the first 2 miles or so, then started to disperse. Dave & I ran about 16-17 miles together, getting split up here & there along the way, until finally losing eachother "for good". He pointed out the DC sites to me while I grunted "cool" here & there, picking my head up to see what he was talking about . Thanks for hanging w/ me, Dave, I know I can be, um, pretty non-verbal @ times (but not as bad as Sara ).

Lots of people @ this race, w/ supertight running conditions @ some of the water stops. Definitely not a marathon to PR at (unless you're freakishly fast & leave the rest of us penguins in the dust ) Crowd support was unreal, there was hardly anywhere you ran where there wasn't at least 2-3 people on the side of the road. People handing out twizzlers, candy, fruit, even water & gatorade @ one spot. I'm not one for drawing energy from a crowd, but this was darn right inspirational at times!

I loved the heinous hill @ the end...but then again, I had 3 guys in front of me holding flags (Marine Corps, USA & Naval, I believe) so I used that to draw me up the hill. Very cool having marines put mylar blankets on you & medals around your neck , but I'm thinkng this might be a +thing only for the ladies .

Getting out of the running "area" was a complete nightmare , though. The food they offered (pretzels, water or Powerade, banana & box of raisins) was rather paltry, but as my DH pointed out, they were "feeding" 24,000 people.

So I finished a little after 12:30 & had to catch a flight out of BWI @ 3:55. . Ok, not the best planning on my part. Once I got through the crowds to try & find the metro, I realized the metro, was, uh, crowded! So I went to find the shuttle bus that'd drop me off near where our hotel was. Waited only about 15 mins. for that, but the bus driver took a wrong turn on the way back & added @ least 5 precious more mins. to travel time. Called DH when I arrived @ parking lot & tried to run to the hotel . He in turn, tells me that while he's been in the lobby waiting for my arrival, the hotel has locked us out of the room, with our luggage still in it !!! YIPES. THey let us back in no prob, to get out stuff, I sneak in a quick shower & out the door we go.

We have to go a longer way to BWI b/c of all the road closures due to the marathon. It's now 2:15 I drive, well, fast, until we hit serious traffic. We get to the rental car parking lot which is out in left field. @ BWI - you have to take a shuttle bus to the terminal. As we're running down the sidewalk a bus is just filling up - we make that one, barely. Oh, did I mention I had to pay like, $6.50 a gallon for gas 'cause I couldn't fill it up b4 I got there? . NICE

Anyhow, we get through security just as they're calling for boarding for the "A group" on our Southwest flight. And we're in the A group, so we literally come down the stairs to our gate & follow the last of the A groupers on the plane. PHEW .

So actually, it was kinda like 2 marathons in 1 day . So glad I made it home last night, though. I'm sure some didn't if they cut it as close as I did, not anticipating the madness @ the post-race area. Next time I'll plan more accordingly.

I guess I'm going to try & head over to your guys weekly mega training thread now that MCMs over. I have to start thinking about GOOFY, now. Not sure if I can keep up w/ everyone over "there", though.

OK, waiting for more ToTers & MCMers to report here!

 

[Maherae]

georgiagirl/Beth, Of course I remember!! Hugs to Pierce for continuing to be such a good cheer leader and showing his sister how it's done! FANTASTIC job, Beth on cutting 3 minutes off of your time!! Wow!!
SeeDisney, when is your event? Have a great time!
nicolita3, So glad you made it in time!! and that you had fun afterwards!!
Mike and Jodi, I already commented over on the MCM thread. You all did such a fantastic job!! Thanks for the reports!
Swandiverpatt, I hope you introduced yourself to someone!! You did a GREAT job!! As I told many people..our medal looks exactly like the fourth place winner's!!

 

[princessmomma]

So I finished a little after 12:30 & had to catch a flight out of BWI @ 3:55. .:

A 3:55 flight after a 8 a.m. marathon start??

That shower must have been a real drive thru!

Great race report! Did you like the medal?

DH and I want to take the kids the DC sometime this Spring. How was the hotel? Were the beds comfy? The breakfast OK?

 

[princessmomma]

Once that was done, we were all standing in a circle & my phone started ringing...and who was it? but Colleen calling to WISH us all good luck.

Jodi, that was my chi flowing...I was able to tap into the perfect time to call...sort of like when Dave found me and MelR on the way to the corral ...and picking up Steve around mile 3 at last year's Disney marathon...unexplainable...but all good!

On race am Dave, Sara & I met in the lobby, along w/ Dave's dad, & took the metro to the start line. When we got off our stop Mike & his wife were there, then somehow, Chester & his wife were there, too!

See above...unexplainable.

 

[Optimator]

Mike - I don't only use that Chi for running ya know...You're just jealous 'cause you had to wait longer in your line AND your porta potty smelled worse than mine

Hey wait a minute... I know a good thing when I see it. I got in your line after you and Sara and still beat Dave and Chester.

Oh, and BTW: I noticed those Marines took just a tad more care draping the mylar blankets over the women than the dudes! It was kind of like "Here, beat it guy. I see a babe coming up the hill!!"

Great report! Every race is a learning experience. Now you know to do the post-race math and figure out a REASONABLE time to try to fly home!

 

[tiberius]

While it seemed all the WISHers were meeting in Orlando and Wahington, I was here in Houston to do a half marathon.

The weather was outstanding. It was quite cool early on, for most of the morning the warmth of the early sunlight felt good, which is a real change for this area. There were well stocked aid stations every 1.5 to 2 miles.

I ran what must have been my best race possible. I actually could not slow myself down to my goal pace but I did slow down enough to stay comfortable and strong.

I wanted to beat my April 1st half time of 2:57:55 and hoped to beat my PR of 2:50:00 for this race. Well, I succeeded by running a 2:35:52.

The post race party was great and for the first time I stuck around for a post-race massage, which was also great!

 

[Big Vic]

Richard - Congrats! Great pace!

Congrats to all of the racers this weekend!

 

[CynthiaCindy]

I’ve already posted a shorter race report on the MCM thread, but here is my slightly edited, longer version after having another day to reflect on the marathon. Warning – this is really, really long.

I have a tendency to over-think things and, as I am asked questions by friends, family, and co-workers about the marathon, I find myself constantly analyzing my thoughts about it. I want to be able to say that I really enjoyed the race, and part of me did, but that is not the whole story.

It was cold Sunday morning. DH and I had gone to Target the day before to get some throwaway sweats – on sale for $4.66. I’m so glad I had those. I am a total baby about the cold (although having run a few races and many, many training runs in the extreme heat, I was very happy for the cold) and would have been very uncomfortable without them. I took the pants off before the start (very hard to remove pants while running) but actually left the sweatshirt on for about two miles.

I lined up in the 4:30 to 4:59 corral and crossed the start line 10 minutes after the start. Starting was a great feeling. I was actually running a marathon. A year and a half ago I never, ever, ever would have thought that I would be doing that. Also, at this point I have only been seriously running for 13 months and the fact that 13 months ago the thought of running more than a mile was laughable made me laugh that I was actually running a marathon. The course was definitely very, very crowded, which I didn’t really mind, since, I wasn’t trying for a specific time. Everyone was pretty much forced to walk through most of the water stops because “traffic” came to a standstill. Again, this didn’t really bother me - I figured I would just go with the flow.

I was feeling great and I think I really enjoyed the race until around mile 11. That is when I saw DH. He is a much faster runner than I am and he was planning on running at a pace at least 30 seconds per mile faster than me (and this would be a very easy pace for him) so, needless to say, I was very surprised to have him come up behind me. And he did not look good. He told me that he felt like his stomach was cramping up and he had lost time running off the course to seek out a port-o-potty. He also said that his calf was really bothering him. It had been bothering him since we ran the Army Ten Miler 3 weeks before, but was starting to feel much better the week before the MCM. At this point he ran on past me. I was kind of freaked out, but tried to stay calm. I then came upon him a bit before the half because he had stopped to go off to the side to try to stretch his calf. He said it was really hurting him and he was having trouble running. And he said he felt like his stomach was still cramping up. Now he was really freaking out and saying he wasn’t sure what to do and if he should finish or take the Metro back to Rosslyn. We crossed the half together and then I left him a bit before mile 14 (with him limping and having stomach cramps) and was worried about him for the rest of the race. I wasn’t really enjoying the race because I really wanted to know what was going on with him. I knew that if he wasn't able to finish he would be very upset and I was also worried that because of that he would do something really stupid and really hurt himself by not quitting when he should have. Our friend, with whom DH ran most of his training runs, spent the night in the hospital with an IV in his arm after his 19 mile training run (he ran that one alone) because he was so dehydrated. So these are the thoughts that I am having during the race. When I crossed the finish line, my immediate thoughts were 1) OMG – I finished a marathon, 2) I am so, so, so, so happy that I can stop running now, and 3) I really want to get my phone from baggage check so that I can figure out what happened to DH. I felt like it took an eternity to get out of the finish chute and a second eternity to walk to the UPS baggage trucks.

In the end, DH did manage to finish by walking most of the second half and I guess his stomach problems actually went away soon after I left him. He is still in a lot of pain and I’m trying to encourage him to go see a doctor, but he is stubborn and insists that his calf will get better by itself. He is pretty upset with how things ended up, but is happy that he was able to finish.

On the MCM thread, I posted that I was a bit disappointed in myself in the way that I ran the race. After thinking about that statement for a while, I think I can now better articulate what I mean. Except for my legs being a little tight, I actually felt physically fine for the whole race -except that I was tired. However, instead of just allowing myself to run the best race possible, around mile 16 when I was still feeling fine and my heart rate was relatively low, I decided that I should just make sure that I finished in under 5 hours (at that point, I think I was on target to finish between 4:35 and 4:40) and that became my goal rather than just running the race. Instead of just running the race, I was calculating how slow I could run and still make it in under 5 hours. I almost wish that I didn’t have my Polar with me and that I wasn’t able to check my pace and time every few seconds. I love having a Polar footpod for training purposes – it’s great to be able to run anywhere and know how far you ran, but I am thinking that maybe I should consider running my next race without it and just let myself run.

As I think back on the race, I just don’t know why I made the decision to pick a time and let that dictate my race instead of letting how I felt dictate the race. It was my first marathon and maybe at mile 16 I was just overwhelmed by the thought of running 10 more miles and I was worried about DH. I feel like I’ll never know if I could have run faster/better because I didn’t try. And that is what I am disappointed about. I guess I will just look at that as another reason to sign up for the next marathon!

Anyway - enough of the thoughts in my head (I’m even starting to scare myself) and on with the race report.

At mile 24/25 I saw a WISH shirt in front of me! I had been unable to meet up with the WISHers earlier, so, although Sara was actually running faster than I was, I put in a little burst of speed and caught up to her so that I could introduce myself. I’m really glad that I was able to say hi.

For much of the race, I was oblivious to the spectators and the surroundings, but there were a few things that really stood out. I liked the “Beat Oprah” sign at the end of the Key Bridge (although I did not beat her time) and at mile 24/25 some guy was yelling “great job, only 14 more miles!!” which, for some reason, I found highly entertaining. Also, the crowd between mile 19/20 as you were going up the ramp onto the 14th street bridge was amazing! Everyone was screaming and cheering. That was one point where I really felt like I could feed off the energy of the crowd.

Other observations - My lips are still so chapped!! I will never run another coldish race without chapstick. Along the course there were medics with sticks with Vaseline on the end. My lips felt like they were on fire, but it took me until mile 18 to realize that putting the Vaseline on my lips would help. Duh. Of course, the medics at mile 18 were out. I was, however, able to get some at mile 20/21. It felt amazingly better.

Overall, the race was really well organized and I would recommend it to anyone considering a running a marathon. Hearing complaints from others, I would, however, recommend staying at a hotel near the finish line so that you don’t have to deal with the metro or the post-race shuttles after the race (I only live 4 metro stops away but was very happy that a friend who lives a block from the finish line drove us home so we didn’t have to deal with the metro). My only real complaints about the race are that the finish chute took forever to get through – it was so crowded that I was unable to move to even stretch for at least 10 minutes. Also, where were the port-o-potties along the course? I was, um, a bit over-hydrated and really wanted to un-hydrate about 4 miles into the race but I did not want to go in the woods (many men and some women did) and there were so few port-o-potties that the lines were incredibly long that I didn’t want to stand there and risk cramping up. I actually never ended up going until I got home.

Cindy

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

Good Morning WISH teammates

I posted this on the Marine Corps Marathon thread, but I wanted to reconnect with the rest of my teammates too.

OK, let me post my official weekend report now that I have a few more pictures downloaded. My Dad and I met Sara and her family in the hotel lobby Saturday morning and took the Metro out to the Expo. We picked up our numbers, and then Sara and I separated. Dad and I strolled around the Expo checking out all of the booths.

We were looking at one booth that had "unofficial" MCM t-shirts and such. They had some shirts that said "Marathon Wife", "Marathon Dad", etc. We looked for a little bit, and then wandered on. I then feel someone tap my shoulder. It's the salesman from the t-shirt booth, and he says "I want you to have this for your Pop". He gave me (well my Dad really) one of the Marathon Dad t-shirts - no charge. I thought that was really cool. Dad was touched, and decided to go back to the booth to buy the coffee mugs we were looking at.

After the Expo, Dad and I drove out to the Air and Space Museum/Hangar by Dulles Airport. Dad worked as an engineer for the space program when I was born in the late '60's, and it was the highlight of his career. He was in heaven at this museum. He was just walking around with his mouth open, going "wow", and taking pictures of everything. We had a great time at the museum.

I sat down on some chairs, and put my feet up to try to save my legs for the marathon on Sunday. We left to go have an early dinner at Lonestar Steakhouse. On the drive back, we were going by the Iwo Jima memorial so we decided to stop and check it out. I told Dad I wanted to show him where we finished so he could get a sense of the area. We found a parking space, parked, and got out and looked around. I figured if we wanted to see the memorial we should do it now - because there's no way we could get near it when the marathon was going on. [Note - that was an incredibly good decision.] Dad had never seen the memorial, and we had a great time walking around. The Netherlands Carillion even started chiming (it was 6:00pm), and it was playing the tunes of all the armed service branches.

After walking around the Iwo Jima memorial, we went back to the hotel and I got all my stuff ready for the marathon the next day.

Marathon Morning- Up early, get all my gear on, eat an energy bar and we meet Sara and Jodi in the hotel lobby.

We make our way to the Metro and meet Chester and Tracy at the entrance.

We get off the Metro, and Mike and Kathy find us as we're getting off.

So we have the whole crew together at the Pentagon for Port-a-John city where Jodi works her mojo picking the right porta potty line.

Colleen calls to WISH us well, and we're about ready to line up for the race. We work our way to the start, and I ask to be on the left hand side of the road because that's where I told my Dad I'd be. We have an airplane flyover and a goose flyover and we're ready to go. We cross the starting line in only 5 minutes which I thought was really good for all those people.

The 5 of us all start together, and as we run the first mile, we pass under the Arlington Memorial Bridge and see Tracy in her WISH shirt sitting off to the right up on the bridge. I never see my Dad, but it turns out he was on the bridge too on the other side. I was distracted by Tracy's shirt.

We wind our way through Rosslyn, and we start to break up a little bit. Mike and Sara move up ahead, Jodi and I are in the middle, and Chester is right behind us. We cross the Key Bridge, go through Georgetown, and around the Georgetown Reservoir. We catch up to Sara around mile 6, I try to chat with her some, worry I'm about to receive a forearm, and decide to leave her alone.

We turn around to head back towards downtown and the monuments. At mile 11 I see my Dad just past the Lincoln Memorial. I wouldn't have seen him but Sara's husband Mike yelled my name. I looked over to see Mike, and he pointed down. There was my Dad. I ran back to give Dad a hug.

Jodi and I are running together. I point out the sites like the famous statue of the guy with the hat. We're keeping up with the 4:15 pace group, but I'm starting to get tired. I normally take walk breaks during my LRs, and I have not taken a walk break yet. I'm going to pay for this later. We see Tracy near the Smithsonian and wave and say hello. We turn and pass the Jefferson Memorial around mile 15, and make a long loop around a golf course on an island in the Potomac River. This is where the course was the toughest for me. My legs are starting to ache, and I'm getting a little crabby. I also could use a water stop. We pass a first aid station at mile 16, and they're passing out tylenol. Cool, I'll take one of those. I tell Jodi that I'm going to walk at the next water stop. We finally get to it around mile 17. I fill my water bottle up, WISH Jodi well, and get my iPOD out.

I start listening to the DISUnplugged Podcast, and it's a good way to kill an hour and a half. My pace really drops off now as I take more walk breaks. I'm probably averaging closer to 11:00 min miles compared to the 9:30 mpm I was averaging. The 4:15 pace group is long gone now, but I'm still on pace to meet my goal of finishing in 4:30. We cross over the Potomac at mile 20 into Virginia, and we reach Crystal City. This is a double back section so I keep my eyes out for Jodi. This helps me through this part wanting to give Jodi a final cheer. We see each other near the turn around point around mile 22 - home stretch now. Mile 23-24 was a long boring stretch around the Pentagon. Not too much interesting here at all, and I'm glad I have the DIS podcast to listen to.

Now we're back on the road we started on, and we're picking up a lot more spectators. The podcast is over so I put my iPOD away. At mile 25 we run past the turn up to the Iwo Jima Memorial where the finish line is. Oooh, that's cruel. The finish line is so close, but we keep on going. How far do we have to go before we turn around? We reach the turn around point, and get a little bit of a downhill. Yahoo! I'm going to be close to 4:30, and if I push it I can beat Oprah's time of 4:29. I make the turn up to the Iwo Jima Memorial and the finish line. My Dad's standing right there at the turn at the start of the hill. I pass him, give him a thumbs up, and continue on to the finish line. I gotta push it to beat Oprah's time. I turn on whatever jets I have left. There's the finish line, I cross, stop my Garmin, and I'm at 4:28:50! Whoo hoo! I did it. I've also set a new PR by 35 minutes. I'm feeling good. I go up to the Iwo Jima Memorial, and get my finisher pictures taken.

Now comes the time to wait in line. I wait to get through the finish line area, get my water, banana, and some Powerade. Meet my Dad at the "W" banner, and find Mike, Kathy, Chester, and Tracy. We snap some pictures, and go our separate ways.

Dad and I head back to the hotel. By the time we catch the Metro the lines are gone. I think they put some more trains on duty, because our train was totally empty when everyone boarded at Rosslyn. We slept well, and got up to go to the airport Monday morning.

It was a great race, a great weekend, and I feel like I made some new friends. I'm definitely feeling a bit of the post-marathon letdown and blues, but all and all it was a fantastic weekend.

 

[Jen117]

Great reports and CONGRATS TO EVERYONE!!!

Dave - Great report, I am so proud of you for the PR. I always love how you post all those pics!!!!!

 

[Jodi]

Richard - Congrats on an awesome PR

Is anyone out there running NYC this weekend???