Marine Corps Marathon - RunMarathon

Started out uphill for the first 2 miles. I was near the 3:30 pacer, but couldn't stand listening to his chatter so knew I had to get ahead of him. Lost him on the downhill at mile 3. It was then that I realized I was going out way too fast. I didn't ever need to see 6:55 splits and when I tried to slow down, I only managed to slow down to about 7:20. Still way faster than goal pace...I was looking to be running about 7:55 the whole time. After the first 5 miles which flew by in my mind, I still attempted to slow down, but to be honest part of me was thinking, if I feel this good maybe I can maintain this pace the whole time. The more rational part of me realized I needed to save something for later in the race, but still couldn't manage to slow down.

The first half was just about 1:40 (1/2 marathon PR is 1:39 and change -- clearly too fast...). But it was a beautiful course around the monuments and with some pretty awesome crowd support. Hit the tidal basin and Hains Point and sowed down a bit, but was still around 8:00/ mile and feeling good. If the race ended at mile 18, I would have left the day feeling awesome. But I did have to finish Haines point and hit the Bridge back to VA with what at that point felt like 70 MPH winds in my face. Thats when the pack I was in really started to thin out and people were walking or stopped on the side and stretching. I was doing my best to fight the wind and the mental anguish and keep moving, hoping the wind would end. The reality is if it were 10 miles earlier, I wouldn't have cared about the wind, but it wasn't, so I did. Got over the bridge and tried to resume a pace close to 8:00 or 8:30 at least to finish under 3:30. Was about to grab water from some people on the side of the road until I realized it was beer. I would have loved the beer, but couldn't imagine it at that point. Someone else in that group did have water, but in my jumping away from the beer and towards the water, I got my right hamstring to totally cramp up... I did have the water so I popped to more endurolytes and stretched and punched the hamstring until I could run again. By then, the 3:30 pacer had passed and I knew 3:30 was not happening. Don't know if I could have run the last 10k faster, but I definitely didn't have the motivation to try. Cruised in with 9:30 - 9:45s.

The hill to Iwo Jima didn't feel so bad when looking back and comparing to my own personal hell that was the bridge. It was a tough moment physically and mentally for me. Glad to have powered through.

Better pacing may have led to a better time. but I am glad to have seen where the limits are. But proper race strategy would have been to try and maintain 7:55s...whatever, I had fun and maybe (hopefully) I learned from it.

photo, powerade, bagel, banana and then to the beer tent to bring in the off-season. Train back to NYC and more beer to celebrate the off season with some other runners in the bar car...then to bed.


Great first marathon. Great venue and very moving with the crowd and, more importantly the marine support. What an incredible experience it was and glad to have experience to do better the next time (NYC 2007).