Hills in the beginning were bigger than I anticipated but nothing to fret over as they are no hillier than I train on. The downhill around mile 3 was long and congested as the hand cyclist were flying down the hill squishing the runners to the middle of the road. The last hill into georgetown wasn't too bad but it did break up the crowd a bit. Georgetown crowd was awesome and VERY LOUD! As we got back toward national mall, the crowds grew much bigger. Coming around the steps of Lincoln memorial was awesome. Felt like we running in the olympics. The run down to Hains point was very pretty but no crowd support. Crossing the 1/2 way point on the way back from Hains point was into a stiff headwind. Saw the wife and daughter around mile 15 and was a big spirit booster after the lonely hains point miles. Finially got back to national mall and the sights were awesome. Again saw wife and daughter around mile 18 and gave my daughter a big high five. Everything up to mile 19 was perfectly on plan. Miles were a consistant 7:45-7:55/m. As we crossed over the bridge into crystal city (around mile 21), the legs were starting to hurt and pace was slowing a little bit. Saw the grim reaper at mile 22 with a sign "The End is Near" and couldn't stop laughing (but it didn't releave the pain). Mile 23. Ugh. Legs were hurting for certain at this point. Pace slowed to 8:37 when I hit mile 24. Mile 24 was on a freeway with NO crowd support at all. Saw more people walking at this point than I saw in the past 24 miles. I had to talk myself into not walking but I did it. Pace was 8:38. Finally hit the main road back to the finish and my spirits perked up (but the legs didn't move any faster). Saw the HILL up to the finish and peeked at my watch and saw I just hit 3:30 with about .2 to go so I knew my 3:30 was just out of reach. Shuffled up the hill to the finish and raised my arms in triumph as I crossed the finish in 3:32:03.

For the most part, I ran a perfect race for a first time marathoner. I kept my speed in check for the first few miles and kept a very consistant pace for 20 miles.

Getting the finisher medal from the Marines was very cool. Big smiles by everyone at that point. Limped up to the finisher pictures and got my picture taken in front of the memorial. Then limped to the charity village to get a quick massage at the Injured Marine Fund charity tent. Meet up with the family and took a slow walk to the finish festival. Finally sat down on the sidewalk and opened a bottle of bubbly and got lots of "damn that is a great idea"! Told stories of the race to my wife as we sipped the bubbly out of the bottle. All told...awesome day and could not have been any prouder.


I trained to run a 3:30 marathon and that is basically how I finished. I was not going to get hurt by overtraining for my first marathon even though I know I could probably run it faster. Made all the right decisions during my training and racing. For my next marathon I plan to use a more advanced training plan and hopefully cut that time down around ten minutes.


For a monster sized field, the entire weekend was impecably run. From the expo to the runners village to the water stations to the finish, the marines did an awesome job to running the show for 25,000 people. The course was beautiful and the crowd support was great. What a great place to do a first marathon!