Marine Corps Marathon : Official Thread

Me me! My wife is also running this year, both our third MCMs.

Training is OK so far, we both did our second 20 mile run for the season. I felt surprisingly well mentally, physically, pace wise.

Tips: Definitely recommend taking the Metro(subway) in and out, it's just less logistics to worry about. Hop off at the Pentagon station in the morning and the Finish area is next to the Rossyln station.

That station gets PACKED for the MOP folk. If you are fast and get out of dodge quickly or hang around for the festivities it shouldn't be a problem.

Also, if your final destination is on the Orange line, you would walk a few (5ish?) blocks to the next station Courthouse to avoid the mob at Rossyln.

I'm in for my 6th (I think... maybe my 7th, I'd have to think about it).  

Training? what training?  I've been doing mostly tri's all summer and honestly my last "long" run was the Richmond Marathon last November.  Other than that I think I've done maybe 2 or 3 runs longer than 13.1.  Oh well, I'll survive.

I hope all is going well for everyone, and enjoy the race!!

ETA: Forgot to mention, I'm doing the Waterman's Half (HIM) two weekends before the MCM... should be interesting!

I am in this year.  First marathon in over twenty years.  One long run (20 miler) down, and two more to go.  Looking forward to a great experience, regardless of time.

I'm in!

Doing it through Team In Training so should be a great experience!

I have my first 20 miler this coming Sunday if I can work my way through it.  I haven't done anything more than 13 so far...so I'm a little behind the eight-ball but should ramp up soon because of the endurance I've got still there from IMLP.

Great to hear everyone is doing so well!!

I did a 18 miler last weekend and have a sprint tri on Saturday followed by a 20 miler on Sunday makes for a interesting weekend!!

I am staying in Arlington so hopefully I can avoid all the metro problems

I thought I could walk iin from here Plz let me know if I am wrong.

Yea, that's not too bad... about a mile from the finish and a maybe 1.5 or so from the start... you should be good.  Even if you decided to take metro you'd only go one stop so really not worth it anyway... you're about as close as you can get.

Anyone have advice about the course?

Or how early to get to corrals?

Is anyone running witht he Clif Pace team? I am thinking of starting with the 3:25 person

The course is pretty straight forward, its really not that tough, although the first few miles are super-duper crowded as there are 25K+ runners and the streets are only so wide!  I would never suggest this race to anyone trying to PR or BQ... its just too big.  

Smallish hill coming off Rte 110 at the start not bad since its at mile 1.5 or so.  Steady downhill around 2.75 to 3.5 as your head down to the Potomac river. Pretty flat and easy from that point until about 6.75 where you make a hard 180 degree turn right into a pretty gnarly climb for about a mile.  From 8 to 10 is basically downhill... not always noticeable buy you are working your way back to the city so overall its downhill.  From that point it is basically flat until the end when you hit the driveway up to the memorial/finish line (my lest favorite part... the .2 of 26.2 is a gnarly climb).

11-15 is pretty lonely as there are very few spectators in the park there are some, but compared to what you see everywhere else on the course it is desolate.  there is construction at mile 18 so the road will thin out as a travel lane is blocked off.  20.5-21 can get pretty hairy too, you are going over a bridge so it can get windy and if its sunny out you will have no shade whatsoever. Also since its I high speed road there is a pitch to it so watch your footing.

I'd get to the start area early, this is a huge race so expect everything to take twice as long as you expect.  port-o-pot... there's 30 minutes.  Shuffle up to one of the front corrals 10 minutes before the start... yea good luck!

Not running with a pace team, but again those do get pretty crowded as well... although 3:25 should be much less crowded than say 4:00 or 4:15.  

Never ruuning this race beofre and being a former Marine I want to try to figure out as much as possible before I get there. You are a wealth of knowledge and it is greatly appreciated!!

Well thanks for your service, Marine, and ask any questions you have.  I'll be happy to help any way I can... MCM, or general DC info... fire away.

I've run 5 or 6 MCMs (still haven't counted!) and I do love the race.  It is fantastically well supported, the crowd support overall is great, and you really can't beat the venue.  

I am a IM guy as well and Coke is a save all But the USMC site only says Endurance Formula GAtorade. I have never heard of a stand alone marathon serving Coke they don't know what they are missing in my opinion.  Bring $2 with you as stop at a local 7-11 at mile 20 that would work!!

Good luck on your recovery and journey towards USMC

Quite in here!!

Everyone must be training!!

How was everyones weekend I did my first 20 miler and boy oh boy was that fun!!

What did everyone else do?

Calm before the storm!! 

My training weekend was pretty pitiful, actually.  I had planned on doing a hard 40 mile training ride on Saturday for my HIM coming in 3 weeks, and then do a 10 mile run with my wife on Sunday.  Was all jazzed up for my ride on Saturday morning, until I realized that I forgot my ridding shoes at home... so the ride got scrapped   

I did end up going out for the run, but unfortunately my wife tripped over a branch sticking out from the side of the road and went down pretty hard.  Spent the next mile and a half alternating between a fast walk and a slow walk back.

Hope you recover swiftly from your 20 miler!

Sorry to hear about your weekend of trainnig and your wife hope she is better soon. I am now in a recover week before another 2 week build before taper. My next 4 weeks look like 15, 22, 18, 13, raceday

Thanks... she'll live.  Skinned her knee pretty bad and got a real nice gouge on the palm of her hand but she's a tough chick.  

Good luck with the rest of your training... it looks like you've got it pretty well laid out.

On Saturday, I completed a 20 mile long run ( my second of three long runs).  Felt pretty good on it, except that I tried to run on just water mixed with Nuun.  I didn't really like it.

On Sunday, I did an easy bike ride for recovery.

Thats great!!

Have you tried the race course nutrition? The Gatorade Endurance Formula? I have been running with refular Gatorade and I am curious as to the difference in the two.  I don't want to carry any fulids with me I want tolive off the course.

How was everyones training weekend?

15 miler with a head cold = BAD!!

Hope you are all healthy and training hard!!