Marine Corps Marathon 2009 - I did it!

Get married - Check.

Have children - Check.

Run a marathon - Check.

Well, not necessarily in that order and not without other items before, between, and after, but, these things were on the top of my un-written life bucket list.

And, as of right now, they have all been completed.

Yes, that's right, I'm married! :) And I have kids!

Oh, wait, you knew that. But....

I AM NOW A MARATHONER!!!

I did it. I faced this challenge and finished the 2009 Marine Corps Marathon. What a day. Overwhelming, exhausting, emotional, uplifting....and purely amazing. I had to push myself at the end and repeat a few key phrases from my coach and friends:

- Trust your training.
- It's all mental.
- Never give up.
- I am stronger than this.

Here's a re-cap of my awesome day:

4:30 a.m. - Wake up and prep. I'd laid everything out for myself and Greg and the boys the night before, so I just had to get dressed, relax, make breakfast, etc. I admit I didn't sleep well on Saturday night. This sounds typical. But I was physically tired yesterday at 4:30. Oh, well!


5:00 a.m. - Jane picks me up and drives me to East Falls Church Metro. Bless her for listening to me blabber on.


5:35 a.m. - Get on Metro to Rosslyn. No crowds, lots of runners. I felt out of my league around people who were in race gear already....I had mine on, but on the advice of my coaches, I also had on long pants and a long sleeved shirt (both of which I pitched at the start line). So I felt all bundled up -- but I was warmer than them! :)


6:15 a.m. - Find my charity tent, eat breakfast, and relax. I saw some guys I'd met at the pasta dinner the night before. Supposedly one of them told Greg later (before I made it back to the tent) that I looked "incredibly relaxed". Greg thought to himself, "This guy has no idea".


Between 6:15 - 7:30 a.m. - I peed twice in the dark porta-johns. The second time, I walked in, locked the door, and cried. I just needed to release. And I was alone in that emotion. I did it, I straightened my shoulders, I peed, and then I left. I walked to the start line with a Marine named Sara.


7:30 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. - Drank water, ate energy chews, semi-grooved to the music. :)


8:00 a.m. - I'd shed my outside layer of clothes and was ready to go. But...


8:09 a.m. - ...I finally crossed the start line after 9 minutes. I'd put myself in the 4:10-4:29 expected finishers corral- so it took that long for me to cross the start line. Obviously lots of people ahead of me!


Mile 1: Easy, slow, lots of people passing me but I just let them go by me.


Mile 2: Saw my friend Jenn C. - uphill run. Kept a slow, steady pace.


Mile 3: Saw my friends Josh, Megan (and their kids) and Penne and Dan. Easy, downhill but again I let people pass me - kept my pace. Knew I was being smart to keep my pace and that I'd regret going faster later even though I felt fabulous.


Mile 4: Uphill to the Key Bridge. Sunny. Kept my pace. Crossed the Key Bridge and took water and Powerade.


Mile 5: Grabbed my friend Jen "The Bandit", who ran Georgetown loop with me. So wonderful! Had my first energy gel.


Mile 6: Flat, easy.


Mile 7: Reservoir Road HILL. Glad I had my bandit with me for the hill, which was tough but not awful. The sunshine was head on but still okay. The weather was beautiful - crisp, cool, and not humid.

Mile 8: Downhill, Georgetown, easy.

Mile 9: I dropped off Jen at the Key Bridge and kept chugging. Lots of good downhills/flat roads here so I picked up the pace. Too early...? Maybe.

Mile 10: Saw Greg and the boys and my parents....yay!!! Kept the pace at 9:30/9:45.

Mile 11-14: This was basically by the Tidal Basin and through Haines Point. It was flat and windy but quiet and really easy for me. I actually really enjoyed this point! I took more gel at this point.

Mile 14-16: I started getting a little tired at this point, but kept pushing it. Really wanted water at some point but at the first stop I saw three girls were stopped SIDE BY SIDE at the front of the table. Um, HELLO...MOVE PLEASE. So annoying.

Mile 17: Saw my family again on Constitution Ave. Yay!! Still felt good but felt slightly sluggish. I again had a bit of gel but slowly. Should have had more water.

Mile 18/19: Around the Capitol Reflecting Pool and back down the Mall. I really wanted water again and chugged it when I found it. Saw my family for the last time here...they got me going through mile 20.

Mile 20: Got a pick up of speed/energy - from the gel or maybe from my iPod, not sure. I knew the 14th St. Bridge was approaching so I wanted to get psyched up!

Mile 21: I will not lie. I think I hit my wall on the bridge. It was hillier than I expected. Not hot, thank God, as the weather was sunny and cloudless but not hot or humid....but just...wide open. Near the end of it, as I saw the people ahead of me climbing a last hill until exiting into Pentagon/Crystal City, I seriously didn't know if I could do another 4 miles. Because the last 4 miles were the hardest I've ever had to do.

Mile 22: The run through Crystal City begins...and it's hard because you see runners coming past you. It's a turn around through Crystal City. You just keep hoping the turnaround is sooner than it actually is! Mile 22 was when I thought, "I don't care anymore, I don't care about beating Oprah's time, I don't care about running the whole way". I honestly don't know how I kept going. My time slowed but only to about 10:10 or so per mile. I'm shocked because I thought I was crawling. I just put one foot in front of the other. I can only imagine what my expression was at that point.

Mile 23: Finish up Crystal City and head back towards the Pentagon. I got some PowerAde and that tasted simply amazing.

Mile 24: I told myself 2 miles was nothing but it didn't help. I put on Darden's version of "Stronger" and that did help for about 1/2 mile. Then I saw this little exit ramp/hill...what?! Why?! Pushed up through that and thought I would rather give birth 10 times than do this all again.

Mile 25: Holy crap I had 1 mile to go. Somehow something inside of me pushed me through it. I found myself passing people (who were slowing down, not that I was speeding up too much!) and just keeping a consistent pace. I seriously don't know how I did it. I turned off my music because I wanted to soak in the atmosphere even though every fiber of my being (and my toes and feet were killing me). I wanted to remember what it felt like to see all those people and to know I was doing something that few in the world can say they've done. I was NOT going to walk. I was NOT going to stop. I was NOT going to NOT finish.

Mile 26: I knew that I'd passed mile 26 and was almost done when the crowds were saying that we were almost finished. I just was waiting for the turn off and the hill. Oh. My. God. The hill is basically straight up hill -- not for long, you think, like 50-75 yards, but after 26 miles, it feels like hell. At that moment, when I was struggling to keep a jog going up the hill (but I didn't walk!), the Team Fisher House trainer jumps in with me and totally encourages me -- she was awesome. She said the finish line was right around the corner. I think in my agony I almost called her a dirty name but I think I just said, "Where?!". I finished the hill, turned to my right and saw the finish line balloons. Oh my holy Lord there it was. The Grail. The Finish Line. I was barely running and I'm not kidding when I tell you I thought it was a mirage. But I looked down and up and it got closer and I thought, "Just do this, just do this, you are so close, do not ever give up". And the last 20 yards I pushed it and I actually sprinted to the finish - not a fast sprint but compared to my peers I sprinted rather than just finished with pain.

Wow. I finished, got my blanket and my medal, saw my family (they tried to get to the finish but it was nuts), got my picture taken in front of Iwo Jima, then went to the charity tent and refreshed. Put on my warm clothes (great tip Dorothy!) and then began walking away with my family.

I started feeling sick to my stomach while waiting in this stupidly huge ass line to get out of the finishing area. It was like my whole body had shut down during the race (oh, yeah, never stopped to pee!) and all of a sudden my stomach was realizing that I'd only eaten 4 packs of gels and PowerAde and water for over 5 hours. And burned like 2600 calories.

So we walked about 200 yards before I needed to sit down in the sun and just relax and warm up. I sipped water (no more PowerAde or Gatorade, I was feeling dehydrated and hungover - not that I was hungover, but that feeling) and took off my shoes. My toes are so damaged, even with relatively new, very nice shoes. The grossest thing I had was a blood blister on the side of my left foot near my big toe. Funny thing though...I never felt it during the race! I'm happy I had nothing else - great running socks!

We walked on and tried to get on the Metro but it was crazy. So we walked another block trying to figure out what to do. Okay, I more like limped like an old lady. We ended up at a McDonald's. It was dirty and gross but it was empty and the boys could run around.

On a side note, the boys were AMAZING. They looked so happy each time I saw them, James was a trooper about eating and loved the Metro, Nate slept in the stroller and did a super job. They are really wonderful boys. My babies. I was SO happy to see them. And Greg gets Father of The Year Award for handling them so well over the weekend. :) Plus he took off a 1/2 day today (Monday) and took James to preschool AND took Nate to his 15 month appt so I could go get a massage. Woo hoo!

So back to McDonald's. My stomach got the best of me and I puked. Yes, I hurled. But wow, I felt better. When I saw my face in the mirror immediately afterwards, I'm amazed my mother didn't flip out - I was white as a sheet and my lips were purple. After booting (how many references to puking can I put out there??? I count 4), I sipped water and ate a chicken nugget. And within a few more minutes the color returned to my face and I was feeling better. At this point Nate and James were playing with the balloon they brought (so I could see them) and Nate tripped on my sensitive feet and...yes, burst the blood blister. So, in the course of the two hours we were there I puked and bled -- no biggie, the McDonald's was the grossest I've been to. My mom kept cleaning the boys hands with hand sanitizer (for which I am grateful, I was not in my right mind). Thankfully I overprepared and packed Neo To Go and BandAids for the boys, so I fixed myself up. Kept on sipping water and then about an hour later we tried the Metro again. It was very crowded but just to get through the gates. Then we got on the first train and swiftly got out to Vienna.

Got home to find a card from my friend Patty, who ran MCM the last two years. Lots of voice mails and texts and emails. :) My parents brought me flowers, then went home to rest. A long day for them. Their story of D.C. travels is also exhausting but it worked out SO well and I was so happy to see them three different times!! Thank God I never worried about them all. :)

We went to dinner at Glory Days and I wore my medal. No one commented but I didn't care - Greg kept on saying how proud he was of me. :) It was wonderful. I really just needed my little family around me at that point. I ordered dinner and a beer but found I couldn't eat much. My stomach was better but I think still recovering. Thankfully I finally peed more! :)

And then I went to bed at 8:30. Seriously, it felt like a horrible hangover. I guess that's what happens when you get no sleep, don't eat properly, dehydrate yourself, and then toss your cookies (that's 5, if you're counting).

Of course, in college, I didn't wake up at 5:20 to pee and then find myself up and about because wow, 8 hours is a LOT of sleep for me. :) Greg took 1/2 day today - he took James to school, went to the store to get milk and the paper, then took Nate to his 15 month appointment while I got a sports massage. Aaahh...and after that, I finally felt super hungry, so I got Wegman's takeaway. Perfect!

This is what I wrote to my friend Joan today:

An amazing, tough, exhausting, overwhelming, crazy, insane...just awesome day. For years I secretly thought about doing a marathon, but never thought I had it in me. Maybe it's being a mom or just being old or just getting to the "I don't care what people think" age but I am still in shock that I did it and did it respectfully. :)

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 4:26:19. Below are my splits. Holy Moley, I. AM. A. MARATHONER.

Distance: MAR
Clock Time
4:34:15
Chip Time
4:26:19
Overall Place
8669 / 20936
Gender Place
2496 / 8280
Division Place
449 / 1452
Age Grade
51.3%
5K: 31:48
10K: 1:04:03
15K: 1:35:41
20K: 2:06:03
Half: 2:12:40
25K: 2:36:02
30K: 3:07:10
35K: 3:38:54
40K: 4:12:04