Marine Corps Marathon expo day!

Originally I was slated to attend the 2nd day of the expo because I didn't want to take off time from work, nor attempt to get to it during the afternoon rush hour. Well, thank you Congress, for being in a showdown at the moment and closing the government. Since I'm non-excepted personnel, I was able to shift over to the 1st day instead. 

I started off by grabbing a bagel for breakfast and a sandwich-on-bagel for the afternoon at a really good bagel place in Tyson's Corner. (Yes, a New Yorker is complimenting the bagels that Tyson's Bagel Market has -- they are definitely New York quality, IMO.) Somehow, even with a 10-minute stop, I got down to the Eisenhower Avenue Metro station in an hour (what? where was the traffic?) and sat in my car away from the cold for about 30 minutes until the first shuttle bus was scheduled to set off.

First obvious snafu on the day: there was absolutely no signage related to where to go for the shuttle. While I knew where it was SUPPOSED to be (because of previous years), there were no signs for first-timers.  After a few minutes, one of the coach bus drivers -- parked in an otherwise empty lot on the OTHER side of the Metro station from where we should have been picked up -- came over and guided us over to the bus, at the far end of that lot. This is not something that ANYONE would ever think was what we should be doing to catch the shuttle bus. But, once aboard, we set out to the Gaylord National hotel at National Harbor.

2nd/3rd obvious snafus: The bus driver didn't really know exactly where he was supposed to go. This was obvious by the route that he took through the middle of National Harbor -- something he surely wouldn't be able to do during the height of traffic. It was nice to see the area, since I hadn't walked it previously, so I was happy for the odd route, but it was indicative of his not knowing precisely where at the hotel to go. So, when he made the curve to approach the hotel, he was about to turn into the main entrance where guests pull into the circle. Nope! Several of the passengers closer up advised him he needed to keep on going, and to ignore his GPS which was now advising him to turn left where he needed to turn right. We got to the appropriate corner, and I joined the chorus of MCM vets who yelled out that he needed to make that particular right hand turn, and go all the way to the end. We confirmed that this was both the drop-off for the expo and pick-up spot for the return to the Metro.

4th snafu: NO signage once inside. Those of us who have done this before, we knew where we were going and just marched along the long hallway all the way to the back, but for anyone who was a first-timer, they would have no independent way of knowing where to go. Sure, we were there about 1 hour before the actual opening of the expo, but everything should be set up for the expected first arrivals, which we were, being on the first shuttle to arrive. What the heck, MCM? You've been putting this on for years at this location. You should be on top of this with the hotel. Finally, though, once we made our way essentially to the back side of the hotel from where we entered, there was a nice big banner.

Even once we were downstairs, they didn't really have anything set up in advance of the expectedly enormous queue they would eventually have. It's one thing to bypass such a queue in the early going, but you should have it set up! Come on -- Convention 101 here!

While standing in line, purposely wearing the ugliest -- and most definitely most controversial -- race shirt MCM has ever given out, several people commented on the shirt, to include the former Race Director and MCM legend Sid Busch. The prior RD mentioned that when he retired (was it the same year?), he had been given a jacket that was fabricated out of several of those shirts. Sounds like he donned it once -- his wife won't let him ever wear it, certainly not out and about! And Sid mentioned that the original design was supposed to have some sort of 3D effect. Where the original mockups looked good, something happened during mass production where...well...it became a MAJOR fail. MCM took the criticism in great stride that year. And, frankly, they STILL haven't heard the end of it. (And, likely, never will.)

Finally, the color guard came out and the national anthem was sung.

I'm glad I wasn't far enough up where the ladies who were singing the anthem would have been able to see my wincing throughout their rendition. While they definitely had great voices, I am very much a purist when it comes to the national anthem. While I can deal with some harmony being added, I think the main tune should be the most prominent thing heard, and no flourishes added. The more you "mess" with the tune, the less I like the rendition. YMMV.

Finally, we get inside. The first area is where they had a huge rope snake set up, but no obvious  openings to bypass it while the crowd was still short. We started to dutifully move up the rope line, then lots of people just decided to cut underneath the ropes, both in front and (more importantly) behind me. A couple of people managed to open up some spaces in the ropes so that climbing under wasn't needed. We got to the other side where they had a somewhat inexplicable rope set-up where, if it were organized correctly, it would have easily and obviously wound up with two feeder lines that would send people out to the 12 tables of 2 Marines doing check-in. The Marines pointing to the various tables didn't have any plan ahead of time on who to point where. They wound up pointing two different sets of people to the same exact Marine, upsetting the 2nd group who had just gotten cut off by the other group pointed to the same person at the same time. As I was close when this was being raised up, I loudly pointed out the Marine on the left should only deal with tables 1-6, and the one on the right with table 7-12. Hopefully they recognized the logic in it and kept that up thereafter. Mercifully, I was early enough in the whole process that it's not something that really affected me.

Checked in, bib picked up, I then went to get my t-shirt. Another snafu that affected LOTS of people. For myself and other pacers who had originally registered when the race first opened, we were required to cancel the original registrations to get that refund and register (gratis) with the appropriate code for the pace team. But by the time we were able to register, our original (and properly sized shirts) were no longer available. So, we either had to get something 2 sizes too small, or 2 (or more) sizes too large. Ugh! And apparently there were lots of runners who were either just late in the registration window, or possibly that got a transfer bib, where the right shirt size was already "sold out." And, of course, even though in previous years MCM had a shirt exchange area, this year -- nope! Not sure what good e-mailing them after the race concludes is going to do, but I'll give it a shot. It would be nice to have a properly sized shirt rather than a tent.

I'm not one for buying the merchandise at expos, so I quickly made my way through the initial store that everyone is forced to go through before getting to the rest of the expo (and exit). Later in the day, from reports I was reading, the line for checkout was at least 2 hours long. Oy!

The next several hours I spent at the Elevated Running and Pacing booth. We had LOTS of people coming up, asking questions, trying to figure out the best strategy of getting across the finish line in the desired time and, in many cases, trying to determine what that time should even be. With all the talking that I was doing for four hours, it's amazing that I still have my voice. It was definitely a good time well spent with hundreds of runners prepping them for what is to come on Sunday. 

The biggest snafu of MCM weekend so far, though, started weeks ahead of time and was a persistent refrain with almost everyone I talked with -- the colors of their bibs compared to what they intended as a finish time. For many years now, MCM has added either Red, Yellow, or Green to the top of the bib to indicate the "corral" you should go into (fastest to slowest expected finish times). For some unfathomable reason, there are people who indicated finish times that would either properly put them in the Red or Yellow corrals who were given Green bibs. (And MCM was not willing to make any adjustments for anyone.) If people wind up abiding by the colors on their bibs and not trying to move forward, this is going to cause HUGE problems during the early miles of the race with faster people trying to escape from behind people who are going potentially far slower than their desired pace. And there were even some people who rightfully should have Yellow or Green bibs that were given Red bibs. At least those people have the legitimate option to move to further back, but, technically, you're not supposed to move forward to faster corrals than your bib color.

Well, in all of the previous years I've run this race, I've never seen MCM actually enforce the distinction of the colors on the bibs -- they don't have barricades between the corrals. So, while I would give the runner's the expected official line, I would also tell them my suspicion of no enforcement and that if they can do so, to make their way to the appropriate location in the corrals to join their desired pace group, irrespective of the color on their bib. We'll see how much of a snafu this really turns into on race day, or if it was merely much ado about nothing that thousands of people got worried about for apparently no reason.

After my shift ended, I made my way out and back in (to get to the Solutions desk) to see if they were willing to do anything about two issues: 1) the t-shirt (nope, Marine didn't even need to check with someone), and 2) getting a credential to enter from the north side (Rosslyn) on race morning. Ever since 2013, I have been parking just outside Finisher's Village and walking to the start line from there, rather than dealing with the enormous crowd walking up from Pentagon Metro station. While the walk is comparable, getting through security is much faster and the walk is faster unencumbered by so many other people when coming from the north. Inexplicably, this year, they have cut off that access except for a very small number of people. So, not only are they nearly doubling the field size, but they are requiring nearly all of them to go through the one security zone rather than allowing the two from prior years. Genius!

So, my 4:05 pacer sign in hand, I briefly make my case to the Marine, asking him if there is any way that I can acquire the credential needed to enter from the north, which would help guarantee that I can get into position at the proper time, rather than be reliant on Metro at all and being in the huge crush of people making the slow slog of a trek. He understood, but needed to ask someone else about it. A few minutes later, I got the expected answer -- no.  :-( Should be interesting to see just how long it takes to not only get into Metro when it opens at 5am (shouldn't be too bad), but how long it takes to actually board any of the trains -- this may be the main difficulty. Fingers crossed it goes smoothly!

After a brief conversation with one of the people who works with the Semper Fi and America Fund's fundraising teams, to get a better sense of the remainder of the process for my application for the Boston, I was through with the expo. It was early enough, I decided to explore a little bit more of the National Harbor area than I previously managed to see.

I have no idea what this fractional portion of Stonehenge is actually supposed to be. I didn't see any signage in the area, nor was it specifically listed on any of the maps available on the street. 

Unobstructed by the unknown sculpture, it was much easier to take a photo of the George Washington Masonic Memorial (on the left), the Woodrow Wilson bridge, and the Ferris wheel.

A little further down the way is this simple tribute to the military.

Finally, at the furthest end of the street was Sprit Park.

Most of the way down this ramp were these three buffalo sculptures: "The Journey"

At the bottom is a simple area with a few notable sculptures.

Seat in the bleachers is Milt Peterson, the person who was responsible for creating the National Harbor area. And to his side is FDR.

Facing opposite them is Gen. (not-yet President) Eisenhower.

On the way back right next to the water is a rather impressive sculpture in multiple parts: The Awakening. There were several kids playing on different part os him. I wager on nice days it's a rare moment where you have all parts of this sculpture devoid of kids climbing all over it.

I finally boarded the return bus (where they STILL didn't have any signs pointing to the coach buses, but at least the one poised to depart was idling in the correct spot people would actually instinctively go to), drove home, and started my set-up for marathon morning. We got nice new pacer singlets for race day. Bib in place, even if I forget almost everything else, I can still run the race.