For the past several months, I have been contributing lots of answers and advice to multiple Facebook groups related to participating in MCM. After all, I have been running it (or the MCM 50k) since 2012, so it’s reasonable to call me an expert in many things MCM. That subject matter expertise, as well as my long history of marathoning, and having paced successfully many times for OnPace Race was surely why I was chosen to be on their pace team for this year’s MCM.
I knew that a large number of the team were from outside of the DMV, so I made sure to go up to the expo on Thursday afternoon to help out at the booth – thinking that I might be the only one present for four hours answering the usual questions from runners, ranging from anxious first-timers to even grizzled veteran marathoners and everything in between. Turns out that there was one other person from the greater pacing team who was doing much of the in-town logistics this past weekend but wasn’t pacing since she is running the New York City Marathon the following weekend.
I arrived just before 2pm. The exterior of the building which greets you as you emerge from the Judiciary Square Metro stop is impressive. Walking across the lightly trafficked street, we were greeted by a sign that led to others which basically took us around the back side on the building. Turns out they were using this doorway solely as an exit.
Just next to the entrance we were permitted into was a simple banner lightly trafficked, but that would have an extremely long line later on Friday and Saturday. Upon entry, we were pointed down the hallway to get to the far end of the building.
On the way was a cute Lego replica of the building. Just a bit further down was the set-up with several Marines staffing computers to look us up in their computer system and point us to the correct booth that would give us our bibs – the same sort of set-up that the Chicago Marathon does beautifully.
It was a totally seamless process – surely helped by the fact that it was pretty dead at that hour on Thursday. Most locals likely wouldn’t be arriving until after 4pm. I got my shirt, and then quickly exited the main expo area to walk all the way around to the room where OnPace was set up. I re-introduced myself to Kate and chatted with her about various logistics, other marathons, etc. in-between times when runners swung by with whom we engaged to draw out of them the questions they really did have but so often were shy about straight-up asking.
The thing that was daunting upon my arrival was seeing the feather flags that many of us were going to be bringing to the start corrals and walking with up until shortly before the start line. One of each of the co-pacers that we had in Pittsburgh had similar feather flags, but they were much smaller. I was able to convince my co-pacer in Pittsburgh that he should have the honor. Well, this time I was on the hook to carry a feather flag, and these were ENORMOUS! Very unwieldy.
I also met a couple of the ladies behind the scenes that the couple who run OnPace had been corresponding with since officially getting the gig for us to be the pace team. I sheepishly asked them if there was any way that I could be permitted to walk to Runner’s Village from Rosslyn, especially given the fact that we were required to be there at 5:30am, and the first train southbound from Rosslyn only arrives to pick up passengers at 5:29am. Despite my expectation of “no” being the answer, they happily obliged and changed my bib to one that would permit such entry. I was extremely relieved that they were willing to make such a change – that would make race morning so much easier and less stressful than it was last year when I wasn’t so obliged by whomever was working with the prior pace team.
After getting home, I immediately affixed my bib to the new pacer shirt I had received at the expo, and set up much of the additional clothing that I would be wearing on Sunday. After all, I had the large MCM drop bag to store it all in, out of the way.
On Saturday morning, my friend Jess – in town to visit and to cheer me on during the race – and I had breakfast nearby the Metro stop we would use to get in. Ted’s Bulletin is a really good restaurant, and the first time I had lunch there in July, I had seen them prepping their Cinnamon Rolls As Big As Ya’ Head.
Needless to say, at that moment in July, I knew we would get one of them this particular morning. What a great, tasty way to carb load. And, yes, that is a big gravy boat that housed all of the delicious icing in which we drowned the roll.
We then proceeded into DC to swing by the O Street Museum.
This is a really unique museum with all manner of memorabilia scattered throughout the 5 connected townhomes. What makes this venue all the more unique, though, are the 100+ secret doors that are scattered throughout – at least 60 of which are available for the finding on any given day. You’ll need to experience it for yourself to see everything they’ve got – from signed guitars and sports memorabilia, to posters that can be augmented by VR to Furbies to a two-floor log cabin you can often stay in as an overnight guest – there’s way too much to take photos and be able to get through lots of rooms soaking it all in within the timeframe we had available to us because of my need to get back to the expo for our mandatory pacer meeting. But this was too amusing, and in keeping with the time of year, to pass up.
Nearly all of the 50+ pacers were on hand for the meeting. We did what you would expect of such a meeting: introduced ourselves around the room, were provided the instructions (again) for what we were going to do in the morning pre-race and where we were to meet, what the general expectations were for pacing (we had a few newbies to the team, though not newbies to pacing), etc. It was nice seeing many of the pacers again, having paced one or more other times alongside them over the years – some more frequently than others – and meeting a few for the first time. During the meeting, I corrected a piece of misinformation I inadvertently provided that would greatly impact some of their planning for the morning. Where last year I had taken Metro from Rosslyn into DC’s McPherson Square to catch that same outbound 1st-of-the-day train to get to Pentagon, this year that timing was not going to work. What’s more, no train going to Pentagon from Rosslyn would get people to Runner’s Village on time. They needed to work something else out.
Finally, the meeting ended, and Jess and I returned, this time grabbing dinner before heading back for an early evening given my alarm would go off at 3am. After returning, we planned out where some likely good viewing spots would be along the course (Miles 1, 4, 17, 19, and post-finish) where Jess was planning on cheering with signs she would put together after we went our separate ways in the morning. Then I made sure to pull together all the rest of my materials that I would need for the morning. As part of that process, I decided I would take off my Garmin and charge it up connected to my laptop, even knowing that I would need to do so again in the morning.
Well, Murphy decided to crash the party at this point. There was no indication on my watch that it was charging, where normally it would show the percentage charge a few seconds after connecting. OK, maybe there’s something going on with the laptop and/or dongle. So I hooked it up to the plug converter and plug it into the wall socket. Same lack of result. Hmm... maybe it’s the cord. Having another cord in my car, I went out to retrieve that cord and did the same thing with both the dongle and the converter, to the same apparent lack of effect. Needless to say, by this point in time, I was flipping out, knowing that without being able to charge my watch, there was no way I could rely on it at all for the race. So, I would need to use a standard digital watch. While that would be fine for tracking my time, it wouldn’t help at all for within any given mile to help me calibrate my pace.
In a panic, I start trying to figure out how to get a replacement Forerunner 235 immediately. Oh, and did I mention it was after 9pm by this point? Almost nothing was open any more, and what was open only had watches that would be completely new to me. While they might be simple, it is not reasonable to me to try to learn something new that I would be so reliant on the next day. Ugh! So much for being able to get to sleep and have only the usual amount of anxiety-ridden adrenaline coursing through my veins.
While Jess was coming up with several of the courses of avenue I tried, and both of us were being largely stymied by my recently much-degraded internet connectivity, her remaining much more level-headed than I was had her come up with the solution that worked. The one that should have been the next thought after determining the problem was the watch and not the cords. The standby that all IT helpdesks ask you for ALL of your tech problems: turn it off and back on again. Yep, that did the trick. After I turned it off, I connected it back to my laptop which, if it was going to charge up would automatically restart the watch without my pressing any buttons. Sure enough, it started to charge up. Phew! Crisis averted, but not after considerable anxiety was ramped up to 11.
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