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.

Atlantic City Marathon

Once again, Atlantic City proved to be more of a challenge than would be expected. But let's not get too far ahead of things...

Thankfully Atlantic City is close enough for me to simply drive up the day before, and then back after my post-race lunch. In previous years, the pace team was sponsored by a different hotel, but there have been enough issues with them that we switched hotels this year (and are now being sponsored by the AC Race Series itself -- hence the new singlets, too).

Decent hotel room, but the beds are WAY too soft (at least for me). Check-in was a breeze (even early check-in allowed), much easier than our prior hotel (which wouldn't allow anyone to check-in earlier than 4pm, and still had problems at that).

Nice view of the upper end of the Boardwalk and the water from our room.

Facing our hotel, right at the Boardwalk itself, is the Korean War Memorial.

The Claridge Hotel and the Bally's (where the expo was being held and outside of which would be the start/finish line) are connected -- so much nicer a set-up than what we had the last multiple years.

I arrived early enough to take a couple of hours shift at the expo.

It's a small space, but sufficient for the size of the field of runners doing the marathon and half-marathon. This year's shirt for the marathon has a nice design on it, but awkwardly has a hood on it.

There was a constant flow of traffic for the time that I was there. Standard sorts of questions about the course, course profile, how we would pace it (even pace, negative split, etc. -- even effort (which I do) is basically the same as even pace on this course), which pace group they should line up with / how would they find us, etc. Lots of first time racers or veteran racers finally choosing to run with a pace group -- either way, not really knowing how it works. That's what we're there for!

Right next to our booth was a standard sign of those registered* for the race, despite the fact that it says "finisher" on it. After all, there are some people listed who wind up not finishing the race for some reason (and possibly not even starting). *Some people (like some of the pacers, including yours truly) officially registered for the race some time after they printed up this sign, so we weren't listed here. :-(

Wrapped up my shift at the expo about 4pm and went back to the hotel room to prep as much as possible for the morning before heading out to the pacer team dinner/meeting at 6pm. En route, I came across this statue that I hadn't previously noticed -- rather fitting for the weekend.

Despite a fitful night of pretty poor sleep (partly my own issues, but partly because of all of the extra noise from so many of the hotel guests on our floor up through about 1am or so), the morning arrived soon enough. Mercifully, given the timing of the race, having a 6am wake-up was on tap -- "late" by most standards. Quick check of what conditions we were in for showed a difficult set up for us, with very warm temps rising through the 60s, with very bright skies, and strong wind the whole time. Glad I chose to be at the slower end of my range.

Nice view from our hotel at that hour.

After getting dressed and fully prepped for the race, I made sure to bring all of my stuff to the car (since I would be finishing well after check-out), drop off my gear bag (for post-race clothing change and protein shake), and join up with the rest of the pace team for our photo.

There was enough time before lining up in the start chute for me to take a first light (well, just not quite sunrise) photo of the crashing waves on the shore. While not necessarily captured well below, the waves were rather sizable, an ominous portent of the wind that we were already bracing ourselves against.

Finally lined up inside the starting chute, the runners started to gather around the respective pacers they planned to run with, or simply use as their own marker of where they needed to be to self-seed by expected pace. The way that Atlantic City arranges things, they put up a couple of barricades at the back end of a relatively short area for the starting chute, with additional barricades lining either side continuing back. It's as if they think all of the runners would be able to fit into the one area. No, not so. We lined up in such a way so that the pacers faster than 4 hours were in that area, and the rest of us were behind it, but the race organizers never came over to remove those extra barricades that were otherwise blocking the path for the runners going longer than 4 hours. 

With about 10 minutes before the starting horn, I noticed that people were still crossing right-to-left in the area immediately behind those barricades. Clearly, no one had moved them away more closed off the sides of the chute. I took it upon myself to make my way up to the barricades and moved them (with the assistance from one other runner) to close off the cross-traffic. Anyone who wanted in needed to go in through the back (or, ill-advisedly climb over the side barricades). I made my way back to my approximate starting location where my fellow 4:15 runners (or 2:07:30 half marathoners) would most likely still be gathered.

Soon enough, we were off! Thankfully, this year I didn't trip on the boardwalk on my way across the starting line (or anywhere else, for that matter), and the tight crowd actually spread out quicker than expected -- maybe only 1/4 mile out. I was able to find my group, as many as a couple of dozen total between half and full.

By and large, the course is flat, though it does have some hills in the first 2+ miles, basically comprising overpasses and emerging from a tunnel just after Mile 2.

Throughout the race, we were being battered by the wind from all sides. Despite my advising people to try to tuck in next to or behind someone to minimize effects of the wind, I'm not sure how many actually tried to or were able to take advantage of that advice.

We run the first 7+ miles on city streets near the north end of the boardwalk before making out way south along it until about Mile 14 or so. (The half marathoners peel away from us at Mile 11.5 and double-back on the boardwalk towards the finish line, generally unaccompanied by pacers.) Once we exit the southern end of the boardwalk, we run around other city streets before returning to the boardwalk for the last approximately 4 miles. Alas, they only had one photographer on the course, so aside from start and finish photos, Mile 2 is the only other photo that was taken.

As is my habit of noticing, the water stops were lacking. Not in number nor in quantity of fluids available (it seemed like there was plenty), but in consistency and ease for the runners. There was no predictable order of whether water or Gatorade would be first, nor a standard differentiation of types of cups (some had only Gatorade green cups, some only white cups, some had both). And some of the volunteers were holding two cups in one hand -- actually a difficult thing to reliably snag just one cup, let alone when one is water and one is Gatorade. It would really be nice if races could get this very simple logistical issue correct.

Another difficulty, which they will hopefully remedy for next year, is the directionality of the course. It's tricky enough dealing with all of the "civilians" on the course -- not just spectators who might encroach the course, but the random visitors to AC who are just out and about on the boardwalk, not necessarily recognizing nor caring that there is a race underway and to pay a bit more attention than they might otherwise normally.

Visualize, if you can, a large group of people running down the left-hand side of the boardwalk (since we need to get around the start/finish line which is on our right as we run past it at around the 9 mile (?) mark). At about Mile 11.5, the half-marathoners make a sharp U-turn and continue back towards the finish line. If they were doing things correctly, they would stay on *their* left side of the boardwalk and go straight into the finish area about 1.7 miles later, as those of us still outbound are on *our* left side of the boardwalk. However, for some unknown reason, the vast majority of half marathoners on their return segment crossed back over and were running directly at the outbound runners on OUR side of the boardwalk. What the heck? Why did they do that? Not only do they now have lots of people running at them, but they're adding distance both to get to that side and then to cross back through that same traffic to get to the correct side to finish. The race desperately needs to have some semblance of signage to make it clear that runners should always be on the left side of two-way traffic.

Similarly, when we exited the southern end of the course, at least for me, we were pointed on the right side of some cones, so we naturally (though illogically) stayed on the right side after we made our next turn. In a short time, we had a police motorcyclist driving at us honking his horn, as he had one of the lead runners behind him. This got us back onto the correct -- left -- side of the two-way flow.

And there were other areas where there was two-way flow where there wasn't a clearly marked off lane for each direction, and some people ran on the outside of the cones -- bad move, since the roadway was OPEN for vehicular traffic still.

After the half marathoners split off from us, I still had a core of about 8-10 people who were running the marathon. There was one extremely eager lady who was definitely engaged in any of the conversation who was doing her darnedest to stay with me for the whole time. Unfortunately, the heat and wind took enough of there toll on her at about mile 20 where she started to fade. (She finally finished in about 4:27. Not shabby.) Most of the others also faded off in the traditional 18-21 mile range. For the first time in quite a while, I actually had one person stick with me basically the entire time (though there were many times I had to rein her back in as she started to drift forward to early). Once we hit the Mile 25 marker, I made sure to tell her that any time between then and the Mile 26 marker, if she was feeling good to break in front of me, and that regardless, once she hit the Mile 26 marker, she *must* give it all that she had left in the tank. She drifted up from me about Mile 25.5 and finished nice and strong. 

I finished probably about 10-15 seconds behind her, in 4:14:34, just four seconds off of the "pin" for the 4:15 pace I was running. Amazingly enough, almost all of the pacers were within 1-4 seconds of the pin.

There was a guy who was lying down in the finisher's chute a little further up out of frame, not being tended to by anyone. I wound up bringing him a Powerade and a couple of bags of ice. Definitely hit the spot and enabled him to recover relatively quickly thereafter -- and he had already been lying there for at least 5 minutes untended-to.

This year's medal is pretty nice, and has a nice "surprise" when you open it up.

For those interested in seeing all of the different race medals (though not the challenge medals) that were available during the weekend:

Learning the lesson of the Air Force Marathon this year, I made sure to take off my shoes and socks as quickly as I could after getting my bag to put on my flip-flops and try to prevent blisters as best possible. (It seems to have worked.) I drank my Muscle Milk (fast infusion of some protein), had a banana and really good New York everything bagel, and change my shirt and shorts (so I wasn't sitting in that for the next 5+ hours prior to getting home and taking a shower), and then went for my obligatory post-race burger and shake.

Took about 4 hours of driving to get back home, and then after taking plenty of additional recovery time, post-race dinner (since there was nothing in my apartment that I could possibly cook -- nor did I want to be bothered, either).

This is the second year in a row that I missed the pre-race  Elevated Running & Pacing team meeting for the Marine Corps Marathon, being held this coming Sunday (for which I'm pacing the 4:05 group), but was able to watch the recording. This year MCM is going to be HUGE for its 50th anniversary. More on that in the coming days pre- and post-race. Stay tuned!

Forecast

Well, the forecast seems to have shifted a bit. Hopefully it will continue to do so over the course of the week, for the better.

It will be reasonably warm at the start -- so long as we're not standing around in the rain and wind. Hopefully any rain that comes in will be after the race has begun. Having that persistent relief for the temperature works nicely. A simple light rain, maybe sporadic in nature rather than constant? That'd be nice.

We'll see soon enough what the Jersey shore holds in store for us!

Good sign?

The government has been in a partial shutdown since October 1, and there is no predictable end in sight. There have been a couple of races in different parts of the country that have been canceled because of the shutdown -- as I understand it, because part of the respective courses were set to go through federal property.

So, naturally, everyone set to run the Army Ten-Miler (ATM) and/or the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) have been concerned that either/both of these races would be canceled because of the federal property that they make use of/run through. Both stage their runner's village in the Pentagon parking lot, at the very least. And there is a sizable number of volunteers and staffers of these races who are Soldiers or Marines. But since they are not performing duties that relate to protecting life and property, most expected that the races would be canceled if the partial shutdown wasn't ended in time.

Well, despite the ATM saying they would make an announcement on Oct. 8, they delayed by an extra day and sent out notification (below) indicating that the race would go on.

Even though they are put on by two different organizations, this gives those of us running the MCM in a couple of weeks hope that the race will go, even if the partial shutdown is still ongoing at that time. Based on prior precedent, in such a case, MCM Organization will likely make their announcement approximately Oct 18-20. But ATM's action today has given a sense of hope to the 40,000 people who are planning on running MCM.

Fingers crossed it all works out, one way or the other! 

Side Benefit of Shutdown

I usually go to the gym after work; it just works much better with my schedule. And given that, my running workdays is on the treadmill, as I don't dare run on the local streets during rush hour nor do I want to run in the heat that still abounds at that hour despite a trail behind my apartment complex.

But now that I'm temporarily furloughed during this shutdown, I get to wake up later than normal if I want, and I can run on the W&OD trail in what looks to be glorious, cool running weather. Heck, I may even need to wear my sleeves to stave off the chill in the early miles. Nice!

After all, it's all about my running -- naturally! :-)

Applications Almost Opened

Boston Marathon charities officially open their application processes on Monday, Sept. 29. The full list will be available on the BAA website. (There are actually a few that have already opened a bit early.) There are lots of different options to choose from. Last year there were 176. According to the BAA's press release this past June, the combined total of donations raised across all of these charities was a whopping $50.4 million. And since the charity program started nearly 40 years ago, donations to the myriad charities have raised an astonishing $600 million+.

Whether you are directly fundraising, on a charity team or not, please donate to charity. Choose one that speaks to you and what you care about. If you work for an employer that does some form of company match, investigate how you can take advantage of that to augment the impact of your donations even further. While $5 or $10 might not break the bank for you, when multiplied by a large number of donors, those dollars add up to serious funds that can have a profound impact for the better. 

For those with children, encourage them to donate to a charity, too. At some point when I was in elementary school, I saw my neurologist on the MDA Telethon every year. From the first time I saw him on the program, I donated, even though at such a young age it was a very small amount. But it got me in the habit, not just of donating to that one charity (which I've done likely for well over 40 years, now), but it fostered the willingness to donate to others. At different points over the years, I have also been part of various fundraising efforts. 

Yet again, I will be going beyond "simply" donating to a charity to actively fundraising for it. More details to come in the near future.

4:34 -- Squeaked Out!

("Squeaker Pack" items created by "Boston Squeakers 4 Lyfe" Facebook member Lani Teshima)

Well, it's finally official. Earlier today, BAA announced that they accepted 24,362 runners out of the 33,249 applicants.

What was the breakdown of these speed demons:

BQ minus 20 minutes or better: 5,397

BQ minus 10 minutes to 19:59: 8,961

BQ minus 4:34 to 9:59: 10,004

Apparently 719 accepted applicants are Streakers -- they have completed at least 10 consecutive Boston Marathons. These individuals do not need to have any buffer. Those who have 10 to 24 consecutive Boston Marathon finishes simply need to achieve any BQ (irrespective of buffer) to get a spot. Those who are in the Quarter Century Club (25 Boston Marathon finishes or more) simply need to finish the Boston Marathon within the time limit to earn their spot in the subsequent year's race -- no BQ time needed at all.

If I can manage to obtain a bib for next year's marathon via one of the 160 charities that partner with the marathon, I will have my 10th consecutive Boston Marathon and become a Streaker -- needing any BQ irrespective of buffer. And given that I "age up" in time for the 2027 marathon, I will gain an additional 10 minutes to work with in achieving it. (Hopefully they won't tighten the standards again QUITE so fast, eating away at this benefit.)

More in the coming weeks with respect to the charity team I wind up being accepted onto. (Positive mental attitude!)