50th Anniversary Marine Corps Marathon

With all of the logistical problems at the expo and my very low expectations for the logistics on race, despite getting to bed early the night before, I got absolutely ZERO sleep -- I was certainly conscious the whole time. While that didn't bode well, it actually didn't hamper my efforts at all.

After getting ready and out the door just after 4am, I arrived sufficiently early to my regular parking garage location just outside the perimeter of the Finisher's Village to get to the Rosslyn Metro stop only moments after it had opened. It's a long escalator down and no one was taking the chance to walk down and trip. Eventually down on the lower platform, the crowd of runners was already slowly building, and based on the signage on the upper platform, there were two trains inbound on the Silver and Orange line that would arrive more than 10 minutes ahead of the first Blue line train that would be headed down to Pentagon where everyone needs to depart for the trek to Runner's Village.

Predicting just how full those inbound trains would be (full of people like me who would otherwise normally just walk in from the north entrance to Runner's Village -- largely closed off this year for some unfathomable reason), after the first one arrived and emptied out, I decided to board it and go FURTHER into DC. Seeing just how full the platform at Foggy Bottom was, I went yet one more stop in to Farragut West. This turned out to be a highly successful strategy. Only a few minutes later, that first outbound Blue line train arrived, and there was plenty of space on it. While everyone at Foggy Bottom was able to get on with minimal effort, the overwhelmingly packed platform at Rosslyn had difficulty. I'm not sure if everyone there managed to get onto the train. A short time later, given bypassing Arlington Cemetery, we were at Pentagon. This is where the first enormous bottleneck of the day was experienced -- with everyone needing to get out their SmartTrip card, credit card, or phone that they paid with to enter Metro to be able to exit. It took at least 10-15 minutes for many of us to make our way out of the system and onto the long escalator ride up to the surface. Finally out of Metro, it was already just about to turn 6am. (!) I had no idea what my odds were of making it to the far corner of Runner's Village in time for the pacer group photo at 6:15am. I chatted with a couple of people along the way as the heard of lemmings made our way past a small set of portapotties (with huge lines) to the security checkpoint. They verified people were wearing bibs, but barely looked at (let alone into) the bags that we were carrying -- we basically flew through security (where I had expected an enormous bottleneck; maybe one happened later?).

With less than 5 minutes before our group photo, one other pacer with whom I crossed paths and I made our way to the designated point, where all of the other pacers were starting to prep for the photo. (How the hell did all of them get there early? Did no one else come from the first Blue line train with the two of us?)

While it was chilly, it wasn't bad enough for me to be bothered with my mylar blanket (as my throwaway sweatshirt was good enough) and I could stash (yet again) my wonderfully warm and fuzzy throwaway pajama bottoms along with my NYC Marathon poncho in my check bag along with the stuff I put in there for post-race and went to the UPS truck to drop it off. Typically, the number of the truck you go to corresponds with the first digit of your bib (if you have a 4-digit bib number) or first two digits (if you have a 5-digit bib number). Anyone with a bib number lower than 1000 would be in truck "00" which would ordinarily be right next to where we were taking the photo. Not this year! After years of having that regular and well-known (for repeat MCMers) methodology, this year they decided to put that truck at the OTHER end of the line of UPS trucks ("40"). Ugh. Fine, I'll schlep all the way to the end before doubling back to start heading toward the corrals (as I was already a drop late for doing so).

Making my way toward the corral, it appeared like the Marines weren't really paying much attention to the color of the bibs -- but that makes sense, since anyone can go in the Green corral, and I entered from the back side of the Yellow corral with a Red bib. They didn't even look for my bib, though. (Maybe they ignored it since they would have seen me carrying the pacer sign? Who knows.)

I weaved my way up to what seemed like an appropriately distanced location compared to the 4-hour pacer location, and intermittently was chatting with people asking some questions about what to expect on the day. 

What was increasingly clear, though, as time progress, was that -- YET AGAIN -- they were only going to use the right-hand roadway; everyone would be going through the single arch. (You would think that they would want the iconic photo of huge throngs of people going through both arches for this race.)

[CORRECTION: Apparently, both arches were used, as is quite obvious from this video of the start line. Seems like it may have just been mostly the red wave that went onto both sides. Odd.]

All of a sudden (about 15 minutes ahead of the race start), the national anthem is being sung -- totally unexpectedly. (Hadn't heard any sort of announcement.) And then, after a few more pieces of regular business, they started the hand cycle and then duo participants. Not surprisingly given the government shutdown, there was no parachuting nor flyover, which they've had in previous years and which they were originally scheduled to have this time around, too. Soon enough, the howitzer went off for a third time, signaling the start of the marathon for the runners. Given how far back I was and the single archway taking the full set of runners, it took nearly 20 minutes to cross the start line.

Just like last year, at the first cut-out portion between the two roadways, about half the field decided to go to the left-hand roadway. Nope -- not me. The right-hand side has an easier initial hill to deal with and why should I add the extra distance of getting to the other side of the road?

I had a good group of people running with me. While only a few of them would ever really engage in answering some of my usual prompts, quite a lot of them would join in with a loud "OORAH!" any time I asked. (OK, ordered.)

Somewhere around Mile 9, there was one astonishingly stupid runner who endangered several people with his "stunt." He was weaving to get to a more open pocket -- not necessarily a problem, so long as there is space for it -- but he did it in the most inappropriate way. He actually ran between a guide and the duo team they were running with. (A duo team is one where you have someone in a specially designed racing wheelchair being pushed by another runner. HIGHLY impressive to be able to do that for a marathon.) That weaving runner forced his way in the maybe-foot-wide space between the wheelchair and the guide on the left side of it. This endangered the guide, the person in the wheelchair, the person pushing the wheelchair, and the runner himself. Not to mention everyone else who would have been collateral damage had an actual collision and/or tip-over occurred. I hollered at the guy as I saw him do it -- hopefully he kept it in mind for the next time such an opportunity "presented" itself, as it wasn't going to doing anything for the instant occasion.

The strategy for the day worked just fine -- slower uphill, faster downhill, slow a touch during water stops, do my best to get the tangents -- and some of the expected bottlenecks occurred as per normal, especially with the hugely increased field running this year. 

What I *didn't* count on, though, was for the mile markers to be so WILDLY misplaced a couple of times in the first 10 miles of the course -- specifically in and around Rock Creek Park. These flags were placed far enough late that my watch was telling me I was more than a minute slow for the given mile, despite being on pace. While "the course is always right," yesterday this was definitely NOT true, though I had to treat it as if it was. So, dutifully noting that I was behind my needed time, I would increase pace for a bit to try to make back some of the time. And then, miraculously, the distance between the Mile 9 and Mile 10 markers was only approximately 0.75 miles. Boom! Just like that, I was back on schedule, no longer off by a couple of minutes. What the heck! Thankfully, all of the rest of the markers seemed to be pretty much accurate after that point.

Shortly after Mile 15, one of the women in my group -- who apparently had insufficient training the preceding two months because of an injury she was recovering from -- came alongside me to thank me for getting her that far. She briefly explained what was going on and that she would be doing mostly walking, with a smattering of jogging, from there on to the finish. I agreed with her assessment that it was certainly not worth risking aggravating any injury, and assured her that even if she were to just walk for the remainder, given how far she had already come in a little over two hours, there would be no problem with her making it through all of the gauntlets and finishing the race.

As the group exited from Haines Point and turned right back towards downtown DC, I gave my usual welcome, all the more apt this year: "Welcome to DC, or Dysfunction Central!"

As we were a few blocks away from the Capitol, making a couple of quick turns on the course, the duo teams were taking the wide turn on the right hand side of the road -- they need a wide berth since they can't swivel on a dime. As they were approaching, they would call out to make way. Myself and one or two others would usually join in in shouting at anyone still on the side in question to move to the left and make a hole. Most of the time people would comply, though sometimes it takes three or four such shouts for them to understand and comply. This one time, the guy who would be in the way just wasn't budging, and the duo couldn't move any further to the right. As I came level with the runner, who was drifting a little to his right, I noticed that he had ear pods in -- he was totally oblivious to any sound around him and had no clue until he brushed against the wheelchair that it was anywhere near him. "Take at least one EarPod out!"

And I had a few more nonpartisan choice words to share with our group as we approached the Capitol. "Gorgeous building. Too bad there are 535 idiots in it!" (Sure, there are some that I like; some that people who disagree with me politically like instead. But I think most voters can get behind this broad-brush statement, even if they don't think "their" Congress-critter fits the bill.)

As we made our way away from the Capitol along the south side of The Mall and past the back side of the National Museum of the American Indian, there is some construction along the route. All well and good, and unfortunate that it bumped out on the right side of an already narrow part of the road. But there was a Water Stop in that same stretch of roadway, meaning that there was an intense bottleneck artificially created.

                      

Similarly, after we finished with The Mall and turned left to head back towards Virginia, as is always the case the people who lined both sides of the road and were enthusiastically and boisterously loud (thank you, spectators) also encroached the road on BOTH sides. Get the hell out of the way! For a little under a block, I used my sign and attempted to motion to the crowd on the left side (just focusing on the worst of the offenders) to get back, all while shouting as loudly as I could over the din, "Move back! Get back! Back up!" Almost none of them did, and they likely didn't even hear me. Quickly enough I gave up and said in a normal tone of voice, audible to the runners in my immediate vicinity, "Oh well. It was worth a shot." Thankfully it was only another couple of blocks before the street way broadened enough and the crowd dissipated, right before we got to The Bridge. Alas, since last year, the taiko drummers that used to be our last bit of encouraging noise before we got to Beat The Bridge have been gone.

As we began the long trek on the bridge (and thankfully it wasn't a hot day -- for it feels like absolute torture on such days), I advised everyone to go counter to the normal advice of looking in the distance when running. On this bridge, given the mostly silent monotony of it (and it being evocative of the scene from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" where a crusader is charging the Tall Tower for several shots, all from a distance, before suddenly he happens upon and kills the guards), I relayed advice I first heard a couple of years ago, to focus more on the lines dividing lanes on the road.

Amid the bridge, we come up to the large unmanned tanks of water that runners can fill up their bottles with (or shove their heads under the spouts). Right after I reminder my group of that, as we approached, I saw that all of these were behind a series of jersey walls -- with no break in them available. So, if anyone wanted to get to these, they had to climb over the jersey walls, which is something that no one running a marathon should ever be required to do to take advantage of an official water stop. What the hell, MCMO! Not cool. Totally "unsat."

Finally off the bridge, rather than the left-hand turn that we usually make, we actually turned right and did a nice little tour of part of the Pentagon parking lot. This because they needed to make up some distance this year because of reroutes owing to construction on the course. Then into Crystal City. This area is always simultaneously great and horrible. What makes it great is the concentrated throngs of crowds lining the route on both sides; this place is ALWAYS filled with great energy that is especially needed right when we need it most; not only because it is already late on in the course (after having gone 21 or so miles), but also because so much gets sucked out on the bridge. What makes it horrible? It is an incredibly congested out-and-back portion which is one somewhat-moving bottleneck. While it's tempting to weave around some people on the "out" portion by swinging to the left of the cones, doing so risks running smack-dab into a huge wave of runners on the "back" portion. And vice versa, though the "back" portion is notably wider (by an extra lane, I think).

As we approached Mile 24, I mentioned to one lady who had stuck right by my side the entire time and who was shooting for under 3:04, that she should probably slowly but surely pull away from me. While I was on pace for 3:04:30 (or a bit better at that point), she needed to make up maybe 30 seconds. She thanked me for my efforts and drifted forward and soon enough out of sight. I didn't pass her at any point, so I assume she managed to hit the time that she wanted.

And, as we approached Mile 25, I made sure to tell all of the group remaining behind me at that point that somewhere between right then and Mile 26, they were supposed to get in front of me and stay there -- they were all to finish in a faster time than me. Similarly, as we approached Mile 26, I reiterated that everyone needs to get in front of me and finish strong.

That final hill may not be much in the grand comparison of all hills, but at that point in the marathon, it is HARD! It's even trickier for me, balancing my duty to stick to pace and hit my small time window on the one, and do what I scream out and motion every year...

CHARGE!

We made our final right turn and still had a slight incline to conquer with the finish line tantalizingly close. Oh, to charge through at the finish would be so satisfying. No, keep encouraging those around me to go faster as I maintain.

Final time? 4:04:10. A touch faster than my true goal of 4:04:30, but still in the acceptable window. 

I found the other pacers who had come in before me to hand over my sign and wait for the next one to relieve me, commiserated with the ones still standing around about the multiple mile markers that were off screwing up everyone, and then made the walk out to collect the post-race goodies. On the way I crossed paths with the infamous Robert Wang (IYKYK) who had finished around the same time (though he wasn't in my group at all) and he did an impromptu interview for me to make my case to the Boston charities to which I had already applied but had not yet gotten a decision. I don't know that I acquitted myself as well during that as I could have if I wasn't still in some sort of runner's fog, but I appreciate the intent. Hopefully it will be an additional nudge to at least get me to the interview stage. Fingers crossed.

(Come on, photographer. It's one thing for photos along the course to be partly cut off because runners are moving and your trigger finger may be a touch too soon or late, but there is no reason to have cut off the blanket in this still shot. It should have been pretty obvious that I was looking to have that fully in frame.)

For all of the many faults that MCMO had this year between the expo and race day, one thing that was a FANTASTIC change was pushing out the perimeter where friends and family could be present to meet up. This enabled the runners to walk a bit further unencumbered by others and allowed those of us who availed ourselves of dropping off bags with the UPS trucks in Runner's Village to pick them up before being greeted by the mob. Depending on what one had in the bag and wanted to do, a runner could switch into other comfy footwear, maybe swap out a shirt, have some nutrition that they knew they would want that would not be in the post-race food box, etc. But, alas, all good things must come to an end... we finally had to brave the exit from the Finisher's area and make our way through the MASSIVE crowd basically hanging out right at the small opening of the chain link fence, trying to see their runner (as opposed to being at the respective Family Link-Up areas that are set up away from that exit). The only way that I was able to move was basically screaming "EXCUSE ME!" while having my arm outstretched and make like Moses. While the sea of humanity didn't part THAT much, it was enough that I was able to make my way to the far corner and then climb the hill the few blocks to get back to the hotel where I parked my car.

(Photo by Mitchell Chan)

(photo by Kelli Keifer)

(photo by Kelli Keifer)

After getting back to the hotel lobby, I took my sweet time to take off my bib (and back bib that had my name written on it) and swap for a dry shirt, and drank the protein shake I knew I would need. Then a more private pit stop also enabled me to full change the rest. 

Getting out of Rosslyn was a bit time-consuming given some of the logistics. And while I was waiting for a traffic light to change and the cop controlling the intersection to wave me through, I noticed a text message on my phone which indicated that the Rosslyn Metro station was CLOSED because of a problem with the escalator. Shuttle bus service was being provided. Going into that Station is a slow, torturous slog after the race to begin with, but to then close down the station? Ha! I felt sorry for everyone who needed to travel that way and was so immensely relieved that all I needed to do was drive away.

Sure, it would've been nice to go straight home to shower and change before getting lunch, but by the time I finally escaped Rosslyn and made it back to my area, it was getting late enough where I figured going home would turn a late-ish lunch into no lunch and just dinner. Famished, I drove on to Melt in Ashburn and got their All-American Bison Burger -- damn, that's the best burger I've had yet there... it may become my go-to (for the few times a year I go). And, of course, a chocolate shake.

Finally home, showered, changed, and rested a little bit, I took stock of the day's "haul." The first "premium" gift was this very soft, warm blanket. It was very tempting to take two, especially when some of the Marines who were handing them out were making comments that were actually ENCOURAGING of people to take more than one. As I would come to find out, it was just as well that I didn't do so, because apparently many official finishers in the back of the pack did NOT get one, because they had run out. Totally unsat -- knowing that there were 40,000 runners registered, MCMO should have ordered that many. They'd even have some extras afterward, given there are always some number of runners who don't even start the race for whatever personal reasons.

(Finisher's medal)

(Semper Fi Challenge medal, for those who finished both the Historic Half in May and the Marine Corps Marathon.) The challenge coin was actually affixed by a couple of small (and not overly strong) magnets. While I was standing in the Finisher's area, before getting my bag from the UPS truck, I heard a clink on the road. Thankfully I looked down... only to see that the challenge coin on my medal had actually fallen off. Rather than attempt to re-affix it, knowing it would simply fall again at some point, I simply held onto it.

The second premium was something that was provided by DC and HBO Max in honor of the Superman movie, ostensibly because we were all superheroes for finishing MCM. If anyone has seen the ponchos that the runners who finish the New York City Marathon get -- this is the same thing. These are WONDERFUL ponchos that are extremely helpful to wear to races that have cold mornings and allow for dropping off a bag right before getting into the corral.

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! :-)