The 41st Marine Corps Marathon!

The 41^st Marine Corps Marathon! My first and now my third marathon and still a great race! So let me tell you a little about it…and the a few major differences from the 38^th MCM.

The Marine Corps Marathon, also known as the People’s Marathon, is one of the largest and most popular marathons in the United States with participants from all over the country and the world traveling to our nation’s capital to run 26.2 miles mainly through Virginia but also around several iconic monuments in Washington, DC.

To enter this race it is now done mainly through a lottery or you can pledge to raise money for charity or if you have run it a certain number of times or are a member of the military you can register early or the best way is if you run the Marine Corps 17.75K and finish you get a guaranteed entry!

When I first ran the MCM back in 2013 there was no lottery you just had to be ready to go once registration opened and refresh your computer every time the server crashed due to the amount of internet traffic trying to register….luckily that was the first year you got a guaranteed entry by running the 17.75K which I did J

This year I did not get into through the 17.75K or the lottery but was lucky enough to get a bib transfer when I randomly decided to run the MCM 6 weeks before race day…this however meant that I did not train at all…far less than my first MCM where I kind of trained.

The MCM in 2013 had the expo at the Stadium Armory located in SE DC next to RFK stadium. This location then changed in 2015 to the Washington Convention Center in downtown DC. Stadium Armory I thought was the most convenient as it was metro accessible and had free parking.  The convention center was metro accessible but no free parking which I thought was the worst location for the MCM to put their expo but I was wrong because in the 2016 they moved it to the Gaylord Hotel Convention Center which has no free parking and is not metro or bus accessible unless you make a ton of crazy transfers and connections. One of my friends decided to get to the expo first thing Friday and ran into a ton of traffic and waited for a while to park for $6 for two hours. I was running late but had the same general plan and also ran into some traffic but did not as much as my friend…most likely several people had the same idea to arrive first thing to “avoid traffic.” I only stayed an hour and paid $3. On my way out of the expo the traffic had become even worse! This year’s location was definitely terrible and hopefully enough people will complain so that they can relocate it somewhere easier to get to.

This year’s race also did not have the benefit of an early metro opening to get runners to the starting line prior to 8AM. Metro opens at 7AM on weekends but has historically opened at 5AM for the MCM. This year metro refused to open early due to their SafeTrack program where they are trying to make as many repairs as quickly as possible by cutting metro operating hours, shutting down complete sections of track for periods of time, and inconveniencing commuters as much as possible because metro failed to do regular preventative maintenance and repairs on a regular basis and is now forced to do so after several close calls and accidents that injured commuters….any way so this meant MCM had to find other ways to get runners to the start. This included providing free shuttles from certain locations. My friend and I decided to take the shuttle from downtown DC but little did we know the lines for shuttles would be extremely long and just to get a shuttle would require 40 minutes of waiting…Uber and such had 300% surcharges…

Besides the location of the expo and the metro problem (not MCM’s fault) the race was still awesome!

Security this year was not as bad as the year before…as my friend who ran it told me…this was probably due to the trickling in of runners due to lack of transportation.

When you get to the race wait until you get further into the starting area to use the bathroom…you might see a few porto potties with long lines once you approach the security check point but if you keep going there are numerous porto potties with almost no lines at both the bag check area and by the starting corrals.

There are a good amount of aid stations but I suggest bringing your own water bottle (Nathan Quick Shot). I would fill mine up at each station so I could have it in case I needed water between aid stations and I was glad I did.

As I mentioned before I did not train for this race so around mile 13 my body started to get cramped probably from my piriformis flaring up and after that it was shear will power and my friends’ text of encouragement, and the spectators that took me the rest of the 13.2 miles to the finish. I was glad to finish but disappointed in my time. I was really hoping I would meet my goal time of 4 hours 30 minutes which I was on track for until 13 miles. Now I am very determined to stick to a training plan so I can beat my 2013 PR of 4 hours and 15 minutes.

 

I highly recommend running the MCM if you can get in. I think this will be a race I will do every year from here on as long as I am healthy and can get a bib!

Trail Running! (Ragnar Trail WVa and EX2 Adventure Racing)

I’ve always wanted to try trail running but where I live there really aren’t many good trails that are not at least an hour away…or a pain to get to (Rock Creek Park) so I didn’t hit the “real” trails for a while…I did the DC North Face Endurance Challenge 10K…wasn’t really a trail more like running on a dirt road with some mud but still fun.

Luckily this past summer my running club…The Argonaut Running Club (check us out we run every Friday at PM from Liberty Tree in DC)….decided to put together a team for the Ragnar Trail Appalachian relay. I had done Ragnar before but just the road one in vans. Ragnar Trail always seemed more appealing to me because Ragnar is fun, you get to camp at this one and hangout with your team instead of driving around, they have bonfires and music and games, and so much more!!

The finish line!

 

The trails at Ragnar where much more technical (hills, obstacles, etc…) than the North Face 10K where I was able to maintain my pace close to road pace…at Ragnar my pace definitely slowed but not my effort…these trails were tough!

me after completing my first loop (red - hard loop) each runner runs each of the 3 loops once

 

So let’s go back a second….Ragnar Trail…you can have a team of 8 or 4 (ultra crazy people)….you bring your tents, camping equipment, food, booze, water, etc…setup camp in your designated area and hangout under the stars! Ragnar also provides food and water, there are porta potties that Ragnar did a great job keeping clean, there are showers, there is beer, and so much more. You can arrive as early as 4PM Thursday and stay until Sunday. We opted to do just that half our team arrived later Thursday night and already there were tons of teams there who had taken the best camping spots. I recommend if you can show up on Thursday.

All through the night teams are up and having a good time waiting for their runner to come back to the exchange so the next runner can take off. During my night run…I was terrified the whole time leading up to it…the woods were dark all I had was my headlamp but I wasn’t scared it actually felt exhilarating to be running out in nature in the dark in the quiet…I didn’t see too many other runners just a few that passed me and that I passed. When I got to the exchange I had the best runner’s high ever! I had boundless energy and ran the half mile back to our basecamp to chatter away to my teammates about how awesome the Yellow Loop was. Overall I had a wonderful time running this race and hanging out with my team. I can’t wait to do it again next year and I’m currently trying to convince others to do Ragnar Trail Richmond with me.

Cool Ragnar Trail medals!

Our team and our two volunteers after the race!

 

After Ragnar Trail I have a new love for trail running…I still don’t go out during the week to hit the trails due to lack of time….but I did sign up for 5 trail races this fall with EX2 Adventure Racing! I completed a trail 10K this past September which was awesome! And now I am in the process of completing their 4 trail race series the Fall Backyard Burn 10 Miler series! You don’t have to camp for these ones but they are still a blast and they have the best mini breakfast burritos at the end and they also have a ton of other food. I'll post more about this race series once I'm done

I highly recommend everyone try trail running. It is a lot of fun and the scenery is beautiful! Keep in mind you won’t go as fast as you do on the road and you may take a tumble now and then but it is all worth it!