They said when we crossed the finish, that there was a 20 minute disparity between gun and chip time? Here are my splits/time off Garmin the 4:23:something
9:30/9:27/9:11/9:00/9:36/10:05/10:11/
10:17/10:03/11:06/9:17/9:30/9:31/10:07/10:00/10:19/9:30/
10:02/10:01/10:16/10:19/11:06/10:23/10:35/10:54/9:40
First of all, we made the mistake of having my sister try to drive us to RFK stadium instead of taking the metro in at 6. So we got stuck in traffic 24 blocks from the start and had to get out of the car at 6:30 and run 1.3 miles to the stadium (or more). I've never run a marathon warm up before. It was hectic to find the start line, cars stuck in all directions and people streaming in from the metro. I made Cath come to my corral since she was forfeiting her pace to keep a safe pace with me and protect her stress fracture. The sun was rising just as we started moving toward the start line, it was very cold but the sky was clear. Running toward the Capitol building and down the mall was pretty cool. I love to be able to run down the road, we turned the corner at the bottom of the Mall and suddenly Catherine was searching for a POP. We tucked into a Starbucks and the small drama began to unfold there at mile 5. We ran a little while more, Cath's stomach in knots. We made about 3-4 stops, standing in lines for every POP we saw until mile 13 where I thought it might be wise for Cath to consider running the half marathon. But she's no quitter, and there's no stopping her and by the time she was arguing with me instead of turning white and looking for a bathroom she was feeling better. I had thrown away my gloves at mile 6 but it was so cold after stopping at the bathrooms that I had to pick up someone else's discarded gloves and I kept them on until mile 22. The course through 13 was picturesque DC and the majority of the runners were halfing....I would only suggest this marathon as a half. At th mile 13 the roads diverged and a pitiful amount of people carried on in the other direction after we'd looped back to RFK stadium. As we ran out toward Anacostia I remembered the scariest time I've ever had in DC when my sister's car was impounded and we had to go into this really skanky part of town to get her car out of impound. Guess where the race route ran....right past the impound lot, and deeper into the heart of crazy. Soon after we turned off the mall, under the bridge there were no 'motivation' or 'drink stations' just policemen. At first there was about a policeman every quarter mile. On the other side of the bridge we ran a pretty little waterway that is famous for floating dead bodies to the surface. Nevertheless, two Anacostia marching bands played vibrantly on either side of the trail. After the most ridiculous set of circles and turn around we finally ran into the very heart of darkness. The last drink station was on the parkway, and as we hit the neighborhoods where bars were on every window and door, the policeman became closer and closer together; Like 20 feet apart for about 2 miles. We passed a Baptist church that had about 70 people out front...all young people attending a funeral. It gave the impression it was a gang banger funeral. The cops in the area were no longer responding to the runners 'thanks for being here' they were focused on the funeral. A runner stopped to stretch up ahead of me, and the cop said "you can keep going" to which the runner replied, I'm just stretching. Then the cop said, well do it up there a ways if you can . I looked back at Cath who was taking it easy a little behind me and started to freak out a little that stray bullets would start flying from the direction of the funeral in progress. Then from about mile 21-24 there were no stations. No gel, no oranges, no portapotties, nada. Finally at mile 24 and again at 25 we had some more water/power aid. We finished running strong, a little tired and hamstrings aching but overall I felt pretty great. In retrospect, I think it was pretty cool I got to run through one of the most insane parts of SE DC with police every 10 feet. When else can you see that up close? We The course had a surprising amount of uphill for DC and the finishers chute was literally about .3 miles of incline which was pretty cool. They start kicking people off the course at 5:15. And we were both just happy to not be the last people straggling through Anacostia. | 