Happy Halloween!!! Okay, my Marine-Corps-Marathon splits pretty much tell the story of my race: 7:07, 7:46, 7:06, 7:13, 7:08, 7:24, 7:21, 6:37, 6:35, 6:17, 6:28, 6:15, 6:17, 6:17, 6:18,6:14, 6:16, 6:19, 6:15, 6:23, 6:22, 6:32, 6:31, 6:43, 6:50, 6:38, and 3:13.
First of all, I started probably somewhere between 10,000 to 20,000 runners back in a pack that contained over 41,000 runners. The 2008 Boston Marathon has really been my only running experience in a big city marathon with tens of thousands of participants (i.e., I have run Baltimore and Philadelphia, which are certainly big city races with tons of runners, but they both also had half-marathon races time which contained the majority of runners, thus breaking up the congestion). Compared to the MCM, Boston is much more organized with corrals that are easy to access and two waves. In addition, everyone that runs Boston is fast, so even though you are in a sizeable crowd at the start, the pace is fast. However, the MCM did have one section at the very front that I never made it to for participants with the bib numbers 1-500. These bib numbers represented runners with the top 500 fastest times based off of a personal marathon best within the past year. My bib number was 328, thus I could have and wanted to stake out a position up front. However, I discovered that you really need get to the MCM starting line an hour-and-a-half to two hours before the official start of the race. My wake up call was at 5:00 am (three hours before the start); however, I dilly-dallied around two much in my hotel room (probably because I was so nervous; I was doing a lot of stretching and my standard sit-up and push-up routine) because I did not start walking down to the start until 6:50 am. As a result, it’s completely my own fault for my middle-of-the-pack starting position. After the starting cannon was fired at exactly 8:00 am, my first seven miles were relatively slow. I was really lucky to get the seven-minute-plus splits that I posted, because I was running in the gutter, on the sidewalks, and on the dirt/grass embankment of the George Washington Memorial Parkway to earn these splits. Also, miles 1-3 and 7-8 are the only hills on the course beside the final 0.2-mile hill (i.e., the rest of the course is sea-level flat); therefore, miles 4-6 are the downhill part off of the first hill, but my splits were 7:13, 7:08, and 7:24. Needless to say it was crowded and I have to admit I was a little frustrated when I passed the 3:40 pace team at mile marker seven. With that said, I kept my poise and the congestion started to break apart as we climbed that second hill and went by Georgetown University.
Secondly, it is evident by my splits that as we passed The Kennedy Center and began to run around the East Potomac Gulf Course my minutes per mile began to decline and I was able to get into a nice rhythm. With that said, I was hoping to get in a few sub-six-minute miles, but I was only able to dip below a six-minute pace a few times for a quarter mile or so before my left hamstring really started to tighten up. It’s almost like I have a barrier at the 6:10 pace before I start doubting if my hamstring will hold up (note: good progress from a few weeks ago where this barrier seem to be at 6:40); therefore, I tried to keep my pace at sub-6:20, which I was able to accomplish this until mile twenty.
Thirdly, my splits depict that after running around The Mall (by the way, what an awesome feeling to run by the Jefferson Washington, and Lincoln Memorials and by the White House and Capitol Building) and by the famous red-brick Smithsonian building, my pace began to slow. At mile twenty, you reach the 1.1-mile 14th-Street Bridge (a.k.a. Rochambeau Memorial Bridge) that goes back over the Potomac into Crystal City. Race folklore is that the 14th-Street Bridge feels like eleven miles long and I can vouch that it seems to go on forever. The last miles of the course takes you on an up-and-back through Crystal City--where the energetic and loud fans really turn out to cheer on the runners--and by The Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery to the finish line at the Iwo-Jima Memorial. As I neared the finish line, my hamstring seemed to tighten up a little bit as my legs began feel heavy and according to my Garmin, I ended up running a third of mile longer than the 26.2-miles mainly due to inefficiencies caused by trying to navigate through a large crowd. However, I finished with a pretty good kick leading up to and over the infamous 0.2-mile hill. It really felt awesome and patriotic ascending the Iwo-Jima-Memorial hill with all the marines lining the road to cheer us across the finish line. Marines even awarded all finishers with a very neat looking medal (i.e., an Iwo-Jima design with the Marine Corps slogan of “Semper Fi†printed on them).
In summary, I finished with a respectable time of 2:56:24 (i.e., an average pace of 6:44 minutes per mile). On one hand, with a better starting spot I might have been able to run under 2:50. On the other hand, with my left hamstring, starting out too fast might have caused it to tighten up much earlier. Either way, I’m not even close to my goal of a sub-6:00 pace for a marathon, which is frustrating, but will provide me with plenty of motivation to improve. Also, after I took a shuttle over to Crystal City and returned to my hotel, my legs were still feeling pretty good; therefore, I jogged two miles down to the finish line to cheer in all of the runners until they officially closed the course then I jogged back to my hotel. Since they have given me such great support during a number of races, I was hoping to see my sister and brother-in-law cross the finish line. This was their first attempt at the marathon. They have run and number of half marathons and were planning to run-walk this full-marathon since they had not run over 13.1 miles before. However, my sister’s knee began to lockup after the halfway point (i.e., dreaded IT band issues), so unfortunately they were unable to finish. The run walk strategy does not go well with IT band issues because you cannot run through it in that every time you walk your knee stiffness up and running on it feels really painful. Nevertheless, they set a personal best for distance and are motivated to keep at it which is always great to see! In addition, I had a fantastic time with cheering in all the runners as they made their final push up the hill and through the finish line. It was extremely motivating to see the determination and perseverance of these runners; it’s what running is all about!!! Supporting my fellow runners really helped put everything into perspective, even though I motivate myself to run a PR (i.e., provides great incentive to push myself during training), I realize that running is about so much more. It’s a little bit corny, but running has provided me with the confidence that hard work does pay off, taught me lessons on how to deal with not meeting my goals, given me the opportunity to spend quality time with family members, helped me establish new friendships, and taken me place that I would have never visited otherwise. With that said, a MCM OORAH from Arlington!!! |
