{"id":409,"date":"2015-10-29T21:26:44","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T01:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/?p=409"},"modified":"2016-02-14T22:59:56","modified_gmt":"2016-02-15T03:59:56","slug":"marine-corps-marathon-oorah-mission-accomplished-race-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/?p=409","title":{"rendered":"Marine Corps Marathon – OORAH! Mission Accomplished! Race Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year I ran the Chicago Marathon, and that was my first one. \u00a0I think at that time, I thought maybe that would be the only one I’d do. \u00a0That distance is not a walk in the park. \u00a0But, as the months went on, I began thinking I might want to try another one. \u00a0And so here we are, talking about marathon #2, the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) in Washington, DC. \u00a0I guess you could say I am doing the “bucket list” races. Here is how it all went down.<\/p>\n

Coming off my best training for any race (except one big problem – no speed work and no tempo runs!), I had the least amount of training injuries in the 11 races I have done to date ( 9 Half marathons, 1 Full marathon). \u00a0Knowing this, I felt like I could beat my Chicago time, even though MCM is a more difficult course. \u00a0I had better runs and longer runs overall, and I had practiced fueling on long runs a lot more this time.<\/p>\n

On race day, I awoke at 4AM and starting drinking some coffee and ate some breakfast around 4:30AM (maybe too early? I don’t know. Some suggest 2-3 hours beforehand). \u00a0I drank some water, and headed for the Metro around 6AM. \u00a0The Metro was super packed and the Pentagon stop, where all runners were getting off, was so packed with people that the Metro personnel had to open the exit gates so everyone could get out of the area in timely fashion (free trip on the Metro).<\/p>\n

From the Metro, it was a long slow walk to the security line. \u00a0It was raining and apparently, the rain was causing some of the security metal detectors to malfunction. \u00a0The wait was well over an hour, but security at races is a very important thing! \u00a0This was the worst part of the race.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Waiting in the security checkpoint line before dawn.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Once I got through security, I realized that the race\u00a0was starting in about 10-15 minutes (I waited about 1.5 hours in security)! But most people were still stuck in the security lines. \u00a0The good news was the Port-A-Potties were not crowded at all! I have never seen a race with no bathroom lines. \u00a0By the time I made it up to the starting area, the race had already started, so I just walked up to the line and began running. \u00a0The weather was light rain and about 55 degrees F, humid, \u00a0and cloudy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The Osprey flies overhead before the race began. Cool looking aircraft!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The first half of the marathon was a breeze. \u00a0Mile 12 is called “The Blue Mile”, and it is lined with photo after photo of those Marines that paid the ultimate sacrifice for American freedom. \u00a0I was so humbled and thankful for their selflessness and sacrifice to our country. I stuck with my race plan for the first half of the race and then sped up a little in the second half. \u00a0That lasted until about mile 18, when I started developing some abdominal cramps. \u00a0 These cramps continued and eventually as things warmed up to 70 degress F, the sun started shining too and was still humid. \u00a0I’m not sure what happened, but I definitely hit the wall before mile 20 and the last 8-9 miles were a struggle. I saw other runners battling it too. \u00a0I think there are things I could have done differently as far prerace prep. \u00a0It became a mental battle, but I was able to finish this race and set a PR. \u00a0Afterwards, I had some really bad nausea, and I was so tired. \u00a0I think the new PR is still not the best I can do, and I will sign up for another marathon next year. I am just not sure which one I will do or when yet.<\/p>\n

I do recommend this race! Normally there aren’t problems with security and Metro, and I think this race is worth doing at least one time, if not more. \u00a0The Marines are a class act.<\/p>\n

\"\"

With JoAnn, my running friend, friends since college.<\/p><\/div>\n

Rating: 4.3 out of 5.0 stars<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year I ran the Chicago Marathon, and that was my first one. \u00a0I think at that time, I thought maybe that would be the only one I’d do. \u00a0That distance is not a walk in the park. \u00a0But, as the months went on, I began thinking I might want to try another one. \u00a0And so here we are, talking about marathon #2, the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) in Washington,<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[51,57,50,17,5],"class_list":["post-409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-running","tag-marine-corps-marathon","tag-race-problems","tag-race-reviews","tag-racing","tag-running-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/IMG_0360.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4FxFG-6B","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=409"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672,"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409\/revisions\/672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}