Marine Corps Marathon Race Report

Photographer caught me off gaurd before race start. The weather was pretty much perfect in the low 60s.


Im about 18 miles in at this point. My 2:55 marathon went out the window from this point on.


Cool pic with the Capitol in the back. There had to have been 10 different photographers on this straight away.


Ever tried to eat Jelly Beans when they're frozen. I have a mouth full of frozen jellys here. After attempting to chew them and getting them stuck in my mouth I had to spit them out. They were handing them out on the course and I thought I could use the extra cals.


I ran with a good pack of guys for half the time.

The last 5 miles were pretty much spent walking through water stations and watching people pass me.

This is me running up the last hill up to the finish line. My eyes were glazed over at this point. All I wanted to do was finish under 3:05 at this point.

The finish line! Ouch, this one hurt. 3:04:58. My Garmin said I ran 26.6 miles.

I had great fun doing this marathon. Such a great experience. The Marine support at the aid stations was awesome. Everything was so well organized. The crowds were amazing.

As far as my race goes I would be lying if I said I wasn't dissapointed with my finish time.

My training here had me finishing a marathon race in under 2:55. But of coarse that is on flat land. I was actually on pace for a 2:55 through 18.5 miles. I think what happened is that I used up too much energy in the beginning on the hills. Also, I lost too much time going through the water stations. And I did not take in enough calories throughout the race.

But, I actually felt great the first 2 hrs. They went by so fast.

One of the perks about being a Triathlete is that my body has the endurance to race hard for hours and hours. Unfortunetely my legs said they didn't want to run any more after 22 miles as I ran out of energy. OK so I have a few would of could of should ofs.

Bottom line I finished in the top 1%. And a 3:04 marathon is a Personal Best for me. Not bad for having 3 weeks to prepare for the distance and running on an injured foot. Oh, I also walked around DC all day the day before the race (I won't do that next time) but there was a special 'Sanity' event going on that just could not be missed.

I will now take a month or so off from run training to let my injuries heal up. I start serious swim training now. Basically the plan is to spend half of my training time this winter swimming. I can't say I'm excited about going to the pool everyday though. I'll still be running and cycling about 3 times per week.

PS: The CEP compression calf sleeves you see me wearing in the pictures work! One of the few things not sore on my lower body after the race were my calfs.