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| The Marine who saluted and put my medal on me -the medal is BEAUTIFUL!!! The selfie camera on my phone was water logged (from the rain) so that is why the picture is so cloudy. |
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| Right after crossing finish line walking to get my medal! |
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| Night before at the past dinner! |
40th Marine Corps Marathon - Marathon
I completed the 40th Marine Corps Marathon in 3 hours and 58 minutes. A Personal Best Record for me on a course that was not super hard yet also not easy. With hills in the beginning and a hill at the last part of the run, it took physical and mental perseverance to finish this course. I am so happy I did and though it ended on a hill I was so glad to see that hill because I knew it would be over in minutes.
I did not Boston Qualify by finishing the course under 3 hours and 40 minutes, yet I can work with an 18 minute gap! That is going to take a bit more effort on my part yet it is totally DOABLE! I already have the next marathon I would like to run to qualify in mind!
My goal of BQ'ing is merging into a new goal which is to run a marathon in all 50 states! So far I have run a marathon in 3 states - New York (New York), California (Santa Rosa), Virginia/DC (Marine Corp)! I would also like to run marathons internationally as well. On my immediate wish list are Pennsylvania, (Philadelphia), Illinois (Chicago) , Utah (St. George) , Florida (Miami), Canada (Ottawa), France (Paris), Great Britain (London), South Africa (Cape Town) and Ghana (Accra)!
So the Marine Corps Marathon started of a bit hectic. Getting to the start was rough as it was very disorganized and after waiting from about 7:00am to about 7:40am in a gaggle of runners and spectators to go through security - we runners realized that if we continued to wait to go through metal detectors we would not make the 7:55am start. So most of us jumped the barrier and sprinted into the runner's village where we held up our bags to show the officers that we were runners and had to get to the start! After, I dashed to the UPS truck to drop of my bag and headed to the bathroom one last time. I then ran into the moving start line as the Marathon had started and I dipped into the line near to runners I believe where about the 8:30min/mile pace group and just started running to the start line at bit after 8am! I was lucky as some runners did not start until almost half an hour after the race had started.
It was raining.....I know....thank goodness for that one time I trained in the rain! From the start until about mile 16 or 17 we had drizzly cool weather. Besides stepping in some puddles I was pretty comfortable.
It was raining.....I know....thank goodness for that one time I trained in the rain! From the start until about mile 16 or 17 we had drizzly cool weather. Besides stepping in some puddles I was pretty comfortable.
At about mile 18 though my right then my left quadriceps started to cramp!!!! I was fueling, drinking and even took the salt at the beginning of the run to get in more sodium so I was not sure why, yet now I attribute it my sneakers being to small...yeah, at expo I found out I probably should be in size 9 sneaker instead of 8.5 (will sort out my sizing in the next couple weeks) and just shocking my body by not probably warming up due to the chaos before the start. With the first 8 miles being up hills with few downhills my quads where shocked. I did not properly stretch which definitely caused this cramping. I don't believe I would have BQ'd even with the stretching yet I probably would have been a lot more comfortable during the run and finished about 5 minutes earlier than I did as the cramping slowed me down a bit, yet happy that I was able to run through it.
There were a lot of runners on the course and there was some bottle necking at times. With a field close to about 30,000 runners on some pretty narrow sections I found myself stuck between slower runners and having to weave through just to get back to my pace.
At mile 23 I saw my husband and my son, the highlight of my run! It truly gave me the strength to finish the last grueling 3.2 miles! WOW where they HARD. I believe that because I hydrated well and fueled well, the cramping did not get to the state to paralyze me! That last stretch literally right at the finish was a good size hill, yet I was never more happier to climb a hill and finishing this Marathon!
I MADE IT AND WAS HAPPY TO DO SO!
So my journey ends here for now at will start up again in 2016! With an 18 minute gap I know the BQ time is getting closer and closer! Especially earning a Sub-4 (doing a marathon under 4 hours) on this course I know that I can definitely earn my BQ time on another course with a higher percentage of BQ qualifiers (translation - slighter flatter course :) ). Yet I definitely will run this course again in the future!
Here's to BQ'ing VERY SOON!
Yvonne
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