I did the Marine Marathon in 2012. I absolutely loved it! It was not an easy course but it was beautiful. Fast forward to 2015, Chris and his group are training all Summer to run this Fall marathon-suddenly it’s 48 hours and counting.
We drove up on Friday morning with our two youngest. Even though I couldn’t run, I was there to support Chris. We made it to our hotel late and strategized how we would get to the new expo location, Washington Convention Center. Metro obviously. Next morning, early rise and ride on the Yellow line to Mt Vernon Square. Got there after 10, tons of people already-oh bother. And having a scooter and disabled leg not helping with trying to get around people, who occasionally were rude and ran into me. Brooks MCM store was like a Disney ride from nightmareville. Purchases totaled amount of a car payment-ouch! Then on to see the other offerings. We saw 26.2 with Donna booth-awesome booth babes. Hyundai booth had a cute free photo opportunity, Dunkin Donuts had cool giveaways but no donuts(?!), lots of cool races from all over the country, and tastes of healthy products. I thought the Armory seemed bigger, so I wouldn’t rate it as wonderful. 3 out of 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️stars.
Time to rest up for the race. Weather forecast rain and 50’s for the start. Day of the race and Chris was up and out by 6:30 a.m. We watched the start of the race and that’s where our outlooks diverge. Me & the boys got to the Mall at 11:00 and began cheering for the 4:45 pace runners-cowbell please. I could not track Chris-Facebook alerts did not happen with MCM app(epic fail). I got updates from another friend until I signed up for phone text updates. I knew Chris had a little way to go so we went to the Air and Space Museum. Around 1:15p.m., we looked down the road and who should we see coming towards us…Chris!! More cowbell!! He spotted us and we gave him a hug. He did not look happy & said he was severely cramping. There were not a lot of people out there and the Marines were packing and cleaning up. Uh oh. Still he kept running. We stopped for lunch-hot dog stand! Afterwards, I tried to find the Smithsonian Metro when I noticed the ambulance and row of buses-go forward and investigate. Yep I saw Chris. He was being picked up and having to ride on the “straggler bus”.
Chris told us to go on to Roslyn and he’d meet up with us. An hour later he was there and was extremely angry.
Some of the things he experienced…
Started 25 minutes after race began-no cannon, no announcement.
Bag check for runners and spectators ?! I thought that’s why runners had clear bags.
At the sweeper buses, runners told they were too slow to run MCM.
Buses rode around and around and around-come on! Drop them off already!
Buses nearly running into or backing up into runners still on the course-are you kidding me?!!
Buses in the Finishers Chute-WTH?!
Buses not dropping off people to meet up with their family in the meet up area-come on-no wanted a medal they didn’t earn you dolts.
I am so disappointed that Chris had such a bad experience with a large marathon. On a good note, the rest of his group beat the bridge and finished!
What did we learn? I don’t know yet but stay tuned.
It’s about the journey not just about the destination,
Mercedes
runswimbiketeach 