Good Morning WISH teammates
I posted this on the Marine Corps Marathon thread, but I wanted to reconnect with the rest of my teammates too.
OK, let me post my official weekend report now that I have a few more pictures downloaded. My Dad and I met
Sara and her family in the hotel lobby Saturday morning and took the Metro out to the Expo. We picked up our numbers, and then
Sara and I separated. Dad and I strolled around the Expo checking out all of the booths.
We were looking at one booth that had "unofficial" MCM t-shirts and such. They had some shirts that said "Marathon Wife", "Marathon Dad", etc. We looked for a little bit, and then wandered on. I then feel someone tap my shoulder. It's the salesman from the t-shirt booth, and he says "I want you to have this for your Pop". He gave me (well my Dad really) one of the Marathon Dad t-shirts - no charge. I thought that was really cool. Dad was touched, and decided to go back to the booth to buy the coffee mugs we were looking at.
After the Expo, Dad and I drove out to the Air and Space Museum/Hangar by Dulles Airport. Dad worked as an engineer for the space program when I was born in the late '60's, and it was the highlight of his career. He was in heaven at this museum. He was just walking around with his mouth open, going "wow", and taking pictures of everything. We had a great time at the museum.
I sat down on some chairs, and put my feet up to try to save my legs for the marathon on Sunday. We left to go have an early dinner at Lonestar Steakhouse. On the drive back, we were going by the Iwo Jima memorial so we decided to stop and check it out. I told Dad I wanted to show him where we finished so he could get a sense of the area. We found a parking space, parked, and got out and looked around. I figured if we wanted to see the memorial we should do it now - because there's no way we could get near it when the marathon was going on. [Note - that was an incredibly good decision.] Dad had never seen the memorial, and we had a great time walking around. The Netherlands Carillion even started chiming (it was 6:00pm), and it was playing the tunes of all the armed service branches.
After walking around the Iwo Jima memorial, we went back to the hotel and I got all my stuff ready for the marathon the next day.
Marathon Morning- Up early, get all my gear on, eat an energy bar and we meet
Sara and
Jodi in the hotel lobby.
We make our way to the Metro and meet
Chester and
Tracy at the entrance.
We get off the Metro, and
Mike and
Kathy find us as we're getting off.
So we have the whole crew together at the Pentagon for Port-a-John city where
Jodi works her mojo picking the right porta potty line.
Colleen calls to WISH us well, and we're about ready to line up for the race. We work our way to the start, and I ask to be on the left hand side of the road because that's where I told my Dad I'd be. We have an airplane flyover and a goose flyover and we're ready to go. We cross the starting line in only 5 minutes which I thought was really good for all those people.
The 5 of us all start together, and as we run the first mile, we pass under the Arlington Memorial Bridge and see
Tracy in her WISH shirt sitting off to the right up on the bridge. I never see my Dad, but it turns out he was on the bridge too on the other side. I was distracted by
Tracy's shirt.
We wind our way through Rosslyn, and we start to break up a little bit.
Mike and
Sara move up ahead,
Jodi and I are in the middle, and
Chester is right behind us. We cross the Key Bridge, go through Georgetown, and around the Georgetown Reservoir. We catch up to
Sara around mile 6, I try to chat with her some, worry I'm about to receive a forearm, and decide to leave her alone.
We turn around to head back towards downtown and the monuments. At mile 11 I see my Dad just past the Lincoln Memorial. I wouldn't have seen him but
Sara's husband
Mike yelled my name. I looked over to see
Mike, and he pointed down. There was my Dad. I ran back to give Dad a hug.
Jodi and I are running together. I point out the sites like the famous statue of the guy with the hat. We're keeping up with the 4:15 pace group, but I'm starting to get tired. I normally take walk breaks during my LRs, and I have not taken a walk break yet. I'm going to pay for this later. We see
Tracy near the Smithsonian and wave and say hello. We turn and pass the Jefferson Memorial around mile 15, and make a long loop around a golf course on an island in the Potomac River. This is where the course was the toughest for me. My legs are starting to ache, and I'm getting a little crabby. I also could use a water stop. We pass a first aid station at mile 16, and they're passing out tylenol. Cool, I'll take one of those. I tell
Jodi that I'm going to walk at the next water stop. We finally get to it around mile 17. I fill my water bottle up, WISH
Jodi well, and get my iPOD out.
I start listening to the DISUnplugged Podcast, and it's a good way to kill an hour and a half. My pace really drops off now as I take more walk breaks. I'm probably averaging closer to 11:00 min miles compared to the 9:30 mpm I was averaging. The 4:15 pace group is long gone now, but I'm still on pace to meet my goal of finishing in 4:30. We cross over the Potomac at mile 20 into Virginia, and we reach Crystal City. This is a double back section so I keep my eyes out for
Jodi. This helps me through this part wanting to give
Jodi a final cheer. We see each other near the turn around point around mile 22 - home stretch now. Mile 23-24 was a long boring stretch around the Pentagon. Not too much interesting here at all, and I'm glad I have the DIS podcast to listen to.
Now we're back on the road we started on, and we're picking up a lot more spectators. The podcast is over so I put my iPOD away. At mile 25 we run past the turn up to the Iwo Jima Memorial where the finish line is. Oooh, that's cruel. The finish line is so close, but we keep on going. How far do we have to go before we turn around? We reach the turn around point, and get a little bit of a downhill. Yahoo! I'm going to be close to 4:30, and if I push it I can beat Oprah's time of 4:29. I make the turn up to the Iwo Jima Memorial and the finish line. My Dad's standing right there at the turn at the start of the hill. I pass him, give him a thumbs up, and continue on to the finish line. I gotta push it to beat Oprah's time. I turn on whatever jets I have left. There's the finish line, I cross, stop my Garmin, and I'm at 4:28:50! Whoo hoo! I did it. I've also set a new PR by 35 minutes. I'm feeling good. I go up to the Iwo Jima Memorial, and get my finisher pictures taken.
Now comes the time to wait in line. I wait to get through the finish line area, get my water, banana, and some Powerade. Meet my Dad at the "W" banner, and find
Mike, Kathy, Chester, and Tracy. We snap some pictures, and go our separate ways.
Dad and I head back to the hotel. By the time we catch the Metro the lines are gone. I think they put some more trains on duty, because our train was totally empty when everyone boarded at Rosslyn. We slept well, and got up to go to the airport Monday morning.
It was a great race, a great weekend, and I feel like I made some new friends. I'm definitely feeling a bit of the post-marathon letdown and blues, but all and all it was a fantastic weekend.
My Garmin said my pace was 10:12 which is really disappointing too. I guess I am hoping for snow soon so I can start race skiing and give my PF a break for the winter so I can come out strong in the spring. Good job today everyone. Keep on working!!!! 
Sorry we missed you SUnday night. You family looks great!
They had a really good time. And for those of you who don't know, they were the couple in MGM with WISH shirts cheering, he was in a wheelchair.
