What do you do after R2R2R?
The obvious answer is to sit back and rest. Well, so much for the obvious, I decided to
run the Marine Corps Marathon. The
obvious question that comes to mind is why?
The obvious answer is… duh! It’s
the Marine Corps Marathon. This event
has been on my bucket list for several years because it is such an iconic race
and up to that point I had never participated in something so big.
Josh and I often come up with these half cocked race
schedules because a lot of the events we want to do all seem to cluster together
on the calendar. With these two
particular events it seemed logical that we would already have the fitness from
the Grand Canyon run and the MCM was roughly half the distance. It should be a piece of cake.
I almost didn’t make the race due to being broke with an
airplane in Alaska. Josh was flying in…I
was going to be home two days prior…everything was on plan….what could possibly
go wrong???? Well…the secondary locking
mechanism for the crew door is what went wrong.
Can’t lock the door equals not being able to fly. After a very nervous 3 days of freezing in
the Great White north we were fixed and headed home. 
Josh arrived before me and drank the beer and ate the food
before my 0500 show back at the house (see above picture for proof). We met up and on Saturday headed to DC for
the day and over to a friend’s house for the evening. Had a great time at the Team RWB pasta dinner
with 350 fellow Eagles and a fantastic guest speaker. We don’t need to rest,
the race is half the distance of the last one.
Geez…come on now! Went to bed at
2300 and was up at 0245 Sunday morning.
Who needs breakfast? This is a
training run. Who needs to be
hydrated? Man, we just ran the Grand
Canyon.
Made it to the race by 0545 with no issues and just waited
for the start. It was a bit chilly but
all was going well. My plan was to run
by feel and use nutrition on the course.
Seemed reasonable for this easy race.
With the flyover of the CV-22s the event started. I couldn’t believe I was running with 30,000
runners and well over 400 Team RWB Eagles.
If you didn’t see an RWB shirt then you were obviously not at the 2016
MCM. They were everywhere!!!!
At about mile 3 is when all my bad living caught up to me
and I said to myself, “self, you really underestimated this race, made some
really dumb rookie moves, and overestimated your ability to do this well.” My biggest rookie move was not carrying any
nutrition and not carrying any pain reliever.
DUMB! By mile 5 my lower back was
tied in knots. By the grace of all that
is holy in this world a lady had a box of hammer gels and was passing them
out. I am sure she was surprised when I
took a handful. I needed the
sugar!!!! Up until that point I was
fueling with snicker bars (it was Halloween weekend). Did I
say DUMB?
Just before we entered the mall there was an aid station
that I ducked into. A couple Tylenol did
the trick and it was off to finish. We
just kept trudging along until we “Beat the Bridge” and knew we were home
free. The climb up to the finish was
incredible and I couldn’t think of a more fitting ending then finishing at the
Marine Corps Memorial. It was not the
fastest I have ever run but I felt a significant sense of accomplishment. The on course support was awesome and the
energy surrounding the event is something that needs to be experienced.
Josh and I hobbled to the shuttle…hobbled to the
car….hobbled to get some food and then I dropped him off at the airport. All in all…too easy! It was really about half of our previous
event, just another training run for what is coming up next.
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