March Marathon Madness

Yesterday was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and it was about 55 degrees. If only we were running our marathon yesterday as opposed to the week earlier!

All week the weather called for rain on Saturday; the St. Patrick’s Day Parade was actually postponed until March 28th. So we knew what we were dealing with when we were going to run. On Friday, we arrived to DC around noon, missing all traffic and finding 28 license plates from different states, beginning in Baltimore. We found a parking spot in our second loop by the Convention Center and enjoyed the expo. Brooks was sponsoring the run, and they had Happy Island set up, where we rode a shoe (like the bull riding), played a racing game (think arcade style Hoppin’ Harry and Jumpin’ Jack) up Mount Crack-A-Toa. Jenn won a pair of Brooks shoes (she wears the Ghost 7) and Sean won a visor. We ran into a friend from home at the Mamma Chia booth. We left and went to the National Mall, where we grabbed lunch at a delicious sports bar and then walked around all the monuments. Our luck was only temporary. Around 5:15, we went back to the car to head to our Aunt’s house outside DC, only to find that our car wasn’t there. We knew that it was where we left it, and discovered that unlike P

hilly, when you don’t have to pay after a certain time it’s a great spot, you get actually get towed. After a phone call, we discovered our car was a block down, with a parking ticket for the tow and a parking ticket for being a spot without paying. Ok, lesson learned.

We had butternut squash soup, a side salad, and pasta with Jenn’s mom’s homemade sauce for dinner. We also enjoyed some Conshohocken Bakery bread and a small glass of wine (thanks to our Aunt, Jenn dropped the wine in the driveway upon arrival. At least it was still in the bag!). We went to bed early because we were exhausted!

Saturday morning was cold and rainy. We wore trashbags for the first time, because we knew it was supposed to get up to 60 degrees. The metro took us in, and we got there in plenty of time to use the bathroom, put our warm, dry clothes in gear check, and make it into our corral. The starting line was crowded with people from all over the nation. There were about 18,000 people at the starting line but only 2,500 people finished the marathon. There was some good pump up music, Star Spangled Banner, and then we were off, 26.2 miles in our nation’s capital. The race started around the mall with a crossing over the Potomac and then miles 4, 5, and 6 were along a scenic road along the Potomac. Mile 6 included a giant hill that was lined by huge American flags held by volunteers which was inspirational for remembering our troops. The next 5 or 6 miles before the split went through some of the neighborhood areas and there were a ton of people out supporting even in the rain. Mile 12 saw the split occur which made the race crowded with people to a very lonely race. The second part of the race was not a scenic as we did a loop in an industrial park, ran around a park, and at mile 22 hit another park that had hill after hill. Someone wanted to be cruel at the end of the race. The race finished at RFK Stadium where Better Than Ezra was belting out some tunes. Sean ran a 3:25 which was a 7:51 pace. Jenn ran a 3:58 which was a 9:09 pace. We got our awesome DC finishers jackets and medals, had a beer at the finisher’s tent, and hobbled back to the metro. Of course when we finished running the rain had finished and it actually became sunny later on in the day.

So we now have 8 states and the District of Columbia checked off our list of trying to run a race in all 50 states. So why do we do it? What better way to see a place than to join thousands of people and flood the streets. You get an up-close encounter with the architecture, get to meet neat people, and we get to see the USA one step at a time. Next up is Charlottesville, Virginia the first weekend of April.