My sister, Laura, flew up from Orlando, FL to run the race. Joey and I (and Laura's boyfriend Chris) went along for the fun as well as to cheer on our friend Mike and help him out along the way.
The morning started bright and early with a 4:30am wakeup call. (Hey! It's better than 2:30am at Disney!) We headed to the Springfield metro station where we met up with Mike and got our tickets and boarded the slowest moving metro train EVER. It finally picked up speed after an agonizingally slow first 20 minutes.
We arrived at the Pentagon and walked with thousands of our new best friends over to the start area.
Security was TIGHT. All bags were searched. I heard at the expo, people were actually patted down and scanned. I'm actually glad for that. I don't mind at all. When we got to the finish line at the end of the race, NO BAGS whatsoever were allowed. I'm so glad we read up ahead of time and followed directions! I stuffed everything into my jacket pockets!
It was also FREEZING!!! It was sooo cold :*(
We did all the usual start line activities- wait in 45 minute bathroom lines, get confused about where to go, take stupid pictures, etc etc etc.
Finally it was time to say goodbye to Laura and Mike, and me, Joey and Chris headed out past the start line to get a good vantage point for the starting gun!
BOOM! The Howitzer went off and the race began!
We scanned the crowd, watching the pace groups, and finally we saw Laura and Mike!
After they passed, we headed off to the Lincoln Memorial to post up at Mile 10-11. We had some time to kill, but we didn't want to stray too far. We watched the hand cyclers pass and finally, the front runner of the marathon. He was FLYING. He was way ahead of the other runners. Slowly but surely, more runners started coming through. We cheered and yelled encouragement. I kept checking my phone waiting for the first splits to come through, but I guess the system was overloaded because I only got one person's 10K split all day :( (I was tracking a ton of people!).
My friend Teresa is a freaking speed demon and I got her 10K split (45 mins!) and knew to expect her soon. Joey and I spotted her amazing American Flag shorts and Joey had to jump in front of her to get her to notice us. (Sorry Kanye) She lives in Colorado and is a Marine wife. It was so great to see her, even though she was totally in the zone and almost missed us. I'm going to brag for her because she finished in 3:17!! HOLY CRAP. GREAT JOB T.
While waiting for Mike and Laura to run by, I was also noticed by two of my sorority sisters who were running!!! I didn't realize it was them until they had almost passed- I jumped up and started yelling anyway! It's great to know SO many people out there. They both also killed it in ~4 hours.
Since we didn't have splits, we had to base our whole day off of the pace groups. We saw the 5 hour pace group and shortly after, there was Mike! Joey ran in to give him his first gatorade refill. He ran with him for a bit and then it was back to waiting.
A little while after, Laura came by! She was looking strong. She had been running the entire time and actually ended up running the entire first half before her first walk break.
After they passed, it was time to head over to the gauntlet at the Mile 17.5 marker (aka the dreaded Mile 18). We actually had to cut through the course to get there, which I HATE. I hate it when people cut through the course in front of runners. It's rude. Joey had a genius idea, though.
We were all dressed in running clothes anyway because we anticipated that we might have to run for a little while to help out our friends. So we waited for a natural break in the crowd, and hopped into the race!! We crossed diagonally, basically running at speed with everyone else- sort of like merging onto a highway. Please remember this if you ever spectate a race- do NOT cross straight across like a crosswalk. That will make people angry. If you MUST cross the race course, merge in like you are a car into traffic. And use your turn signal/look behind you. These people are TIRED. They should not have to waste energy trying to avoid your dumb a$$.
ANYWAY
We got to the gauntlet area and Chris and I went to a food truck because we were all STARVING (next time, we're eating breakfast). We got hot dogs, sausages, pizza, soda... omg. It was amazing.
We posted up around 17.5 and waited for Mike to come along. We finally saw him and Joey jumped in again and ran with him a bit, helping him refill his gatorade again and encouraging him. Mile 18 is the hardest part of the marathon for most people.
We waited for a while and then we saw Laura. She was in tears. Did I mention she did little to no training for this marathon?!?! She is CRAY CRAY. Her knee was killing her and she was so upset and frustrated. I jumped in and walked with her up to the medical tent where they sat her down and she had a chance to calm down. We waited outside for a little and then suddenly, she popped out and had her game face back on. She was so determined, I have to admire that. She jumped back in the race and said she'd see us at the finish!
At this point, we had walked all over DC. We headed to the nearest metro station and rode back to the start/finish area (7 metro stops. holy. mileage.). When we arrived at Arlington Cemetary the Marines were turning people away who had bags or backpacks of any kind. I was thankful for the added security. We went in and posted up right before Mile 26. I had a great time cheering on the runners who were about to accomplish their ultimate goal.
We watched for our telltale pace groups, and we were actually getting some splits by this time, so we were ready when Mike came along! He was tired and sore, but we screamed and made a scene and Joey actually went running along side of him (through the crowd, not on the course) yelling all the way through the last .3 mile to the finish line.
Now it was just time to wait for Laura! We finally saw her, and she was ALL SMILES!! I don't know what happened between miles 18 and 26, but she was happy as a little clam. We screamed and yelled and she went off running into the sunset, er, huge hill that is the finish (terrible. just terrible).
After everyone collected their medals and goodies, we (slooowwlllyy) walked over to the metro- the line was terrible. We decided to get lunch at Quiznos instead. After lunch, we made it to the metro and after a really long day that started at 5am, we got home around 5:30pm.
CONGRATULATIONS to all of my friends, co-workers, sorority sisters, fraternity big brother (Mike!) and sis (Laura!) on such a huge accomplishment.
<3
