The marathon is such a special experience. You’d think the dozen or so half marathons I have done would have prepared me for what to expect, or that I would remember from my first two full marathons.

But every race is different. Maybe this one was different for me because I had a more-challenging goal. Or probably because I ran it all by myself instead of with friends. That was a long time to spend just with my thoughts!

Yes, I had a fabulous race … but it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. My feet started bothering me before the halfway point. Not injury, just pain from all the pounding. Nothing unusual, it’s happened with all my shoes, but I hoped to get farther before it set in. It wasn’t enough to slow me down, though. Mind over miles!

When we were running over the bridge, my right knee started to tighten up. Oddly enough, the left knee is the one that usually bothers me. I ran a few steps bending my knee as much as possible to stretch it out, and I took an ibuprofen that I thoughtfully put in my pack that morning. Fortunately, it went away.

At one point I was thinking about how much I liked marathon training, but perhaps I didn’t actually enjoy the  running of the race itself! I think that may have been “the wall” talking. I know that feeling didn’t last very long. I really did enjoy myself most of the time!

I keep reading about people hating the hills, but I actually didn’t mind the hilly part of the course. None of the hills seemed too bad (I guess I trained well for this!), and I got the bonus of a speedy downhill. I sure could have used a good downhill during those later miles!

I think I got through it pretty well. Sore legs for a few days, but no injuries or blisters. I even have all my toenails!

Prior to running the Marine Corps Marathon, I figured I wouldn’t repeat it. I know I’m not going to do lots of marathons the way I do half marathons — I don’t think my body is cut out for Maniac status!

I figured I would probably want to keep doing different races.

But I loved so much about this race.

It’s great that it’s local — I’ll always know lots of people running it and have a group to train with. I love how many Twitter friends were running. And the course is beautiful, too!

But the military connection makes this race really stand out.

I ran by a few groups of soldiers running in formation. There were usually two men on either side of a soldier in a wheelchair.

One group, in fatigues, was running with packs on their backs. I noticed the two men in the front had something large sticking out of their packs — the wounded soldier’s prosthetic legs. I’m guessing they were going to help him run across the finish line.

I wish I could have seen that.