Well, the race was a month ago. Oops. But I couldn’t skip the write-up!

The Marine Corps Marathon was only 15days after the Baltimore Marathon — my first time doing two marathons so close together! I’m happy with how I felt and ran on race day.

It was a very chilly morning — in the low to mid 30s in the pre-dawn hours. Since we were taking Metro to the start line and had a ways to go, we gave ourselves a lot of travel time. So of course we were in the start line area with two hours to spare.

I was glad I met up with some friends at the train, it would have been lonely passing all that time by myself! Well, at least we got there before there were lines at the port-o-potties. And in fact, I got to break in a pristine facility.  Once we were all set (for the time being), we huddled under a tent to try to stay a little warm as we waited.

Thankfully time seems to pass quickly. I ate my peanut butter sandwich. We made another trip to the port-o-pots. And then it was time to head to the start corrals!

It was my second MCM, and the second time I wound up on the wrong side of the fence while trying to seed myself. Maybe next time I’ll figure it out! We squeezed in as soon as we found a spot in a reasonable pace group. I knew I wasn’t going for last year’s speed, and lined up with my friends. We were different paces and split up within the first mile, but it was nice to start together.

I was trying to do a better job pacing myself than I did in Baltimore — where I tried to be slower in the first half, but was still probably running too hard, which made for a pretty miserable second half. I was barely looking at my pace at all during Marine Corps — I was focusing more on keeping my heart rate low. A new strategy for me, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t pushing too hard!

I was hoping I’d be able to pick it up in the last 10K rather than fall apart.

And, well, it sort of worked.

Unlike Baltimore, where my walk breaks kept getting longer and more frequent, I kept them quick — just at the water stops —  and I resumed running soon after. I also felt good later in the race. I remember hating mile 17-18 in MCM last year (and in Baltimore it started around 16!), but I was still a happy runner this time around. I did stop briefly to stretch my hip, but got back on the road feeling OK pretty quickly.

This year, though, the bridge seemed a lot more awful than last year. Yeah, I did kind of hate the bridge this time around. But I felt better as we headed into Crystal City.

I willed my legs to move faster, and occasionally I’d glance down at my watch and my current pace *was* faster. But it seems I wasn’t holding it long enough to make a difference in my mile splits. Oh well.

Once again I was thankful for my Strider friends for being out there with gummy bears (and hugs).  Helps that they were around mile 23, so it meant I was almost done!

Those last few miles weren’t too bad, and I even managed to pick it up a little bit for the last two.  My last half mile (yikes! I tracked 26.51) wasn’t the sprint I can usually manage at the end … but I guess I probably was a little tired after a second marathon.

Overall time was 3:14 slower than Baltimore … but I was 5:26 slower than Baltimore at the halfway point.  Still not the negative splits I wished I could do, but at least I didn’t fall apart as badly!

The crowd at the finish was a lot worse than last year. Maybe because I was 25 minutes slower this year? I almost couldn’t hit the second mat due to a wall of people. And then it took forever to weave through the crowd to pick up food and get to the finish area.

I still love this race. I plan to be back in 2012!

Chip Time: 4:47:19
Overall Place: 11770 / 21023
Gender Place: 3916 / 8596
Division Place : 631 / 1309