Months ago, David said that he really wanted to run the Marine Core Marathon hosted by the US Marines in Arlington VA / Washington DC. As we had so much fun traveling to Houston for the Marathon in January, I was in. I would run the MCM10K – my 2nd 10k race.
On Friday, Oct. 26th, we boarded the plane for Washington. After several hours of planes, trains and automobiles, we finally arrived at the hotel. At bedtime, it hit me that there was only 1 more day until the race and boy did I ever start to get nervous. I was really concerned about my knee pain and about my hip that kept going out.
Saturday we ran an easy 4k to find the Finish line and try to see where the Start Line was. After that, we put our feet up for the afternoon, watching movies, eating lots and drinking tons of water. We enjoyed a wonderful pasta dinner on a patio Saturday evening with a few Maniacs – Andy, Ian and Brendan. I felt an odd calm the night before.
Sunday morning, we met Andy in the Lobby @ 6:30 am and started walking the 2k to the Start Line. Once we found David’s Coral, we kissed goodbye and I headed to the 10K Start which was another km down the road, beside the Pentagon. When I heard the 8:00 am Marathon start, I said a silent prayer for David and then I did all my final pre-race stuff including tossing my throw away pants. I nervously headed to the start line in anxious anticipation of the 8:20 am start. It was cold and very windy. I was shivering. They announced the 2 minute warning, everyone moved forward to the start, but a few seconds later, they announced that the start would be delayed. As there were still marathoners going through the start (20 minutes into the race), the 10k couldn’t start until they could remove the barricades as we would be passing through that area. Finally, 25 minutes later, we were off. I was so cold that I couldn’t feel my legs for the first 2k, but I was thrilled to be moving. Around 3k, I started hearing sirens. The sirens kept getting louder and louder until I realized that they were coming up right behind me. Runners started moving to the side of the route to get out of the way. As I looked back, there were several police motorcycles followed by quite a few police vehicles and they were speeding through the runners. The sirens were thundering loud. I kept running, but I was scared. I had just run by the Pentagon which had been hit by a plane, I was in Washington, I had run by officers with machine guns and I didn’t know what was happening. My heart was pounding and my adrenaline was skyrocketing. I kept running. The police procession finally passed me and continued down the 10k route. Once I realized that everything was okay, I calmed down and just kept going. At least I was no longer cold.
About 6k my left knee started to hurt quite a bit, but I chose to ignore it. At 8.5k, I was into the final uphill finish and heading directly into the strong wind. I was getting tired. I kept pushing on, knowing that it wasn’t much further. I kept thinking about the 22,000 marathoners and telling myself that I was only doing a fraction of what they were so ‘Suck It Up Princess’. So what it hurts! Just do it! So, I did it. Coming into the Finish, I was tired, but I kept pushing. My Goal time was 49:00 – I wanted to beat my 1st and last 10k which was 49:48. When I finished, my Garmin read 48:37 and 10.10 km. I was very pleased. When the results were posted, my chip time was 48:50, placing 4th in my Age Group. WooHoo! I was 4th in my AG for the 5k in Houston too. Perhaps next year when I move into the 45-49 AG, I’ll break into the Top 3. I can always dream.
I picked up my medal, got my Finisher’s Photo and anxiously awaited David’s marathon finish. I watched David run in and then searched through the sea of people until I heard David call my name. Then came the best part of all….. the congratulatory hug. It was a tough day, challenging races for both of us, but it was a wonderful day in Washington for the Striders. It was lots of fun sharing the experience with other Maniacs too. Thanks Carla, Dave, Ian, Brendan and Andy!
Ooh-Rah!
Some pics posted:
http://www.runningmania.com/gallery.php
:clap: Awesome race, report and PB, Kimberly 
I react very emotionally to sirens 
Ya, ya, ya.... we'll see. I just so not sure if I could run that distance. With the way my knee is feeling right now.... ARG. Anyway, I'm still smiling about it.
