We flew into DC on Friday and met up with my parents at our hotel and had a fun dinner with our two overtired kids!
Saturday morning we walked a mile or so to the marathon expo (see pics below) and did a little marathon expo shopping. We got back to the hotel and met up with my cousins Steve and Julie and their little boy Harrison who is about 2 months younger than Shoshi. We had a really fun afternoon that of course included a pre-race pasta dinner.
Sunday night my parents stayed with the kids in their room so I could get organized and get a few hours of sleep. Here's a pic of my pre-race setup.
Sunday morning I met up bright and early in the lobby of our hotel with Kathy, Shelly and Shelly's husband Brian. We took the metro to the start and did the pre-race ritual of standing in line for the port-a-pottys for about an hour!
And then we were off!
The first 17 miles were great. I was on target with an average pace of around 9:30 or so miles (some a little faster, some a tad slower) but generally feeling great. The run was beautiful, starting by the Pentagon and meandering through Georgetown and then along the river and toward the mall.
I started getting a little tired around mile 17 but I saw my whole family cheering and that got me through the next mile or so. This is the point when you are on the mall and running by the monuments and a lot of great sites. This is when I started feeling really tired but thankfully at mile 20 Jon came out of running retirement to run over a bridge that seemed to go on forever. He took a break from miles 22-24 and then rejoined me for the finish. I forgot how hard those last six or so miles are and it seemed like the finish line would never come. Just when it becomes physically difficult it also is hard to mentally motivate. All I could tell myself is to just keep put one foot in front of the next and don't stop...and then somehow the finish line appeared (although they like to make it extra difficult at the marine corps marathon and put the finish line on top of the steep hill where the Iwo Jima memorial sits. For about 3 minutes I thought this was my marathon finale but then I had a few pretzels and started strategizing next year.
Final finish time - 4 hours, 30 minutes. A personal best by 15 minutes (also known as a PR (personal record) in running lingo, as in "I PR'd the race"). It is quite the journey to train for a marathon and it's such a great feeling to have crossed that finish line. There is no way I could have trained without Jon being so supportive...thanks, babe.
Here are the official race photos, starting at the end with me crossing the finish line.
Here's me at the finish line after meeting up with my family.
And here is the best cheering section ever!
The family after a post-race lunch
The marathon expo on Saturday
I have another 100 or so pics from the sightseeing part of our trip that I will post later.
