#peoplesmarathon

🔸Even when I could finally pick up the pace, I was still on a high from the “fun part” of the race - I continued to high five spectators. I gave my sister a massive hug when I saw her 😍 (she did the 10k, crushed it, and immediately came to cheer me on! @nconnolly141 #MVP. A couple miles later, a stopped to kiss my boyfriend. I was barely looking at my watch; I just knew I felt good and that I had trained at a faster pace than my planned GMP so I let the wheels roll. Finally when I saw more pals along the course, I didn’t stop - cause I was finally entering the overthinking part of the race - calculating what it would take to still PR despite the unreal start. Somewhere after the mile 9 I had passed the 5:00 and maybe 4:30 pace group. I focused on finding and passing the 4:00 group in the coming miles. 🔸 I hung on to my pace for as long as I could. Mile 20 came and reminded me I probably couldn’t PR bc your legs don’t really agree with your brain after that many miles 😂 but I had diligently fueled and hydrated the whole race. I just kept pressing. The end of the MCM course is so hard IMO. You go from exciting sights and cheers to desolate, slight inclines over bridges with nothing to look at but other runners slowly fading around you. But it fortunately goes by pretty fast. 🔸 Someone along the course had bumped into me and split my watch, so I was confusing myself with being on lap 24 but really on mile 23. I was also about half a mile ahead on mile markers - I knew I’d end up coming in well over 26.2 miles. I tried to take this as a blessing: not knowing exactly what I had left so just keep rolling. 🔸My goal was to get the the 24 and see what my legs had left. I pictured myself kicking for the last 2 miles. Well, they didn’t have much left. I was hurting. My hips were locking up. But I had such a great past few miles that I didn’t want to throw it away now. Before I knew it I was finishing. Literally what my face looked like when I made it up the hill and could see the finish: 🤩🤩🤩 🔸The end! Not quite a PR but close enough for me. I’m so happy with how much fun I had, and thankful that the cluster of a start forced me to start slow. 💩 Details on the start: Okay what the HECK, MCM? For a race where Marines are helping organize things, the shuttle situation in Crystal City was far from efficient. I left my hotel room at 6 AM and got to the shuttles at 6:10, to find already massive lines wrapping around the park. This part is my bad: maybe I didn't get there early enough. The start was at 7:55. However, in 2014 I took the metro to the runner's village and had to walk 2 miles to the start. I purposely chose my hotel so that I could take the shuttles directly to the start without the worry of walking. *My complaining ends here - because all in all, everything went fine. But it's still a race morning experience I'd like to document so I can remember for the future! 💩After waiting over an hour in line, post-coffee and fueling, my body was STRESSED. I was cold, needed a bathroom badly, and was getting concerned about standing for so long in the cold without being able to move around to warm up for fear of losing my spot in line. I also didn't have my phone to seek an alternate route to the start (good thing I didn't learn until after that I was only 2.5 MILES from the freaking start!!) 💩Another 30 min later, we were finally to the start of the shuttle line, only to be cut by people who were well behind us in line. Literally people were screaming and fighting about boarding 😅 It was aggressive and a little scary (don' fk w runners the morning of a big race!) but I literally didn't care about anything but getting on a bus bc HELLO BUS BATHROOMS #BLESSED. Legit, a bus bathroom could have been the only bathroom I got to use that morning, and we all know what an important part of race prep that is. 💩We got to the runner's village with less than 10 minutes until the gun went off. I quickly realized I wasn't going to be lining up with my corral by the time I made it over to the start, so I spent 10-20 minutes getting ready to run, shedding my throw away clothes (the weather was perfect🤩), and waiting for a port o potty just in case (I had nothing to lose at this point). I started at around 8:20 - and soon realized I was behind even the 5:30 pace group aka it was suuuuper crowded. The course gets narrow in a lot of places so even when I thought I was getting break free, I'd quickly be back in a place where I quite literally could not get around walkers, joggers, or even just runners who were cutting from side to side to jump in front of cameras 🙄 I respect ANYONE doing a marathon at ANY pace, but holy moly was all the stopping, starting, and jolting not fun. I finally resorted to running on curbs, through rocky terrain, and even in grass bankings. Should out and sorry to the 100+ people I accidentally elbowed 😅 💛All in all, I'm not too mad at this start situation because it gave me the best IDGAF mentality that ultimately allowed me to roll through the second half. I recall repeating I.D.G.A.F. on repeat in my head.👽