Boutilier's Blog: Washington D.C. weekend

What a weekend! Chris & I decided in early 2009 that we would run another marathon, since we weren't planning on doing a 'big' triathlon. We chose the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington D.C. 10/25/09. It's been on my wish list for a while. Our last 'marathon only' event was New York City marathon 2004 (it was our 5th marathon together). Well, training and racing them never gets any easier. We had a very good weekend though - our fastest marathon and no yelling (just a little bit of complaining from me - but very little...) - a great way to end our 2009 season!

Chris had a business meeting in the D.C. area earlier in the week, so I flew down on Friday night and met him in Baltimore. He happened to be traveling with a co-worker who was also doing the marathon. We all jumped in a cab together, since we were staying in hotels all the way across town. 1 1/2 hour cab ride later..., we checked into our hotel room and grabbed some dinner. Early to bed, as Friday night's sleep was the most important of the weekend.

Our only plans for Saturday were to go to the marathon expo and pick up our race packets. Good thing, since it rained a lot all day. The expo had a ton of vendors, race advertisers, and guest speakers. We didn't spend too much time there. We've done it all and have seen it all before. I was going to take a picture, because it is a sight, but I completely forgot. We just picked up our race packets and bought new race belts that would hold our race #'s and gels (fuel for the run). Oh yeah, Chris did find a vendor that was getting rid of last season's running shoes - so he found his favorites & bought 2 pairs (for $30 each), and another pair of racing flats (very light weight running shoes for short distances). He was very excited, since his running shoes usually cost $130 a pair - and he got 3 pairs for only $90!

Sunday, race day, was sunny and cool - a great day for running. We were up around 6 am and walked a couple blocks to the bus shuttles to the start. Our hotel wasn't far from the starting line, but we didn't know exactly how to get there, so we took the shuttle. Won't do that again! Hundreds of people in line for the bus, so it took way too long to even get onto a bus. Luckily the line wound around through a parking garage where it was nice and warm. It's now about 7:40 am, and the race starts in 20 minutes - yikes! We made it to the starting area at 7:50, but we were still 1/2 mile away from the actual starting line. Good lord, we actually had to run (after a quick stop at a porta pottey) to the starting line, of a marathon!! Like we weren't going to be running enough as it was. Oh well, lesson learned - get up extra early if you plan to take a shuttle!

21,000 runners, and we started toward the back. Yuck. We tried to maneuver our way a little closer tothe starting line, but the cannon went off before we could get too close. We were Off, and walking... So many runners, such narrow streets... It took us 10 minutes to cross the starting line. Good thing they give us little timing chips to wear on our shoes, so we get our actual time - not just the clock time. We did manage to run some once we crossed the starting line. The streets were still narrow, and there were still a lot of runners - it was hard to get into a good running pace. Chris & I planned to run each mile, and then take a 30 second walk break at the water stations, so we could get down good amounts of fluid. Well, they didn't have water stations at each mile, and the streets were still so crowded, we couldn't do our walk breaks. The first water station was at mile 3, so we took our walk break, and drank some powerade and water. We continued on, and on, and on. I kept hoping the crowds would thin, or the streets would widen (or the miles would get shorter LOL), but no such luck. We would find little pockets of running room, but they wouldn't last too long. The scenery was great though - running along the Potomac river, and the streets of Virginia and D.C. - pretty neat. You can't do this every day. There were more hills than we expected. No fun running up, but love the downhills! We ran past the Washington Monument, the Mall, the White House (we missed seeing this, since it was behind some trees), Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and the Capitol. It's so great that they close such major streets down, and let us run down them. There were a lot of spectators lining the streets too. Sometimes they were a little too close - especially on the narrow streets. I almost took a couple out!! A lot of kids holding their hands out for 'high 5's'. I normally slap their hands, but with all the flu warnings, I avoided them this marathon. Sign of the times, I guess. Chris & I maintained a good pace until mile 16. My stomach was giving me issues (infrequent water stations, and the powerade wasn't digesting well). I told Chris that I was going to push to mile 20, then maybe walk it in. He said 'let's see how you feel at mile 20 - don't give up yet'. My stomach issue did go away somewhat, but I started getting a lot of cramping (charley horses in my shins, calves, feet). This was also due to me not getting enough water. I'm a heavy sweater, so I need to drink a lot. Chris doesn't sweat as much, so he wasn't as affected. At mile 20, I had to start adding extra walk breaks in. I was running 1/2 mile, walking for 1 minute, then running another 1/2 mile. I was able to run through the cramping, but I was just plain tired and weary. Chris was feeling great though. He said his mind was in a great place, and he was having a great day. I told him to go on ahead, not to wait, but he said that I helped him through the Louisville Ironman marathon portion, and he was going to help me through this marathon. He kept rallying me, and I kept struggling on. The last few miles of a marathon are so hard. You know that there are only 2 miles left, and you can usually run 2 miles in your sleep, but after running 24 miles, 2 more miles is like 10. We finally made it to the last .2 miles - and we had to run up a hill - a very very very steep hill - leading up to the Iwo Jima Memorial. Yeah, the Finish line and a new personal record - 4 hours 23 minutes!

Now we just had to shuffle along with the thousands of other runners who finished with us - through the chutes, to get our medals, water, and finish line food. I was a weeble wobble - I needed water and food pretty badly. Usually Chris finishes races feeling like that, but this time it was me. Once I got my box of Cheerios, and a bottle of water, I started feeling better. We sat on the ground for a little while and chatted with other finishers. Then we headed back to the shuttle buses, so we could get to our hotel room, shower and have lunch!

Happy finishers!!

After a hot shower and lunch, and a little down time watching NASCAR, I decided that we needed to spend a little time sight seeing.

Hey, we need to take advantage of a beautiful day in D.C. Plus it would be a good idea to stretch our legs... 4 hours of sightseeing later (and probably 6 miles of walking, oops) we were back at the hotel & off to dinner. Here's what we saw on our walking journey of D.C.

Lots of museums - which one should we visit? We only had one hour before they all closed...

We chose... Museum of American History (they had a transportation section...)

Chris looking at the cars :)

Hey, it's the Jean Anne!! (see below - my captions precede my photos...) A ship built by my last company - Pasha. It hauls cars from San Diego to Hawaii. And it's in the Smithsonian - pretty neat!

Pretty cool train

White House, obviously... While we were taking some pictures, the front door of the White House opened, and Bo (Obama's portuguese water dog) came bounding out - for a bathroom break on the front lawn. Niiiicccccee.

Washington Monument & Jefferson Memorial in the far distance (we ran pretty close to these during the marathon)
Reflecting Pool, Washington Monument, Capitol (in far distance). The sky was so cool that evening!

Lincoln Memorial - my favorite (Illinois is the Land of Lincoln - woop woop!) We didn't like the hundred stairs we had to climb to get inside though. Ouch.