I'm a 4 Star General in the Maniac Corps!- The Marine Corps Marathon! Oo Rah!

Maniac Group Shot at the Start!

On October 31st, I got to do five things I LOVE doing:

1) Seeing/running with old friends; 

2) Meeting/running with new friends;

3) Dressing in a costume ( I dressed as a Maniac Devil);

4) Running a marathon; and

5) Getting another Maniac star!!

On these points, The Marine Corps Marathon delivered big!

I decided to sign up for the Marine Corps Marathon when I didn't get into New York this year. When my old friend of 20+ years, Chris said he was going to run. I signed up right away! The last time I had seen Chris was about 10 years ago in NYC. He is now an attorney in Washington D.C. and is currently in the Army Reserves and recently home from a tour in Iraq and I couldn't wait to catch up!

I flew into Washington Friday late afternoon. Chris's lovely parents, Tom and Jan were in town visiting as well. They were sooooooo sweet to pick me up from the airport. We met Chris when he got off work and went to a German Beer Garden (complete with oompah band) for dinner. It was great! We headed back to Chris's house (where he so graciously offered up his room to me) for a good night's sleep. 

Saturday morning Chris and I headed over to the expo to pick up our race packets.

Heading into the Expo!

Marines at the door.

Chris with Oprah!

Me with Oprah!

Chris picking up his race packet.

Marines are COOL!

My new friends and my MCM shirt!

After the expo we headed down to the National Mall for the Colbert/Stewart rally. It was so crowded! Chris went to work and his parents and I went back to the house for some R&R until dinner. We all went to Georgetown (which was also super crowded) to a little pizza/pasta place for some carbo loading! Then it was back to the house to get ready for race day and get some sleep.

Chris and I waiting for the Metro on race morning.



A few of us Marathon Manics were trying to organize a group photo at the start, but with 30,000+ people, it was a little challenging. Chatting with Dave Mari, we decided that balloons would be the best way to mark where the group would meet up (between the 4:30 & 5:00 pace groups). I just happened to find a black cat sitting on a pumpkin balloon (both Maniac and Halloween appropriate)! While we didn't get every Maniac in the photo, we got quite a few!

The Starting Line!

After the Maniac photo, I ran back to find Chris at the port-a-potties and we made our way to the the starting line. Chris's parents came with us and we handed the cat cat balloon over to them so we could find them after the race.

After the National Anthem the cannon sounded and we were off! It was so crowded it took a while after we crossed the mats to get moving.

There were all kinds of costumes on the course, which made the race even more fun.

 Captain America

Me, Gumby, Elmo and Chris

Hot Dog Man!

Thing 1 and Thing 2!

Blue Guy!

You know I HAD to get my photo with the DEVO guy!

One of the most AMAZING parts of this race was seeing all the Marines out there. They manned every water stop and mile maker shouting encouragement to all the runners. It always made me smile when we would pass them and someone in the crowd would yell OO RAH!, then they would all yell OO RAH! back. 

Marines cheering on the course.

 These Marines were medics running with full packs on. There were about 20 of them!

Running past some of our Nation's most beautiful monuments was incredible! One runner said "This is the best tour of Washington I've ever had!" I agree!

 In front of the US Capitol!

My homage to my Manac pal Dave Mari! Hee Hee! Ouch!

Chris & I in front of the Washington Monument!

The Lincoln Memorial

 There were lots of Maniacs out there!

Me!

Annette, Dave Mari and I!

Floyd and I!

He is a REAL Maniac! He carried that flag the while race!

Then there was just the fun of running a huge race!

Chris running!

Chris & I with a blow up doll!

The course was pretty crowded at times, but fun!

The finish was the best! After you pass the Pentagon at mile 25, you head for the finish at The Iwo Jima Memorial. When you hit mile 26, both sides of the chute are lined with Marines shouting "TAKE THAT HILL!!" as the final .2 goes straight up. It was the longest .2 of any marathon I have ever done, but it was the best! You don't even think of walking that hill! While even the finish was congested, it was AWESOME to finish.

We did it!

The Famous Dave Mari and I at the Finish!

I went into this race knowing I would not PR, just for the mere fact that I knew I just wanted to enjoy this race, but I must admit I was a little disappointed and surprised at how slow we finished! I felt great the whole time and Chris didn't look like he even broke a sweat. But once we analyzed the race it made sense. We lost a lot of time due to congestion on the course and the fact that I demanded we stop 5,000 times to take photos was bound to slow us down. Oh well! I wouldn't change a thing! I had a BLAST and I am taking stairs like Superman today! Oh yeah, I GOT MY 4TH MANIAC STAR (for 9 marathons in 9 states in 365 days)!! Whoo Hoo!

HUGE Thanks to Chris and his parents for being such lovely hosts!  

Today is National Married to- a- Runner Day!

According to Runner's World, today we acknowledge our supportive spouses (http://rwdaily.runnersworld.com/2010/10/national-married-to-a-runner-appreciation-day.html).

So today I give a big THANK YOU to my husband David. He is not a runner, yet he supports me and my crazy quest. He rarely comes to races because when I'm gone, he stays home and takes care of the dogs. What fun is that? Without his support, I couldn't do this.

Thanks sweetie! I love you!

The PINK Half Marathon!

On Saturday, my friend Teresa Baker and I ran the PINK Half Marathon! The race was up in beautiful Park City, UT. The race was benefiting a great cause as well, UCREW (Utah Cancer Research & Education for Women).

Teresa and I at the Start.

The race sold out at 400 people (mostly women) and I was in pink heaven! I busted out every piece of pink gear I could find for this race! The swag from this race was pretty good too: a nice fashionable women's cotton t-shirt (not a running shirt), Skull Candy headphones, chocolate truffles, and a nice pink aluminum water bottle.

Me on the trail.

The start was a little tough if you were trying for a PR. The trail was narrow and there were no starting corrals. Which meant walkers and slower runners were clogging up the almost single track trail for the first mile or so. It was a little annoying, but Teresa and I just went with it. We weren't out to break any records that day anyway.

We did mile repeats for the first 7 miles then switched to 3:1's for the next few miles then just did whatever we felt up to for the last 3 miles (as we got chatting with this nice reporter from the Deseret News). 

 Teresa on the trail.

The course was much more hilly than we expected, but it was really fun to run the trails in Park City.

The finish line was really fun! Instead of medals, they had really cute guys in black suits and pink ties putting really cute little silver pendants (with pink ribbons) around our necks. That's where we got the pink water bottles filled with COLD water! Ahhhhhh!

We had to get a photos with the guys!

After the race Teresa and I went to the free oxygen bar. We had never tried it, but it was free so what the heck! (Teresa said she would kill me if I posted the photo I took of her with the oxygen on! Hee Hee!) They also had free massages, but we didn't feel like waiting in line.

I was LOVING all the pink!

While this was not my fastest half marathon (2:17:01), it was really fun and for a great cause!

To find out more about UCREW follow this link:

http://www.ucrew.org/

Great Video from The Marathon Show and I'm in it!

Media whore or media darling? You decide! Hee Hee!

I Can't Wait to Break Out the Pink!

My friend Teresa and I just signed up for the Pink Half-Marathon on October 16th in Park City! If you are around, check it out! http://www.thepinkseries.com/

I Always Heard That the St. George Marathon was HOT, but I Didn't Think People Were Talking About The Heat!

I left for St. George kind of stressed about a few things. First being , getting everything in order for our Galloway booth at the expo, second, how I was going to get my eight hours of sleep in Thursday night (the most important night to get a good night’s sleep is the night before the night before the marathon), and third, the expected high temperatures in St. George on marathon day. And of course, Murphy’s Law prevailed! We had all kinds of shipping problems getting our inventory we were going to sell at the expo, I got very little sleep and it was HOT!!!

This was the first group of new marathoners Jim and I were taking to St. George since we took over as Program Directors for Jeff Galloway Training in Salt Lake City and we were super excited to see them reach their goals!

Jim and I manning the Galloway booth

We got to St. George and went straight to the expo to help Christi (our St. George Coordinator) at the booth. There we met a lot of great people from all over and quite a few Marathon Maniacs! I had a great time at the expo. Even though we never got our inventory, we were able to sell a few books and some tech shirts we had on hand as well as hand out literature for the 26.2 With Donna: The National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer (http://www.breastcancermarathon.com/) in Jacksonville, Florida on February 11th.

 Maniac #1572 Ward Sullivan and I at the Expo

Maniac Bob Karlik #2131 and his cute mom & step-dad! They did the Mayor's Walk!

 

After the expo & pasta dinner, we all packed up early and headed for our rental house, which was walking distance from the bus pick up/finish line. I went right to my room, laid out my race stuff and hit the hay about 8:30pm. At 2:30am the alarm went off and started wondering if Jim had the right idea in not running!

At around 4:30am, I met Kimberly (who was running her 1st marathon) and my Maniac friend Chris downstairs and we headed for the bus to the start. We were all bundled up because it is usually 30-40 degrees at the start, but we all were surprised/concerned how warm it was outside. We all thought it would be much colder when we got to the top of the course though.

Maniac Chris Scott #2664, Kimberly and I at the Start!

We reached the start and the energy was electric! There were awesome volunteers handing out gloves and foil blankets, and bon fires all over the place all in the effort to keep us warm. It was great! I saw a few more Maniacs, took some photos and went and sat by a fire (even though I wasn’t that cold).

The volunteers and organization of this race is awesome!

Maniac Aaron Braunstein #1398 and I at the start.

Maniac Steve Kissell #1608 at the start.

 

As I was waiting at the port-a-potty, people in the line were talking about how warm it was at the start this year. At that very moment the announcer came on and said it was 60 degrees! The warmest start in the history of the race!! I got a little nervous. The high in St. George was forecasted to be 95 degrees! To put this in perspective for those of you who don’t run, a couple of years ago the Chicago Marathon closed the course for safety reasons half way through the race when the temperatures reached 85 degrees! Running in 95 degree heat is extremely dangerous, especially for less experienced or older runners.

Kevin & Josh at the start.

Bon fires at the start to keep us warm.

 

As we all lined up, I saw few of our first timers, Jessica, Kimberly, Rosa and Gary! I was so happy to get to start with them. They all worked so hard and it was way cool to see them toe the line! The gun went off and the race was in full swing! By miles 2-3 I was already full on hot! Yikes!

Kimberly, Rosa and Jessica in the first miles of their first marathon!

 Gary and Robert heading up the hill!

The five of us stuck together for the first couple of miles. Then Gary and I lost Jessica, Kimberly & Rosa. They were right behind us but we didn’t see them. Gary was a trooper! We tackled the monster hill Vejo at mile 7 where we ran into Robert (another one of our first timers). He stayed with us for a little bit then went back to doing his thing. Gary and I stayed together for 19 miles where I lost him at a water stop. One of the great things about this race is that every aid station has people there to rub icy hot on your legs! OMH! It felt so good!

Gary had me cracking up for 19 miles!

Right before mile 20 Kimberly came up behind me looking strong and smiling! I stayed with her for a few minutes and told her to go on when I started feeling nauseated and really hot. I walked a little up the hill and saw Jim waiting at the 20 mile mark. We ran together for about a mile when I started feeling really sick. I needed to get my last GU in me, but was so nauseous I couldn’t even think of eating it. I asked Jim if he had any chews. He didn’t, but a girl running next to us gave me some sports beans. I took a few of those, poured water over my head and down my back (Jim was nice enough to pour it down my arms to cool me off as well). The last 3-4 miles there were people lying all over the ground. There was no shade anywhere and it was HOT!! The shuttles were full of people as well.

I asked Jim to set his watch to 1:1 intervals. I knew I did not want to walk the rest of the way, but 1:1’s was all I had the energy for before I felt like barfing. I ran slow, every once in a while having the energy to run 2-3 minutes. As we rounded the corner at the last mile, Jim shouted to everyone “iced cold towels around the corner!” At that moment to our (and more Jim’s) horror, they had run out of iced cold towels! I was OK with it because there was a guy there spraying water from a hose, which felt great, but poor Jim felt sooooo bad.

Now that's what I call commitment to the 26.2!

I knew at this point, if I didn't laugh, I'd cry!

In that last mile, Jim took my water belt from me (thank goodness) and I rounded the corner to the finish. As I crossed that line in 5:15:20, I went right for the cold water misters and stood under it for a good minute! I picked up my medal (which is made of polished sandstone unique to the area), saw Jim and Kimberly (who kicked butt!), sat on the grass and kicked off my shoes! Whew!! At that moment, I saw Jessica and Rosa come in!

Little by little we saw our group members finish. It was AWESOME!! Jim and I were so proud of all of them. We had a few people not make it in due to the heat, but we are proud of them too! They all worked their butts off! WAY TO GO!!!

Just a few of our AWESOME finishers!

 

Later that day we had a celebratory party and barbecue at the rental house. Lots of good food and plenty of Diet Cokes! Then Jody came over and gave a few of us the best massages ever!! To top off the night Jim, Josh & Kevin went and bought us all milk shakes! YUM!! By 8:30pm, we were all ready for bed!

St. George is a very organized and nice race, but for anyone that thinks it’s a super fast course, you are crazy! I was shocked how hilly it was. Yes, there are a lot of downhill sections, but the 4 mile uphill sections make up for it! In my opinion, there are lot’s prettier and faster courses to run in Utah that you don’t have to get picked by a lottery. Top of Utah, Ogden and Utah Valley just to name a few! I am glad I did it though!

Chris and I at the finish!

This year's t-shirt & medal.