Ocean Drive Marathon

March 30, 2008
I decided I wanted to complete a "double" last summer, after talking with an experienced ultramarathoner in the waiting area of an auto mechanic’s garage. After discovering the Saturday/Sunday schedule of the National and Ocean Drive marathons and confirming the less than 4 hour drive between the two, I was in. Simply finishing would be fine…but completing both in a combined sub 9 hours was the goal.

Ocean Drive Marathon: For those of you who don’t know my Dad, he is absolutely THE most positive, energetic person in the world…hence, the perfect person to keep me in good spirits while accompanying me to race number 2. Having never been there, we both had different (stereotypical) expectations of New Jersey. Dad thought it would be busy and dirty. I was convinced we’d see a lot of gold chains and hear the F bomb every other word.

Of course, it was NOTHING like that! We actually drove through a lot of quiet farmland on the way to the shore, which was simply beautiful. The course was a perfect point to point, running from historic Cape May, NJ, north to Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, Avalon, Stone Harbor, and then to Sea Isle City. For most of the race we traveled on the closest road to the beach, except through Wildwood and Sea Isle City, where there was a very cool boardwalk.

The people in NJ were so friendly. In fact, the only curse word muttered all weekend came from my own mouth when I felt the cold winds on race day morning! There was a steady 10 mph headwind throughout almost the entire course, with serious icy gusts over all the inter-island bridges. I had battled wind like this at the Las Vegas marathon last December, so beyond having ran 26.2 a day prior, I knew I was in for a gut check.

This time, the sign on my back read: "52.4 OR BUST! I ran 26.2 yesterday in DC"...again, this allowed me to again trade my mp3 for conversation and I even met 2 others who had done National the day before! During mile 12, I met a 60 year old gentleman who was running his 206th marathon. When amazing athletes like that are willing to talk with me, I soak up all of the information possible about training, nutrition, mentality and strategy...however, when I asked him for advice he simply said, "Just keep moving!" When I asked how long he’d continue running he said, "Until I stop moving!".

All the towns we traveled are summer beach towns so there aren’t a lot of people there in March. However, for 600 runners the crowd support was good and the camaraderie among participants in this race was unbelievable. My Dad saw me several times along the way, enthusiastically shouting to the top of his lungs and wildly ringing a cow bell each time! I actually skipped 3 of my Galloway-style walk breaks because he was at the front of a pack of spectators.

The end of the race was as tough as I had imagined back in the auto mechanic’s garage. From mile 25 to the finish, I literally repeated out loud "I feel good. I feel good. I feel good" over and over again. Seriously, 10 minutes of it! "I feel good. I feel good. I feel good." People must have thought I had gone nuts! "I feel good. I feel good. I feel good..."

I’ve never wanted to feel a medal around my neck so badly...and finally I got one, coming in at 4:10:27. Not only did I run Ocean Drive faster than National, but I was well within the 9 hour goal!

National Marathon

March 29, 2008
I decided I wanted to complete a "double" last summer, after talking with an experienced ultramarathoner in the waiting area of an auto mechanic’s garage. After discovering the Saturday/Sunday schedule of the National and Ocean Drive marathons and confirming the less than 4 hour drive between the two, I was in. Simply finishing would be fine…but completing both in a combined sub 9 hours was the goal.

National Marathon: I met up with a myspace friend, Kim, at the expo. After several months of race reporting, running chats, and messages of support, it was very cool to finally meet her face to face! Running is, of course, a very individual sport- having others to be accountable to (even if it is online) is a major source of motivation. If you are reading this blog now, odds are YOU fall into this category as well. Thank you.

My roommate, Claire, is a coach for TNT so my Dad and I grabbed a ride to the start at RFK Stadium with some of her runners. The excitement of first-time marathoners really lifted my spirits and positive mentality for the upcoming 26.2! Mayor Fenty, who was also running the full marathon, spoke as we lined up and I began to get nervous. Those nerves turned to heavy emotion during the national anthem when I thought about Trey, who is currently in OCS at Ft. Benning.

I tried to take the first part easy because I knew the overall challenge would be staying within my limits and preserving energy for the next day. The first few miles were the real "welcome to DC" miles – past the Library of Congress, National Gallery, and US Capitol Building. Even though I have been running past these things on a regular basis for over a year, I was as excited as the newest tourist…DC is a beautiful city. Also, the Howard University marching band and step teams were great support additions that I normally don’t get during my weekend training runs!

I had a sign on my back that read: "26.2 today + 26.2 tomorrow = 52.4 miles in 48 hours"…this invited a lot of conversation from the beginning. Typically, I run with music the entire way; this time, I only had my ear buds in about a third of the time! I got a lot of "which race are you doing tomorrow?", "I couldn’t imagine doing this tomorrow!", "You’re insane, girl!", and welcome advice from experienced runners who had already accomplished the feat. I talked at length with a woman who was running her 83rd marathon, a man who was completing his 27th state of 50 plus DC, and another who was using National as part of training for his 7th Comrades ultramarathon. No doubt about it, at races you will ALWAYS find someone who has crazier running goals than you do!

Because of the recovery benefits, I had planned to use the "Galloway method" both days, meaning I would run 9 minutes and walk 1 throughout both races. As the crowds began to thin out around DuPont Circle, I put Galloway into action and by Adams Morgan the ratio was consistent. Somewhere around the Maine Avenue waterfront and new Nationals Stadium, dialogue with other runners surrounded my falling behind to take a walk break and then quickly passing them (again, again, and again)! To credit the run/walk method, I beat each and every runner I played this "game" with. I finished Saturday’s race strong with an "official" chip time of 4:16:17. One down, one to go….