Well, my RB and I completed the MCM and we met all of our personal goals. a) we finished, b) we ran the whole distance (except for walking thru the water stops), and c) we beat 4:45, which was the target we had set for ourselves. Here's the blow-by-blow.

We had arranged to meet at UPS truck 0 in the morning -- figured that would be the easiest way to find each other. My wife dropped me off at the Pentagon. I was a bit worried about that, but it was totally painless and easy.

My RB, otoh, took metro and had a hard time out of the station and to the runner's village. I was getting a little worried, but we connected. Then, after a final potty stop, we headed up to our corral (4:30-4:59). The corral was so packed we couldn't even get inside the corral proper and waited with lots of others near the entrance. But it was actually a fun experience -- we met and talked with people we didn't know and got psyched.

We heard the gun go off and saw a puff of smoke for the 7:50 start of the wheelchair division. The crowd was clapping and cheering. But we didn't move; just pressed tighter together. Then, at 8 am, we heard the gun and saw the smoke for the start of the marathon. Still no movement. Then, slowly, we began to shuffle forward.  The, a bit more like walking. Then a little faster, and finally, Just as we got the starting line, we were actually starting to run! It took us over 12 minutes to get across the starting line. Glad they use chips to record the start and finish of each runner -- turtles are slow enough!

For the first 7-8 miles we felt a bit like lemmings -- hemmed in and kind of forced into a certain pace. Simply passing other runners was tough because there were soooo many. We ran on into Rosslyn and started up the first hills. After all the work, these just seemed easy -- much easier than I had feared. The first water stop was on the downside of these first hills and it was some kind of crowded. Didn't realize those efficient Marines would have water on both sides of the street, so we dodged our way over from the right to the left and then stopped for water. Totally munged that first stop, but we got better at it as the race progressed.

Then down Spout Run to the parkway (stopped for a brief "nature" break) and the Key Bridge -- a bit uphill there to, and another water stop, which we handled better, kept moving through it. Over the bridge and into the wierd leg that goes out to the "Palisades" area and the reservoir - more uphill. Then back to Canal road. At some point in there, we caught our pace. First 5 miles took over 55 minutes (11/mile). But on canal road, we sped up. running along the canal with the river to the right -- beautiful. At this point we started passing other runners with regularity.

We headed past GWU and over the whitehurst freeway to the Watergate building and passed 10 miles in front of the Kenedy Center. All with the Potomac on the right and the wind to our backs. We'd been training along this same route, so it felt right at home. We did the second 5 miles almost 4 minutes faster than the first 5 and were feeling great. 10 miles in 1:46:34; 16.2 miles to go!

We then headed past the Lincoln Memorial and down Constitution Avenue. Past the Washington Monument, we turned into the mall at 15th street and headed past all the cool Smithsonian museums. My wife was waiting for us at 7th street, cheering

and waving a cow-bell. Stopped for a quick, sweaty hug.

We turned around past the US Capitol building and headed west on the Mall again, still cruising (for a turtle, anyway). We passed the half-way point (13.1 miles) on the Mall in  2:19:13. We had slowed slightly, but not much. My RB had run the Frederick half-marathon back in May in 2:20:16, so this was a PR for him. And we still had that much yet to run.

We ran back to the Washington Monument and then headed south to the Jefferson Memorial and the tidal basin. Mile 15 in there somewhere and our pace was very consistent -- slightly faster than the last 5 miles, but only by a few seconds. 15 miles in 2:39:08; 11.2 miles to go...

And then (I think my favorite part), south to Haines point and the Awakening statue. This part of the run was just beautiful, flat and easy. As we turned the corner and headed back north again, the wind was in front of us, but we were getting warm, so it felt great. We hit the Striders support tent and stoked up on some oranges. A big thanks for that.

But that was the end of the "nice" parts to the run. After that is wasn't so pretty. We headed across the 14th street bridge and then south into Crystal City. Huge crowd support, live bands -- that was great, though almost claustrophobic. Passed mile 22 as we turned around and headed back north towards the Pentagon. 22 miles in 3:53:18; 4.2 miles to go...

We found my RB's wife (RBW?) because she was clever and got a large balloon in the shape of an acorn and let it up on a long string over her head. We stopped briefly with her -- my right big toe was hurting a little and I wanted to adjust my socks. The off again; out of Crystal city and past the Pentagon and the starting area. We passed mile 25 shortly after the starting area and I really began to flag. I had passed up the last water stop thinking I was tanked for the finish, but that may have been a mistake. Maybe I could have taken another gel, but at that point, the thought of one was kind of sickening. But what hurt was my right big toe and it started throbbing badly. I think maybe my sock was bunched up. But I concentrated on breathing and kept up the pace, though perhaps a bit slower. My RB pulled ahead -- either he had more energy left or maybe better pain management! And then we ran past the finish line -- that was just plain cruel -- up to Rosslyn and then back to the finish! But once I started up the hill  toward the finish and the Iwo Jima memorial (all that hill training really paid off), I attacked it and the pain was magically gone. I felt I finished very strong. We both did.

I finished in 4:39:23 (chip time) and my goal was 4:45, so I beat that. Also, I ran the whole way, only walking for the water stops (which were a zoo ) , for a brief peck on the cheek from my wife, and to fix my socks. My RB was 10 seconds faster at 4:39:13. And in that 10 seconds, 21 runners finished between us!

After the race, we hooked up with our wives and headed into Rosslyn for a bite to eat (something non-gel). Then some more food, the drive home, a hot shower, and sleep.

I was amazed at the sheer numbers. It seemed like people lined up in the wrong corrals because I was contantly passing people (though some were passing me, for sure). And lots of times someone would just stop right in front of me -- I ran into one guy and had to grab him to keep from knocking him over. But it was all polite and friendly -- no one was getting annoyed about it. At least not that this turtle saw!

I owe a big thanks to three peple for making this work for me. First, to my wife, for putting up with and even sacrificing her time for training. Second, to my running partner, without whom I would never have gotten this far. It would be too easy to just skip off on runs. Third, to the Striders and Ron Bowman in particular for the training plan, the Saturday runs (with water), the track workouts, and for advice and encouragement all along the way.

My RB and I did our last "distance" run yesterday evening on my absolutely favorite training path. We've been running the path through Rock Creek Park, various distances, for a while and it is a wonderful place to run. And it has one good hill for hill training. Depending on where we start, the hill is either at mile 4.5 or at mile 7.5. We go up and over and down the back side. Total elevation change is around 350 feet over a 3-mile run. Interestingly, this is not nearly as much as we'll see next week in the MCM. The trip up through Arlington to Spout Run looks like a longer and maybe steeper hill.

But, the run through Rock Creek, with or without the hills, is a great run, one which I look forward to every time we set out.

We seem to finally have broken the heat/humidity cycle that dominates the DC area from May through September, perhaps a little later that usual.  This past weekend saw temperatures in the upper 60s and low humidity. Fantastic running weather (at least for me). I only got one run in -- Sunday -- 7 miles. But I managed to do it in under 1 hour (57:30) which is a PR for this turtle. The rest of the weekend was spent on core strengthening -- you know -- working in the yard.

Here's to cooler temps and lower humidity through the MCM.

How things change. Back in December of 2006, I decided that I had always wanted to run in a marathon. I had heard about the Baltimore-Annapolis Marathon put on by the Annapolis Striders (which is where I live) and figured it would be a good one to be my first. I read a training piece in Runners World about a 16-week training program and thought, what the heck -- I can do this. At that point, I was managing to run around 10 miles per week. And I thought the B&A marathon was in April, so I had 16 weeks or so to train.

Well, things never work out the way I expect. Turns out, the B&A was in early March. Also, it was a tough winter for me to train, between cold weather and other commitments (singing in my church choir?). So, in the end, my long runs had only gotten as far as about 14 miles, well short of what I should have had. But here's the thing about the B&A Marathon -- it's also a half-marathon. And, you don't need to decide which you are running until the half-way point. So it seemed perfect to me. I could bail at 13.1 or continue to 26.2.

The day of the race was a bit cold, but clear and a fantastic day for a long run. I found some wonderful people of a similar pace to mine (note the Blog name!) and worked through the first half in fine fetter. At the half-way point, the sun was shining and I felt great, strong. So I continued.

Well, it turns out that the B&A is mostly a "half". of the 1,000 runners, 800 were there for the half marathon. Shortly after the half-way point, I was completely alone. I even wondered if I had made a wrong turn somewhere on the route! Eventually I came to the next water stop and several of the back-of-the-pack runners like me. There I met a wonderful man (Jay) from LA who had come to Annapolis to run his Maryland marathon in his quest for 50-states. I'd never heard of a  50-stater before. we ran the rest of the race together, chatting about marathons all over the US and the world.

To this man, I owe a debt of gratitude. He definately pitched me through the last 6 miles. After I finished,  I realized I would be running marathons as long as I'm able. The people, the places, the experience are too great a thrill to experience only once. Now, on the the Marine Corp Marathon!

Hooray, the "long" runs are done. In the past 3 weeks, my running bud and I did 3 20+ milers. In the awesome heat and humidity of the Washington DC area no less. And now that the heat has broken, we're starting our taper. Almost Laurel and Hardy  timing.

In spite of that, I don't really feel ready. Mind you, my goal is simply to finish. Well, I guess I have two goals -- the stated goal of finishing and the unstated goal (which I whisper to myself) of maybe breaking 4:30. But in spite of 3 20+ mile training runs, I dread the last 6 miles of the marathon. It has taken every week of training to finally get a hydration plan working. I want to do at least one more 23 miler to feel sure I have that right. But we're tapering; the idea of cutting back just seems counter-intuitive: why not run another long run? I mean, I understand the reasons -- heal thy injuries, build thy glycogen stores; get thy rest... It just runs counter. Maybe I need to think of the MCM itself as the next long training run!