Who Needs the Third time...

Most say that the third time is the charm, for anything. Well, for now, marathon number 2 was perfectly charming for me.
On October 26th, 2008, I ran the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington D.C., the fourth largest Marathon in the US, and 7th largest in the world. It was amazing! Marines lined the course, offering encouragement, handing out water, and saluting ranking officers that passed them by.
Chilly at the start, I was nervous about my performance. I had been fighting off a cold for a week that set in do to dust and cigarette residue at my in laws. My first night there, Thursday, my ear would not pop from the plane flight, and Friday night, I was up most of the night with a neck crick. Luckily my rest on Saturday was just what the doctor prescribed.
It was pretty chilly at the start, but there was about an hour of standing around before the howitzer, yes, howitzer, sent us on our way. I felt as calm and steady as I ever had at the start of any race. My A goal being sub 3, and my B goal being sub 3:10 (my Boston Qualifying time), I looked to the left of my corral and noticed the Clif Bar pace guy who was leading the 3:10 group. I decided to stick with them, but by mile one, felt so good, and the he was already far enough behind me that I decided to settle in where I was at, which at the time was 10 seconds over pace, and just let my body dictate. All of that was out the window when we came down the chute that was a half mile downhill called Spout Run. There was no way to slow down, our gradual rise to that point was being rewarded with a gourgeous run through wooded terrain and the Potomac on the right with a very foggy Georgetown on the other side.
The crowd when approaching the Key Bridge into Georgetown was awesome! There were bagpipes blowing and cowbells clanging. I made the left hand turn and headed past the home of the Hoyas. We were running in complete fog, which seemed to be the running gods way of keeping us from seeing how far we had to go : ) and kept us quite cool. There was a hard right hand hair pin turn that led us up to the Georgetown Reservoir, and it was up. By this point I was plodding along with a couple of guys who seemed knowledgeable and were pacing in a wise manner. We all eased up on the up hill and settled back into the pace. Coming back through Georgetown with the Bagpipes going and the crowd huge was great, and it was then that I realized that it was going to be a great day. At this point I was 2 minutes under 3 hour pace, and feeling great with a great group of runners around me.
We cruised by The Watergate Hotel, and the Kennedy Center, and were making our way towards the backside of the Lincoln Memorial on Rockcreek parkway. This was the first spot my family could see me. My wife, Uncle, and Father were there going nuts for me. If you are ever going to run a marathon, have family there, it makes a world of difference.
At this point, you more or less pass the Jefferson Monument on the way to Haines Point, the supposed most desolate spot on the course. It is also the where you reach the half way point. It really was not so bad at all. With the River on your right, and a tree lined golf course on your left, it is actually a good place to re focus. I hit the half way point at 1 hour 23 minutes, that is technically a three minute half marathon personal record. I knew things were going to work out at this point, or so I thought.
Once you hit the tip of Haines point you go back towards the mall, and this is when fatigue first began to set in, not bad, but a slight desire to slow occurred. I once again caught my family at the 15 mile point, at this point about 7 minutes ahead of pace, a pace that I kept until about mile 23 when I started giving all of that extra time back.
The scenery was great, but the long run towards the Lincoln Memorial I thought would never end, because once you do that, you run all the way back up the mall on the White House side to the Capitol. As I briefly looked at the land marks, it began to dawn on me that this was going to be a tough slog to the finish. I just kept thinking, stay steady, if I dont slow down I will be fine. Easier said than done. After the full lap around the mall, and catching the fam again at mile 18, seeing the bridge back into Virginia put a little pep back in my step. That and a guy at mile 20 reminding us that this is what we train for. That is so true. You can make 20 miles easy enough, but that last 10k is when everything is breaking down rapidly. If you have not carbed appropriately, or taken GUs and water on the course, or even poor preparation, this part beats you over the head.
At this point I started TELLING my body to do what it was supposed. I remembered long runs and the two times I went out in Hurricanes to get my runs in, all the sacrifices my family made, and these things were what carried me over the seemingly endless bridge back to Virginia. Crystal City was fair enough, and I was still just telling myself to keep going and, sub 3 hours was mine.
Well the Pentagon is a BIG building, Mile 24 through through roughly 25.5 are spend going around the building! You begin a series of on ramps and off ramps until you see the turn off to the finish about 1/2 a mile ahead of you. Literally, it was all I could do to force my pace. Then you take a sharp left hander and go straight up, I dont even remember seeing the 26 mile mark, just a blur of people yelling and screaming as I gritted my teeth as hard as I could to get to that finish and would have cried at the site of my 2:57:11 finishing time, but that would have hurt. I raised my arms in victory and crossed the line knowing I did everything I could, and had done absolutely everything I could to finish 26.2 miles as fast as I could!