Volunteer Recap & Review: Marine Corps Marathon

Way back in July, I signed up to volunteer for the 39th annual Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) in Washington, DC. I had heard nothing but rave reviews about this race and knew at some point I'd like to run it. As it is extremely popular, there was a lottery system in place for this year so I knew 2014 wasn't the year I was going to run it. A few of my friends got in for this year so I figured I'd sign up to volunteer. I was hoping for a fun day in DC.

Then I got injured. And as time grew closer to the MCM, I stared to get nervous about how I was going to get around DC with 27,000 runners and their cheering sections. I mean, taking the scooter on the metro?! Terrifying! Luckily, I wasn't worried at all about my volunteer position- I had contacted Charlie Harr (Volunteer Coordinator) and let him know I was injured. He changed my volunteer duties so they would be stationary and easy to get to from the Metro. I was originally going to be at information in the morning and then at food station 2 in the afternoon but was reassigned to be at bag check all day.

Last Sunday, I woke up at four am, got dressed, and headed out to the Metro station in Vienna, VA. I stayed at Matthew's brother and sister-in-law's place the night before so it was just a 10 minute drive to the station (they're about two hours drive from us). The Metro opened at five and I was on the first train headed toward the Pentagon. There weren't a ton of people and it was very easy to get my scooter on and off the train.

Once I got off the Metro, I could hear the starting line announcer. To be honest, he sounded pretty far away! I'm guessing it took me 15-20 minutes to scoot down to the starting line area where I'd report for bag check. But, the Washington Monument was lit up in the distance and it was simply beautiful.

I checked in with the volunteer tent and they instructed me to report to Captain Lousche at bag check. Once there, I was assigned to bag check 01 and given a lovely brown volunteer shirt :-) The shirts were the same design as the runner shirts except they were cotton and said "Volunteer" down the sleeve.

All the bags we were collecting from runners were put into one of about 20 UPS trucks. After the race started, the UPS trucks would then go to the finish line and be ready for the runners at the end of the race. My job was to make sure the bags were tied, the bib number/sticker was clearly visible on the outside, and to call out the number to the UPS staff who would then organize the bags inside the truck. Everything operated like a well-oiled machine.

Working with me were a bunch of Marines. There were a few other civilian volunteers but it was mainly uniformed Marines. They were such a blast to work with! We were joking around with runners and each other all morning. It helped to make the pre-dawn darkness and chilly weather bearable! I mainly worked with Cameron, who (bless his heart!) thought I was 25. Thank you, Cameron :-) I also got to chat with Pam from We Run Disney- thank goodness she was wearing a skirt- she was easy to find!

Right before the start, we shut down bag check and the trucks started to leave to get to the finish line. The festivities leading up to the start were incredible! They had people parachuting out of the sky with American flags and all sorts of aircraft flying around. It really was something to see. 

Pam, about to conquer 26.2!

Cameron!

After the start, I headed back toward the Metro station to go to the finish line. However, I knew I had at least two and a half hours before the lead runners would be crossing the finish. As I scootered toward the station, I saw what I thought were marathoners. Turns out, they were the 10kers at about mile 3! The MCM also includes a 10k that covers the last 6.2 miles of the marathon course and starts at the same time as the marathon.

I had brought my cow bells with me so I decided to hang out there for a while and cheer. I'm so glad I did because I was able to see several friends that were competing in the 10k! It was also super cool to see all the runners thank the Marines and other military personnel that were on the course- so inspiring!

So happy to see Mandy on the course!

Lots of high fives for our servicemen! 

Eventually, I got back on the Metro and got to the finish line. The bag check area wasn't hard to find but I decided to stop into a Panera to get some food and use a real bathroom. While we waited for finishers to come in, we passed the time by taking selfies and goofing around. Mandy came to hang out for a while after she finished the 10k. It was great to catch up with her and hear about her race.

New friends.

As the runners started to come in and we started handing bags back, it was so awesome to hear how many runners thanked the Marines for their service. It truly made me proud to be American and so thankful for our military.

I was able to see a few of the marathon finishers that I wanted to see- including Linzie from Sharp Endurance- while we were waiting for the bulk of the finishers to come claim their bags. It really was busy between the four and five hour finishing time. Around 3 pm, my volunteer shift was over. I said goodbye to my new Marine friends and headed toward the finish line. I wanted to see Steph and Nevie and I thought both would be finishing around that time. My phone had died a few hours before so I really didn't know if I'd see them but I figured I'd try anyway.

The walk from the finish line to the bag check was crazy long. There were so many people that I couldn't get near the finish. So I parked the scooter along the finisher chute and tried to spot Steph and Nevie. Somehow, out of the thousands and thousands of people, I saw Nevie! I was so happy to see her finish- she'd been out for a few weeks with hip bursitis and wasn't sure if she'd be able to do MCM. It was awesome to see her complete it!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find Steph. With so many people, it was damn near impossible to find any one person. Around 4 pm, I finally headed back to the crowded Metro station to head home, exhausted from a really fun day.

Overall Thoughts
This race was fantastic from beginning to end- from a volunteer/spectator perspective. It is incredibly organized and all the volunteers/Marines are super helpful. The metro is easy to navigate and even with tens of thousands of people, I never waited longer than five minutes for a train.

The pre-race information was also very timely and useful. I had a lot of email communication with the Volunteer Coordinator and never was confused about where I had to be or what time. I also followed up with him after the race to thank him and he put my picture on the MCM website! How sweet is that?

As a volunteer, we got a shirt and got multiple snacks/water throughout the day. The runners were incredibly kind to all of us- there was a spirit of patriotism at this race that I could feel even as a volunteer. Lots of warm fuzzies all around :-)

Will I volunteer for this race again? Without a doubt, yes. I'd love to run it at some point, but honestly, I had a blast volunteering and wouldn't hesitate to make the trek down just to volunteer.


QOTD: Have you ever volunteered for a race? Which one? Would you do it again?

Race Recap & Review: Divas Half Marathon DC

Ok, enough sad talk with my stress fracture, let's do something fun! Let's recap my 15th half marathon, the Divas Half Marathon in Wine Country, DC. It was actually in Leesburg, VA NOT in DC, but that's another post entirely. :-)

As you know from the expo post, this race would be Jen's first half marathon and I'd be representing Enell on the course. We were both a mix of excited and nervous- Jen because she'd never done this before, and me because my foot was acting up and I was thinking about wearing brand new shoes for the race.

We tried to get a good night's sleep (ha!) and woke up bright and early Saturday morning- 5 am. The race started at 7:30 am but our VIP parking lot closed at 7 so we wanted to get there nice and early. From scouring other blogger's recaps from last year, I knew parking would be challenging. In fact, we'd heard that last year the event started TWO HOURS late because parking was all backed up. With the race starting at a rural vineyard with only one road in and one road out, traffic was a nightmare and caused the race start to be late.

We left the hotel around 6 am for our 20 minute drive to the race site. We grabbed breakfast at Starbucks on the way and were happily following the directions until.... a police officer directed us to go another way! Now, try to imagine this- we are in a looooong line of vehicles, it's 6:45 am, and we have NO IDEA where we're going as the way we were told to go was now being redirected. After a few minutes and some wrong turns, we finally approached the VIP parking lot a little after 7. This didn't leave us much time to get ready or give me much time on what shoes to wear. After a long internal debate, I decided to wear my hokas. I didn't feel comfortable changing shoes at the last minute and knew that I could run 13.1 in the hokas.

Once we left the car, we had probably a half mile walk to the start line. So we got to the start with only about 15 minutes to spare. The lines for the port-o-potties was insanely long so we skipped the bathroom and hoped we'd find one on the course. I wanted to check in with two people at this race- Sid Busch and my friend Rhonda. You may remember that I've met both of these folks before during the Dopey Challenge. Rhonda is a dear friend and Sid is just a legend- he's run nearly 200 marathons! It was great catching up with both of these friends as we waited for the race to start.

Sid and me and Rhonda!

She looks ready!

Somehow, Jen and I managed to be in wave two out of four. At a little past 7:30, we were off! We raced through a bit of the vineyard and then were on paved roads the rest of the race. The course itself wasn't that great- lots of out-and-back sections (that can mess with your head!) and little to no spectators. We ran through many housing developments; some of which were still being built! There were some great views of the mountains and some breathtaking flower fields. All in all, it was just an ok course. I did try to entertain us by counting the men on the course (around 20) and we were able to see Donna (who I ran into at the expo) and Sid a few times and wave hello- that's the good thing about those out-and-back sections.

What you can't see on that map is the HILLS! Oh Lord, was this thing hilly! I felt bad for Jen- usually your first half marathon should be nice and flat! We were doing well through the first 10 miles- keeping a nice and easy pace somewhere between 12- 13 minute miles. I promised Jen we would pick up the pace at mile 10 if we felt good. And guess what? We felt GREAT at mile 10 and picked it up like crazy! Our last three mile splits were something like 11:45, 11:30, 11:06- it was fantastic!

Some pictures from the along the course.

As we were racing towards the finish, we were both so pumped and talked about how THIS is why we take walk breaks- so we can pass people like crazy at the end and finish feeling strong. I can't put into words how proud I was of Jen- she had worked her butt off all winter, spring, and summer to do this half marathon- and she was KILLING it! The feeling as we came back into the vineyard, knowing the finish was less than a mile away, was just amazing. It's the reason I run.

In less than five minutes, Jen would be a half marathoner!!!!!

As we got close to the finish, there were cheerleaders handing out pink boas and tiaras to finish the race with. We both grabbed them and kept pushing towards the finish. As we crossed the announcer shouted out both of our names- so freaking cool.

Jen did it. She was a half-marathoner! (PS- I'm crying as I type this, I can't help it!)

We went through the finish chute, got our crazy blinged out medal from some very beefy (and VERY young!) men, got a glass of sparkling cider (no champagne due to VA liquor laws), and waited in line to get an official finisher picture.

Look at this rock star! What a finish!

Wow. Just wow. Photo credit: Kathy Peraza

We went back to the car to grab a jacket (it was a little chilly and had started to drizzle) and our free wine tasting ticket. After waiting in another looooong line for free wine, we finally had our chance to taste Tarara Winery's Boneyard line- two reds and two whites. Lucky for me, Jen is allergic to red wine and the other ladies beside us didn't like red wine so I got almost two full glasses of red when they shared their samples with me!

I bought a few bottles of wine and then we made the long trek back to the car to head home. There was a finisher party back at Lansdowne Resort from 2-4 pm but we were pretty wiped out from the race so we decided to head back home.

Would I do this race again? Probably not. It was a hilly, lonely, not very pretty course. And the waiting for the wine at the end of the race was not fun. I wish there had been more of an after-party at the actual finish line rather than having it at a second location 20 minutes away.

What worked well for me in this race: My new Enell bra was AMAZING! Seriously, I hadn't noticed how unsupportive my old one was until I had a newer, smaller size on. Ladies, replace your Enell at least once a year- if not once every six months. You can really notice the difference when you're in a correct size and newer bra. It was heavenly to run in! :-)

I'm glad I did Divas but I don't think the "DC" race will be on my list in the future.

Happy finishers.

QOTD: Have you ever run any of the Divas races? What did you think of them?


Disclaimer: My registration fee for this race was paid for by Enell as part of their Ambassador Program. I received no other form of monetary compensation. As always, all opinions are my own.