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Published: June 14th 2010
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The Medal
A big reason why I love these races! I love the medals!! Getting to this race was brutal! Though once there I had the best time ever...literally! I got a PR of 2:20:48! My friend said, so you ran in 2:21 then? I said, No, I ran it in 2:20:48! He just laughed at me and now calls me Twelve Seconds.
Where to begin, where to begin....
The plan was to land at Reagan National and rent a car and then find a hotel room. I know, I know...but I don't like to book hotel rooms until I know for sure that I'm going to be in the city. I travel standby and sometimes I never know when I'm going to get on a plane. Or which airport I'm going to land at, for that matter! It all depends on flight loads. So back to my story...I landed at Reagan late at night and fortunately the rental car place was still open. Unfortunately, I had an expired driver's license with me. (Insert long groan here.)
It was close to 11:00 p.m. and I couldn't rent a car.
The next morning (after I had spent the night in the airport, which I considered more safe than venturing out into the streets
Start & Finish Line
Sadly, this is the only photo I have of the actual race! And this was taken the day before when I went to the expo! to look for a hotel) I discovered a train from the airport would take me close to an Amtrak that would take me to the town of Fredericksburg.
A few hours later I arrived in Fredericksburg and since I had no car I used the local cab service. The taxi system all around Fredericksburg is very cheap! I had found a hotel while waiting for the train so the cab driver took me to drop my bags off and then took me to the expo where I picked up my bib, chip and shirt.
It was a small expo, but fun and I spent quite a bit of time wandering around soaking up the atmosphere. There were Marines everywhere and since Quantico is fairly close it was a safe assumption there would be quite a few running the next day. There were, but more on that later.
I caught a cab back to the hotel and after a quick dinner at a nearby restaurant was in bed by 8 p.m.
The next morning I got to the race fairly early, dropped my bag off at the "Bag Drop" area and went to my corral to begin
The George Washington Masonic National Monument
This is in Alexandria, Virginia just across from the Amtrak station. stretching with the rest of the complete strangers all around me.
When the gun went off I began running and 2:20:48 seconds later I crossed the finish line. I was so happy with my time, and would have been at least 5 minutes faster had there not been a brutal hill the last three miles! Everybody walked up this hill, including me. It slowed me down considerably, but I was still very happy with my time.
For the next hour and a half I stood at the finish line cheering runners in and that was just as much fun as running the race!
More Marines than I could count were out on the course in their boots, fatigues and t-shirts running alongside those who were struggling, offering support and motivation to get across the finish line! When uniformed Marines were seen in the distance, one on each side of a lone runner, the crowd would erupt with cheers and the cheering didn't stop until the runner had crossed the finish line. The announcers started calling it "Leave No Runner Behind."
There were hundreds of people there until the very last runner crossed the finish line at
The Old Amtrak Station
I loved how old this building was! just over 4 hours, carrying our nation's flag. It was such a fun day.
I had to be back to work early Tuesday morning so had to leave Fredericksburg right away. I got back to the airport where, big surprise, I couldn't get on the SLC flight and every other Delta flight to surrounding cities was oversold as well so I caught an Alaska Air flight to Seattle where I had dinner with my friends, crashed at their house and got on the 6:00 a.m. flight the next morning back to Salt Lake City.
What an adventure, but worth every ounce of effort!
Not too many photos, but I'm looking into seeing if I can fix that. I didn't run with my camera or even take it to the race! The camera is a little too big for carrying while running a half marathon, but am looking into getting a smaller one for these races. I'll especially need it for Marine Corps since I am running with a big group that day and it's going to be the run of a lifetime, with Sgt. Eddie Ryan leading the way! You guys will be so inspired after you
read about Sgt. Ryan. But I'll save that for October. =)
Next up: The Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back on June 18th! I'm SO excited!!!
Oh, and I finally got my driver's license renewed! =)
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Perry Paris
non-member comment
you are something
HI DEBBIE GOOD TO HEAR FROM YOU THAT IS A TOUGH RUN I COULD'NT DO IT I KNOW THAT, YOU ARE AN IMPRESSIVE PERSON AND DETERMINED AND ALWAYS DOING SOMETHING FUN. LOVE PERRY