Touring DC

If I was ever a travel agent, my company would be called something like "you will get your money's worth" agency.  Or "you will get to see every monument in DC" agency.  In other words, we do a lot and use every possible minute to see new things!  I will say this, we did have earlier evenings than usual due to being tired from waking up early and running a lot!

Our trip started at 6:00 am Friday morning, October 27.  We left early so that we could get to the MCM expo.  I like race expos and was excited to get to this one.  It was located at the Gaylord Hotel at Washington Harbor.  I was good and did not spend too much money, but I did buy a new pair of socks.  We also were able to walk around the harbor which has a lot of shops and restaurants.  And some cool statues!

         

Winston Churchill

The Awakening

This statue used to be at Hain's Point 

Inside the Gaylord

After checking in to our hotel in Crystal City, we found a good Italian restaurant within walking distance.  The Portofino Restaurant.  When you walked in, there was a stairway to their basement.  Camden spent the night speculating about the mob meeting in that basement!  The food was good, though, and the bread was fantastic! 

Saturday morning started at a reasonable hour.  Since Camden was going to have to take the metro by himself the next day, this day was used to teach him how to use the metro.  We were able to walk around the Capitol before the Museum of the Bible opened at 10.  

Botanical Gardens

Grant's Memorial

Supreme Court

 

At 10:00 we were able to enter the Bible Museum.  It was a really good museum!  It was neat to see lots of famous Bibles, but they also had cool exhibits about the Bible.  They had one exhibit that told the overall story of the Old Testament.  The story was told through sight and sound type movies and objects, and you also walked through different rooms to see this story.  We also did an extra virtual reality ride that showed us different places in DC which displayed the Bible.  We felt like we were flying over DC to see these sights.  We ended our time at this museum with an expensive museum lunch, but at least it had really good fries!  

Views from the top floor of the museum

We found the mile sign for Camden's 10K

After the Bible Museum, we hurried over to the Holocaust Museum.  We got there just in time to see it all before it closed.  This museum is an important one for all people to see, even if it isn't a fun one.  It is also one in which you want to read everything as it is all so important.  The last part of the museum is a video of holocaust survivors.  One lady talked about the death march in which they had to walk for months.  I figured if she could do that, then I couldn't complain about running for 26 miles.  

The memorial at the end of the museum

Amy found the mile 23 sign in Crystal City after dinner

It was nice to come back to a clean room!

Sunday was a day without sight-seeing!  Except for the 6-hour running tour!  We did take the metro to Chinatown for dinner though.  We picked Full Kee because they were advertised as having good dumplings.  The appetizer dumplings were ok, but the Hong Kong style dumpling soup was really good!    

After dinner, we spent the rest of the evening watching NCIS in our hotel room!  It was a relaxing evening!

Monday was our day to head home, but we had a few stops first!  First thing in the morning, we headed to the National Zoo to see the pandas before they are sent back to China.

The one other animal we saw at the zoo was a bison

The pandas were really cute!

 

Metro escalators can be very long!

After seeing the pandas, we hurried out of the zoo and went to the Washington Monument.  After several times of wanting to go in the monument, we finally had the opportunity!  And it was really nice to see the views from the top of the monument after I had run in all of those areas!

 We then hurried back to the hotel to check out and head home.  With two more stops!  We drove to the Iwo Jima Memorial to see it without the crowds.  I was able to meet a retired-not retired Marine who took our picture.  It was neat to meet him.

The last stop of the day, other than stops to get food and eat in the car, was at the Marine Museum.  I only wanted to stop to get an ornament to commemorate my race, but since the museum was really nice, we spent about 45 minutes there.  About 15 minutes of it was hearing the story of the Iwo Jima photo from a volunteer.  It was really interesting!  

That is how we packed as much as we could into our 4-day trip!  Lots of fun and good memories with a little bit of running involved!

The Why

 

One of the signs I saw several times on the marathon course was remember The Why.   Why had I signed up to run this marathon?  Why have I determined to run in all states?  Why do I put myself through this training?  Thinking of this in the middle of the race was kind of like, well, good question!  I have a friend who always tells me that I can go on vacation without running!  So why do I keep planning vacations around running?!?  

In the end, when asking myself this question, I realized there are several whys.  One of which is because of this quote by Lori Culnane.  I have to admit, I don't know much about this person except she must have run a marathon.  And although I was not smart enough or soon enough to make this quote, it is truly something I have realized every time I have run one.  The training and the race itself have shown me how much I am determined and what I am willing to sacrifice.  Also, it has shown me how much I am willing to give.  Although I have given a lot of time and effort to running, I have also found that I am satisfied with finishing without pushing myself to run a super-fast time.  I'm not really sure if I could go much faster, but so far, I tend to become slow at the end of my long runs and races.  

But I have also found out that I don't give up.  I may not be the fastest, but I am a finisher.  Part of being a finisher is being consistent.  There are days when training doesn't happen as planned, but by being consistent with the overall plan, then I can be consistent with finishing a marathon.  

During the marathon itself, there is so much that you take in and learn and remember.  Seeing people older than me run right past me is humbling but makes me admire them.  Seeing people push others to the finish line makes me smile!  Knowing how hard it is to just run 26.2 miles, I know that running and pushing someone is even harder.  And then there are the hand cyclists.  That seems really hard!  Maybe because I have always run and not lifted, but it seems that moving a bike by pedaling with your arms is even harder.  

I think to answer the question of why though is multifaceted.  Why?  One reason is I said I would do it, so I do.  I set a goal and I finish it.  I like the idea of doing hard things.  It teaches me to rely on God and that He is the reason I can do these things.  It teaches me to be thankful for what abilities I have.  And in seeing others with seemingly equal or less abilities supersede me, it teaches me humility.  Also, I want to show my children what it means to not quit.  What it means to try to and accomplish hard things.  Life is hard.  You can't simply be in life if you want to succeed and be used in a significant way.  You will have to make sacrifices and work hard to achieve your goals.  Your goals need to be realistic...like for me not ever qualifying for the Boston Marathon...but high enough that it is a challenge...like running in all the states.  

Another why is because I have so much support from family and friends.  I can't quit when I have people texting me that to keep moving, I'm proud of you, great job, you are well under your needed pace, I'm praying for you, and your dad is looking down from heaven and smiling.  I have some of the biggest cheerleaders in my life and am so grateful for them.  Even if they aren't the why to why I sign up, they are part of the why of me not giving up and heading into that donut shop!   

Running this marathon and the 3 others also taught me why I really just want to run half marathons!  And that is my plan!  I hope it doesn't change!  But in the meantime, I am glad to be part of the 1% of Americans who are crazy enough to run a marathon!  And extra glad for my friends who have also gone the distance!      

And I really do enjoy running!

Possibly State 19...or maybe just DC!

On October 29 I ran the Marine Corps Marathon!  This was my fourth full marathon and one I signed up for in 2020.  2020 and 2021 were both virtual only, and 2022 was less than a year post back surgery, so 2023 was my year!  When I first started this journey of running a full or half marathon in every state, I signed up for the MCM to be my Virginia race.  About half of it is run in VA.  But there may be another VA race, Vacation Races Shenandoah Valley Race, that I really want to do.  So, this race may be my State 19, or it may be just DC!

Either way, I ran my 4th marathon and was glad I did it!  Any marathon is hard and this one had its share of hills...especially the last .2 miles of the race to the Iwo Jima Memorial!  

Race day was Sunday.  Saturday evening was spent eating pizza, getting my race day stuff together and meeting up with a group of FB ladies that were staying in my hotel.

It was also spent being evacuated from the hotel because someone pulled a fire alarm!  We had just walked into our room from dinner when it went off.  Immediately, we left the hotel via the stairs.  We were waiting outside when Camden mentioned he did smell smoke...fortunately it was just a man smoking a cigarette!  Of course, all I could think about was if there was a real fire, all my running stuff was upstairs!  But it wasn't a real fire, thank goodness!  

The next morning at 5:30, the ladies and I met up to walk to the shuttle bus.  Camden also got to start his day at 5:30.   

On the way to our shuttle, Camden went to the Metro to get to the Mall for the start of his 10K.  Since he was going on the trip with me, he decided that he would run a race too!  His race started at 7:50 and ran the last 6 miles of the marathon.  He ran it in 41:49 minutes at an average of 6:44 per mile.  

The marathon started at 7:55 with a little more fanfare than the 10K.  We had planes fly overhead and a live singing of the National Anthem.  In fact, it was an extra special national anthem for me.  I am 99% positive I know the singer!  The lady who sang the anthem was Sharon Williamson and she used to go to my church, Charleston Baptist.  She was introduced as a military wife and obviously someone who could sing.  This fit the description of the lady I knew from CBC.  I was so far back from the front that I could not see her, but she was another point of inspiration for me as I started the race!

Before the race started, we waited in a runner's village.  Lots of potties!  And it was not super cold as a place to wait.  

We walked to the starting line and had about a 45-minute wait.  I should have used the bathroom again but thought I would be fine.  After we heard the marine yell at us that "we were not authorized to quit", I started running and looking for the first port a potty!  

After finding the first potty, I was then running the hills of Rosslyn.  I had good time for myself, but those hills were rough!  It was nice to get out of them and run downhill into Georgetown.  I saw a donut shop that looked really good, but I didn't stop!  

Then we ran through Rock Creek Park.  The changing leaves were really pretty!  The course took an out and back into the park.  Going in was a gradual uphill but going out seemed flat.  Strange feeling when I really wanted to be running downhill!  

Then we headed into downtown DC by way of running past the Kennedy Center.  We also ran past a Marine band playing the Marine Hymn.  Another motivating part of the course.  

Then next long part of the course was through Hains Point.  Not much there except the Wear Blue Mile which had a line of signs of Marines who have died in action followed by a line of people holding American flags.  It was very moving.  

On the way out was another line of signs that were motivating in another way...mostly funny!  Like "This was a good idea 6 months ago", "Education is important, but running is importanter," and "Toenails are for losers".  Some were Burma Shave type signs that had song lyrics like "Don't Stop Believing."  But one of my favorites was an Eric Liddell quote.  Not that I was running very fast at that point!

After this park was the National Mall.  This was also right after the first gauntlet at mile 17.  You had to pass it by 12:55 and I got there around 11:40. I was feeling good about my time and the cushion to reach the other two gauntlets.  Then I got a text saying that the first gauntlet was now being closed at 12:00 due to humidity.  The temps were only in the 70s, but the humidity was in the 80% range.  Many people were getting sick, and one man had to be airlifted out.  I didn't feel the effects of the weather since I am used to this kind of humidity, but I maybe I would not have slowed down if it had been less humid!  

The next part of the race was the mile and a half bridge into Crystal City.  It was long and sunny and boring, but once over it, I was in the last 5 miles of the race in Crystal City.  There were people cheering us on even though I was getting slower as I was getting tired. 

Couple goals!  Maybe Dave will do a marathon with me when we are older!

I was still getting encouraging texts from Dave, my mom and my friends.  Also, Camden was sending them...especially texts that said to hurry and run faster!  Paybacks for all the times I yell at him when he is running!  While finishing up mile 26, Camden was able to see me from the side of the road.  He started filming me and then I dropped my air Pods trying to put them away.  It was very hard to stop and bend over and pick them up!  Great video!

Then there was the last hill.  It was the last .2 miles of the race, but my watch said I had already run 26.2 miles!  It was hard to make it up the hill.  I tried running, and although I was running, it was barely!  But I did make it!  Right up to the Marine that gave me my medal in front of the Iwo Jima monument.  It was a great ending to almost 6 hours of running.