I’ve signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon 10K twice before. But this is the first time I’ve actually run it. In 2009, I had this weird foot situation and wasn’t sure if running would exacerbate it (I found out later it wouldn’t, but I also had to have several shots over a two-month period to make the problem go away). Last year, we totally weren’t prepared and I think Toby may have been playing all-Marine rugby that weekend anyway.
This year, my brother won. Well, he ran the fastest time. But he didn’t break the tape, because he was in line for the port-a-potty when the race started (they had been in line for at least 30 minutes at that point) and he didn’t start the race until about 15 minutes after the gun went off.
We’re hoping he ends up getting some kind of prize, though there’s a weird message on the race site about how they’re going to go with the gun time for the official results. I guess that means they’re going to disregard the chip time? Seems counterintuitive, but we’ll see.
Amazingly, I was able to run the whole way (with the exception of a few seconds of walking at the two water stops, just so I didn’t choke). Kelly ran with me, and we ran into my friend Kristina on the Metro on our way there, so she ran part of the way with us.
Overall, not a bad day. We were worried about the weather, but it ended up being perfect for running. And, of course, the Dawgs beat the Gators on Saturday. So the sparkly shoe charms my mom bought me at the MCM expo were perfect.
Came across your blog when looking for MCM race results–I think one of the reasons they’re going with gun time rather than chip time this year is because there was a huge delay around mile 4.6, and many of the top runners ended up having to STOP running for 6-7 minutes (at least). They actually closed down the course because of a suspicious package. My guess is that’s why your brother’s time was so comparatively fast, since the top runners had 6-7 (or more) minutes added to their chip time because of the delay. Only in DC!
Hmmm. I thought it was unusual that Scott’s time was more than 6 minutes faster than the person listed as the winner (especially because he thought he could have done better), and that there are 10 people faster than the listed winner if you sort the results by chip time, but I guess that’s the reason. I was standing with my (slow) time group when the gun went off and therefore couldn’t get across the starting line for a few minutes, but I didn’t encounter any delays (other than lots of slow people/walkers that like to start a lot closer than they should).
Of course, the problem (at least in my brother and my dad’s case) could be solved by having more port-a-potties. Apparently there were also 30- to 45-minute long lines in 2009, so this isn’t a new problem.