Cheering on the Marine Corps Marathon

C-
D and I will run a marathon, it's just a question of when.  In the meantime, I spent the morning at the MCM scouting the race/cheering at the top of my lungs.

I ran about a mile and a half to the course on the southern side of the mall (around mile 16.5).  From my first cheering spot, I could see the runners cross the far bridge and then turn around and run directly in front of me.  As you can tell, there weren't many spectators that early in the race, but I got there right before the first runner-

Very blurry photo, but this is the lead car, and the Ethiopian runner who would eventually go on to easily win the race.

The second two runners.  For a race without elites, I was surprised how spaced out the front was.  It took a while before there was a steady stream of runners.  After a pack of runners finally did start to come, I ran on the sidewalk along the course toward the center of the mall where the crowds were bigger - I was still cheering away though. I was a little disappointed in the number of spectators who just stood there - Cheer!!

"You run better than your government"

Special MCM water cups?!?

The marines were manning a lot of the water stations, which was pretty awesome.  The marine above was drinking about every other cup when I went by :0)

A final view from about mile 18.  I only covered about 2 miles along the course, but I could see across to the other side of the mall as well.  I wish the crowd support was a little better, but it was great to see so many Marines spread out along the course.  I would seriously consider running the MCM, but I need to learn a little bit more about the number of hills early in the course.  However, it's hard to imagine a much better setting than the national mall!

On a personal note, this was not an impressive run by me today (I think I probably ran about 3 miles total, with some seriously long cheering breaks).  I ran 10 miles yesterday (approx 9min/mile pace).  I'm looking forward to my 10k with D next week!  After the 10k I'll start upping the mileage again.

-Peace and MCM love!-