Marine Corps Marathon

It all started at 5:30 on a cold Sunday morning in Washington DC with the sound of the alarm buzzing. We get out of bed with mixed emotions...Marcus was excited and I wanted to crawl back into bed. We got ready, checked out of the motel, loaded the car and then walked to the metro. By 6 in the morning the place was packed out with standing room only, if that, on the train. We took the short ride into the city and got off at Arlington National Cemetary where the race was to begin at 8. We hugged the guys goodbye and wished them luck and then went to the starting line to wait for the race to begin. The wheelchair group started first, I have a lot of respect for those people, most of them were military servicemen who had lost limbs in the war, it was awesome to see them ride in this race. Then at 8 sharp the cannon went off and all 30,000 of the runners took off for a 26.2 mile run around DC. Jenny and I jumped on the metro again and went to starbucks and enjoyed a nice warm drink and something to eat. Mile marker 18 wasn't too far from where starbucks was so we walked down there and waited on the guys to cheer them on. We got to see the first wheelchair people and then the first runner as they crossed the 18 mile marker......after looking at some of them I was so happy to be standing on the side lines cheering and not running! The first runner hit mile 18 in 1 hour 38 minutes. After a while we saw our men and started screaming and hollering and it was good to see them still smiling....although one of the first words out of Marcus's mouth was "Where is the ibuprofen?" HAHA Who could blame him and Travis for wanting some relief after pounding the pavement for that long. We then ran to down the street to see them run between mile 19 and 20 and again we were met with smiling faces. We decided it would be best to just go to the finish line instead of trying to go and meet them at mile 23 and that was probably the best idea we had all day! Seriously the metro was a nightmare and I thought we were never going to get on. For some reason they decided to shut down the escalators....stupid idea but I wasn't in charge. HA We finally got on the metro and had to stand in a small corner squished together with everyone else....you would think there would be a limit to how many people they could get on that thing. OH...the smells that you smell on those things are horrid...you can tell those who take showers and those who don't....it was disgusting just take my word for it! Anyway~we got to the finish line and waited and finally we saw them coming in with their little space blankets around them to keep them warm after sweating for so long. They did awesome and crossed the finish line in 4 hours and 10 minutes and were still smiling and laughing. Good Job Marcus, Travis, Matt and Conner...ya'll did a great job!! All in all it was a great weekend and we had a blast. Marcus is planning on doing it again next year.....ya'll should come and join him. He is trying to get me to run it with him....HAHAHA that is a huge laugh!!!!