MCM #5

Marine Corps Marathon 2014

MCM #5 is in the books. It officially puts me in the MCM Runner Club. I do not seem to have the best of luck with the marathon distance though.

It was a really nice morning. It was 57 degrees when I started and only 66 when I finished. A little windy but all-in-all it was good weather for the race. Bobbi and I parked on Ft Myer and walked off the post back gate right behind where I would finish. As usual the start was full of pageantry and it is one of the cool things about how MCM puts on events. I had trained well and I had my nutrient and liquid intake was spot on. Despite the fact we had a Navy football game and tailgate the day before.  I only drank water for 48 hours prior to the race and carb loaded on Friday.  I did have a baked potato 12 hours prior to the start. I think I got the food thing figured out.

I started off well and was clocking a very nice 9:00 min/mile pace for the first 10 plus miles. My time at Mile 10 was 1:30:14 perfect pace for sub 4:30 marathon. I saw Bobbi at Mile 5 and 10 and I was feeling fine. Then some weird thing happened heading down Hains Point…

First my GPS seemed to my clocking me further than I had actually gone. By mile 12 on my GPS I just past the 11 mile mark on the course and by mile 14 on the GPS I had not hit the halfway point. There is something strange about the little peninsula. So I spotted a bathroom took a quick second to pee, okay maybe it :39 seconds to be exact, and started to hit the pavement again.

As I started back to the run, I had what I only can guess now was a panic attack. I started to hyper-ventilate. Shipmate, something is really wrong. Think, Kevin. I slowed down the running pace. That was it I had started too fast and then tried to start again. Instantly I started to hyper-ventilate again and then I could not figure out where I was or what I was doing despite the fact that thousands of runner are going past me.  Still not cognitive of what was going on I just started to follow the crowd. They seemed to being somewhere? Maybe I should go that way too?

At 10:09 am, I remember looking at my watch why is it 10:09 and why and I am now just a lemming where is the cliff…as luck would have it I then received a message from Bobbi via the Cyclemeter App, “Hains Point sucks, but you got this. I’ll see you between 16 ½ and 17. Run baby run.” I thought to myself damn I am in a some kind of race and I need to keep going. I ran the two next miles, mile 15 in 9:02 pace and mile 16 in 9:24, I was back on track.

I saw Bobbi at MCM 16 mile marker even though my GPS had me a close to 17.5 miles and I still was never able to completely catch my breath. Or should I say I was never able to take a full breath. Everyone breath I took for the next 2 hours was very shallow. Bobbi asked if I was OK I told I was having trouble breathing, I really thought about quitting but I knew that was not going to happen, I finished this.

I trudged to the next water stop (Mile 19 by GPS but only 17 by the course markers) where the Semper Fi Fund ladies were volunteering. To see Elizabeth and Michelle was great and once again I snapped out of my funk and ran 9:03 mile on mile 19.

But it was not long before I was again not taking full breaths. I was worried. I did remember that Bobbi was going to meet me again one last time before the finish at the 20 mile marker. By then my GPS had me over two miles off and I turned down the my music( I should have turned off GPS voice) I then lowered my head and just plodded along. Bobbi was there smiling and cheering and it helped me knocked out another 9:05 mile for one mile only because I knew she was watching me run away toward the 14^th Street Bridge.

When it should be 21 when you cross that bridge the GPS had me at 24 and I lost any motivation at all. Especially when the GPS “Announced that I completed 26.2 with I time 4:14:35. And I looked up and the MCM mile marker is only 22 miles.

I shuffled my feet in the same direction as everyone else seemed to going, with the exception of one guy who ran the entire marathon running backwards, for the next 3 miles. I got the last water stop. I remember grabbing a cup and a Gunner Sergeant looked me straight in the eye and said, “You have one mile left, you will run the last mile, you will run the last mile.” I believe I gave him my best “Ooh Rah” and I did run. I ran the last mile with a purpose a 9:02/mi pace for mile 30 by GPS and 26 on the course. I turn the corner up the hill to the Marine Corps War Memorial , better known as the Iwo Jima Memorial, and finished. I saw  and heard Bobbi at the finish and cross the line. Official time 4:54:55 or 11:15 pace but my GPS had me running 30.24 miles at a 9:41/mile pace.

Even though, now that I have done 5 MCMs, I’m in the MCM Runners Club, and I get an automatic entry into the MCM, I think I going to take a couple years off from Marathon running. That might change four or five month from now.

There were a couple of good things that came out of it. I discovered a great new product called RaceDots (Racedots.com #RaceDots). They are super strong magnets that hold your race bib to your shirt. The worked great and didn’t move an inch over course of the day.

Secondly and more importantly, I totally believe it the amazing connection that Bobbi and I have had and especially had that day. I really believe I would have stopped and quit without the fortuitous post on Hains Point.