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The accidental almost Marathon

October 27, 2019 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
Woke up before it was even light out to drive with Anthony down Georgetown from whence we jogged across Key Bridge to mile one of the Marine Corps marathon course. It was warm, humid, and pouring. Anthony wanted to go back to bed. I was operating on criminally little sleep but did not complain. This was gonna be the third most exciting sorts of another weekend (Nats and Champs being the first 2... not necessarily in that order). I opted to wear a GDS shirt and bucket hat rather than an alligator. That way, even if we failed to recognize the runners we were looking for—which is exactly what happened at mile one—they would eventually recognize us.

My high school teammate Jon “JET” Ettinger ‘03 (also a former sprint coach ) was the first to spot me right around mile 4. Anthony and I ran with him back over Key Bridge into Georgetown and all the way down to the start of the Whitehurst Freeway where it empties into Rock Creek Park. Then we waited for Julia Smith ‘15 to appear and ran with her up Rock Creek Parkway probably to around Mass Avenue, cut across the parkway to the southbound side and caught up with JET again on his way back (these 2-3 miles were out and back). When we heard Julia Smith’s mother cheering for us, we stopped and then headed back to find Julia so we could make her more visible for her mom to see. Read with her down to the Watergate Hotel and then jogged back up a mile into Rock Creek Park to wait for Emily Vogt ‘14. According to the text alerts, Emily was running about as fast as the other two but had started a half an hour late (probably due to logistics of getting down to the start line) among the 12 minute pace runners. We had already missed her once on her way up the parkway so we stood on the double yellow line in the middle and shouted “Emily” and “VOTE!” (Vogt) sporadically in the pouring rain for about 10 minutes until she magically materialized out of the gloom. Anthony ran with us to the start of the Haines Point Loop out past the tidal basin. We passed Lucy Vogt cheering on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial I think.

And then I ran with Emily for the rest the race. 17.5 miles in total. I didn’t duck out until the top of the Iwo Jima Memorial Hill about 100 m before the finish. I won’t talk about her race in detail here because that’s not my story to tell but you can ask her if you know her or ask Lucy, who joined us for 3 delightful miles around the national mall in the middle (all miles run with Vogts are delightful, so these were doubly so). Anthony also magically reappeared around this time having just come from running with Julia up to mile 19 and the four of us ran together for several miles passing the Vogt parents and maybe Emily’s boyfriend. We talked pretty much the whole way right up to the finish, though the ratio of me talking to Emily talking skewed steadily once we got into the late miles where the body goes into what I can only describe as rigor mortis. My body was also starting to show some of those effects but not enough to discourage me from grabbing Emily water and Gatorade from every aid station and keeping up a casual banter. She had the wherewithal during a torrential downpour with strong crosswinds around the tidal basin to point out that the organization she was raising money for in this race is called RAINN.

For my part, I’ll say that it was pretty exhausting. No, I wasn’t going anywhere close to my marathon race pace but I was quite worn down from yesterday when I did 12 miles of hard intervals and hills simply cheering and Friday when I ran 20 miles looking for a good omens and (street) signs with a 5K time trial on the track tucked in middle. By the end my body felt wrecked. It had been raining almost constantly for the entire 4-1/2 hours. since I didn’t want to run across the finish line and get a medal for race I hadn’t signed up or fully run, I ran around behind the grandstand and managed to squeeze on my belly under a fence into the half-mile-long post-finish chute in the hopes of finding fluids or nourishment or Emily. I didn’t find any of those things but I did find JET who had squeezed in under four hours (Jon was 3:57, Emily 3:55, Julia 3:50, all around 8:47-9:06 average pace). The two of us staggered off towards the family reunion area. I started to feel faint and my vision began to narrow, so we sat down and renourished. Then we walked a mile back to my car in Georgetown and drove home.

Did I set out to run a marathon today? No. Am I happy I practically did? Yes. It means so much to me to have the opportunity to continue to play a positive role in yall’s lives as the years go by, to have former athletes now the 20s grow into friends, to see that same spirit that motivated them in high school carry them to new heights. Getting to support both Julia, JET, and Emily in their first marathon is irreplaceable. Besides, Anthony supported me in my first marathon right here nine years ago on this same course by doing the exact same thing he and I were doing today. So I’m just paying it forward.. Julia, Jon, and Emily, I am so so so proud of you guys.