The 2019 Marine Corps Marathon

I was sure, on the night before this race, that I was fully prepared for another 31 mile ultra marathon. I knew, after completing 4 of them, that I had the endurance and strength to finish one of these races. I had run in a city, on two different trails and through the hill country of Texas, so I knew I could adapt to different terrain.

The Marine Corps Marathon, however, surprised me in a new way. The subway that took my sighted guides and I to the start of the race was approximately 12 minutes late. We were, as a result, about half an hour late to the start of the race. We reached the back of hte starting line, in other words, while the other ultra runners were starting the race. The sign that would have told us to make the left turn that added 5 miles to the course was off by the time we reached it. One of my sighted guides learned this because he was constantly looking at the course map on his cell phone. So, we had to turn around, go back to the point where we would have turned and get on the right course. This added 1.2 miles to the course.

The sweep up crew was starting to clean up the course by the time we were on the right course again. We had to increase our speed, for this reason, to insure that we would not be disqualified from the race.

I went from being in last place to finishing up somwhere in the middle of hte pack. My sighted guides and I also spent a fair amount of time looking for the right trail to run on. This is definitiely not my best time, but it is the race I am most proud of finishing.