I received an email yesterday saying, I “have reason to celebrate as one of the officially registered participants of the 39th Marine Corps Marathon.”
Pop the bubbly!
Looks like I’ll be running my first marathon this October. A WHOLE marathon, not just half. Like all 26.2 miles of it. My body hurts just thinking about it.
But I’m excited! Hopefully the handful of half marathons I have planned will help prep me for my first full.
The MCM registration switched over to a lottery-based system this year due to its increasing popularity—public entries for 2013 sold out in 2 hours and 27 minutes! It’s the third largest marathon in the U.S. and eighth in the world. I’m actually surprised that my name got picked.
The race, also known as the “People’s Marathon” and nicknamed “Marathon of the Monuments,” takes place on October 26 (plenty of time to train). There are slight changes to the course this year, which offers a flatter, more scenic route from Arlington, Va. through downtown Washington, D.C. and historic Georgetown, and ending near Arlington National Cemetery and the Marine Corps War Memorial. The course moves along the Tidal Basin and swings past several monuments and memorials, including the Korean and WWII Memorials and Washington Monument.
It sounds like it’ll be a fun route to run (if you don’t think about how long it is). I’ll probably start the marathon training schedule after the Asheville Half in early June. I may do one other half between July and October, but otherwise that time period is looking pretty race-free… for now. 🙂
What do you think?