1988 Marine Corps Marathon

If I wrote all the memories from this event I would exceed the memory limit assigned to my blog by the good folks at Google.

For those unfamiliar with this story, Cathy and I were married on Saturday, November 5, 1988. The Marine Corps Marathon was held on Sunday, November 6, 1988. You did read correctly--we were married on Saturday night and I ran the marathon on Sunday morning.

The marathon idea was hatched back in May of 1988, when my brother and I agreed to run a marathon together. Bill (my one and only brother, who is three years younger than I) was about to join the Navy and had determined a four week window in November and December when he knew the Navy would have him enrolled in a training school in Pensacola, Florida. During this time Bill could travel on weekends. After those few weeks ended, there was no guarantee he would be in the States. In fact, six months out from the race date he expected to be aboard a ship out in some ocean after his specialized training was complete.

At the time, Cathy's parents lived in Northern Virginia, the date for the Marine Corps Marathon matched up with the time Bill could travel, so we started training to run the 1988 Marine Corps Marathon.

Three months later, Cathy and I had arrived at the point of "fish or cut bait," otherwise known as a marriage proposal. When we looked at possible dates, we decided the wedding would be in Northern Virginia, we already knew my brother could make it to the D.C. area on the first weekend in November, so we had our date. We had dated on and off, but mostly on, for the previous five years so it was time. As you might imagine, the notion of this idea didn't sit well in all quarters, but we are still going strong over 20 years later.

As I recall marathon day, I left the Tyson's Corner's (Va.) Marriott to pick up my brother (Bill) to head to the Metro station for the ride in to the starting line at the Pentagon. We did not have alot of extra time to hang around the start line before the actual starting time. We ended up just jumping in the middle of 7,000 runners and taking off. At that time there was no "chip timing." The race started, the clock started and you crossed the start line as soon as you could.

The first nine miles were packed with people. We started the race on the northwest side of the Pentagon, ran around the road next to the Pentagon building, and then headed out to Georgetown. I had no idea of strategy. I was young, had trained pretty well and was hoping to finish in under four hours. We dodged in and out of the crowd of runners, trying to find some clear space to run without interruption. There was no space to be found and all we did was expend energy while adding to our total running distance.

I distinctly remember at the 9 mile mark we passed a group of Marines who, while running the marathon, had a deal to do pushups for every mile. At the 9 mile mark, they were completing 9 pushups before restarting their run. I'm quite confident they finished. With all the barking Marines along the course, they had to finish.

Later, at the 17 mile mark, we passed a Marine who was running while wearing a full flak jacket with a huge collar. When we saw him, his buddy was smearing Vaseline all over his neck, which had been rubbed raw by the flak jacket he was wearing. I don't know if he ever finished. It looked like it really hurt.

Unlike our flak jacket wearing friend, I was wearing nylon running shorts, a white cotton t-shirt that included the insignia of my brother's ship--the guided missile cruiser U.S.S. Reeves, and a pair of Turntec running shoes. To find information on Turntec shoes you'll have to search the running shoe archives. I had a lot of shin and knee pain while training for the marathon. The Turntec shoes were relatively heavy, but after just a few runs in my new Turntecs back in September the pain in my legs cleared up.

Prior to running the Marine Corps Marathon, I always wondered why it was called "Capitol Hill." Standing on the National Mall, it looks to me like the Capitol Building is at the same level as everything else in the area. 18 miles in to the marathon, as I ran up Capitol Hill, I clearly understood there is actually a hill there.

The real challenge of the race occurred at mile 22, in West Potomac Park, which is across the Potomac River from National Airport. As we ran in the Park, the wind was blowing in our face and I stopped to walk and drink some water. After I finished the water, I kept walking. My brother was ready to run again (he was better prepared than I), but I told him I was hurting and needed to walk. He looked at me and said, "If you don't start running now, you won't start running again. Get going." He was right. It hurt, but I started running.

We made it out of the Park, crossing a bridge that would lead us to the finish near the Iwo Jima Statue in Arlington National Cemetery. I started feeling better, and we knew we were close to breaking the four hour mark. We flew through the last three miles, running together the entire way. The last part of the run to the finish was uphill, but that did not slow us down. In fact, we may have run faster knowing the finish was near. The time on my watch when we crossed the finish line was 3:59:46, but due to the delay in crossing the start line due to the crowd, my actual finish time was 4:01. I count it as a sub-four hour marathon.

I think Cathy agrees that was a great memory. Throughout the race, she and my parents used the Metro system (subway) to meet as at six different points, including the finish. It's great to see people you know when you're running. Even better when it's your wife of 14 hours.

One other memory of the day is three coworkers from Utica College had made the trip for the wedding. As we ran past the White House that morning, Cathy Klein, Chris Carino and Kathy Nelson were beside the race course cheering us on. I've lost track of all three, but still greatly appreciate that they showed up at our wedding and during the race.

Finally, I was back at work on Tuesday, two days after the marathon. At the time, I was Director of Intramural Sports at Utica College in Utica, New York. My boss called me in to his office, and expressed his anger about an article that appeared in Sunday's local paper (the Utica Observer Dispatch). Apparently, someone had called the local running writer who prepared a story about my marriage/marathon weekend. It caught my boss by surprise, which he did not appreciate. I know I told him I was getting married, so I'm sure my mother-in-law got him fired up about the marathon idea!