Marine Corps 17.75k – A Race for a “Golden Ticket”

The morning started out with a super early 4:30am alarm, thankfully my friends Denise and David let me crash in their hotel room the night before or I would’ve been on the road to the race by 4am! As we were settling into the morning routine, water, bathroom, getting dressed, I realized that I FORGOT one very important item of clothing (I’ll let you guess what it was)!!! I was completely freaking out and did not know what to do, thinking “THIS is NOT a good way to start race day morning... AT ALL!!” Thankfully, Denise talked me down and convinced me that with the generous time limit at the race I could slow down my pace (HA! I was planning on going slow anyway) and that the lack of this clothing item was not a big deal.

We got dressed, I packed two mini bagels with peanut butter and we headed out the door to drive to the shuttle location. We arrived at the commuter parking lot at 5:40 am and were on the shuttle heading towards the start by 5:50 am.  I have to say, the marines run a tight and efficient ship and we were at the runners village by 6:00 am.  I said goodbye to Denise and David and headed off to find my running buddies John and Paul.  As soon as I found them we headed into the Montclair Tabernacle Church which generously opens their doors to the runners on race day morning.  It was nice to have a warm (even though it really wasn’t super cold) place to hang out before the race and not have to sit in the grass for an hour.

After about 45 minutes in the church we headed out to the start line (this race is very informal and everyone just lined up wherever they could squeeze in), they sang the national anthem and we were off.  I am coming off of a pretty painful hamstring injury after ignoring it for two months while training for, and running, New York and have only been cleared to run for about a month now.  My PT told me that I needed to take it easy, avoid running big hills and add my mileage back in slowly... I’m a runner; I don’t follow advice very well.  Because I did not have a lot of time to properly train for this race (I went from 1mile to 3 to 4 to 6 and my longest run post-injury was 8.7 miles the week before), the plan for this race was to finish, collect our “golden ticket” for entry into the Marine Corps Marathon and leave happy and healthy (SPOILER ALERT: All that happened). 

The Start Line! 

Miles: 11.03 (17.75K)

Water Stops: Approximately miles 2, 4, 6 & 8 (they only had water on the course this year, not sure about other years).

Elevation Gain:  250 (some) feet.

We settled into a very slow 2 minute run/1 minute walk knowing that we could beat the 20 minute mile cutoff even if we walked.  I’ve heard that in past years the weather for this race has been miserable (I witnessed the miserableness last year when cheering our friend Rachel at the finish line – it rained for the entire race), this year it was HOT and super humid.  Training in the DC area, you become accustomed to this humidity during the summer when your runs feel more like swimming through soup.  However, we get a little reprieve during the winter months and it’s just enough time to get unaccustomed to the humidity.  This makes for a painful time when you try to run in the forest, after not really running for a few months; hence why I wasn’t prepared with all of the running “essentials” that I needed that day.  Mental note: Leave a full running outfit in the car from now on.

The first three to four miles or so are the only significant downhill portions you will run during this entire race, that’s not to say there aren’t any uphill potions but the rest of the race after you enter mile four seems like it’s entirely uphill.  The first two(ish) miles and the last two(ish) miles are on a gravel road (think the big stone gravel, not the itty bitty gravel) and this is not friendly if you step wrong, just ask John who twisted his ankle a bit when he stepped wrong.  Around mile 3 you enter the paved part of the race and its smooth concrete until about mile 9. 

Seriously? Where's the hill?

Everyone kept talking about the hill that is mile 4-5, how it was a huge hill and super hard and blah blah blah... I was worried about this hill and, frankly, a little stressed that I would hurt my hamstring and not be able to run for a couple more months (probably my worst nightmare at this point).  Thankfully, Paul and John had the same “race strategy” as I did: just get that golden ticket. We walked up the steepest portion of the hill which really wasn’t that long.  I’m not saying the mile 4-5 hill isn’t a jerk but, like some things that runners stress about in races, it wasn’t as bad as it was made out to be, the first part of the hill was steep but the rest was a steady gradual incline.  I honestly thought that this hill was going to cause people to drop out of the race like flies and it did not.  Was it steep? Yes.  Did I want to run at full speed up it? No.  Was it mildly uncomfortable to walk up? Sure.  Was it coming in between me and the “golden ticket”? Heck no!!

After mile 5 we resorted to a more laid back approach to the race, it became a run when we want to and not stress if we don’t.  The hills were starting to bother me and my legs were complaining about the lack of hill work and the lack of training in general before the race. We were still well under the 20 minute mile cutoff and we knew that even if we walked the entire rest of the race we would still make it to the finish line before we were swept.  This made it a lot easier to just focus on the task at hand: get that “golden ticket” and bypass the lottery for the 42^nd Marine Corps Marathon.

Around mile 9 is when things started to get interesting.  We departed from the nicely smooth paved path back onto the gravel road that we had entered the park on.  Remember the downhills I mentioned at the beginning?  We were beginning to see them again only as uphills.  I’m pretty sure that I remarked around this time that I did not remember them being as steep when we were running down them but they were probably the toughest hills of the entire race (for me).  My legs were tired, my hamstring was complaining (although pain isn’t the way I would describe what was happening, sometimes I can just feel my hamstring, I’m not sure if that will ever stop but I’ll take it over the pain any day), I was hot, sweaty and ready to have that golden ticket in hand.  When we passed the mile 9 marker we were told that it was “kinda in the wrong place” and we actually had less than two miles to go.  I’m not sure if that was a lie, but it was definitely a lie when the same two guys told us that we would be done with the hills after the one we were on.  I suppose that it gave us something to look forward to, but the disappointment was huge when we came to the bottom of another massive hill.  About half way up the next hill, we were told again that there were no more hills after the one we were on; I didn’t listen I couldn’t tell you if there whether there was another hill after that one or not (all the hills started running together).  I can tell you that I knew at that point that we had about a mile and a half standing between us and the golden ticket and I was starting to get really excited to finish the race and get some food!

Photo Courtesy: Paul
This was the top of the final hill

 At mile 10.25 there was a quick, flat, (not even) quarter mile out and back; I suppose that they needed to get in a little more distance to the race; it was not a big deal to go out, turn around and come back and it may have been one of the easiest sections of the course.  With that being said, there were some reports that people saw some of the runners cutting this part of the course.  I don’t understand people who try to cut courses, and I especially don’t understand trying to get away with cutting THIS course at the EASIEST PART.  You aren’t really in a huge time crunch, I know a couple of people that WALKED the whole course under the 4 hour cut off time.  Saving yourself (maybe 10 minutes) isn’t worth not getting your golden ticket or, worse, being banned from all Marine Corps races.  Yes, the course wasn’t super friendly; I will even say it was hard; but not so hard that it was impossible.  They definitely make you work hard for your bling at Marine Corps races but they aren’t unreasonably hard.  Especially this race, if you have any running experience and/or you’re used to walking long distances you are fine in this race.

 

Finally around mile 10.75 (ish), you leave the park... Hallelujah!! Once you leave the park, you leave the gravel behind for the pavement again.  It’s just a smooth, paved, flat quarter mile to the finish line. 

1,775 Feet to go!! 

Photo Courtesy: John
Haha the boy marine was distracted! 

At the finish you are first greeted by uniformed Marines who put the medal around your neck and congratulate you on your finish.  Then as you are walking out of the finisher’s chute you are greeted by ladies handing out the coveted “golden tickets” that have the code to register for the Marine Corps Marathon and allow you to bypass the lottery.  Guard these tickets WITH. YOUR. LIFE!!!! Just kidding, sort of.  After obtaining your golden ticket it’s pretty standard, they have post-race snacks, bottled water and THE BEST DARN stale popcorn you will ever eat.  This year they also handed out the finisher throw away jackets from the marathon in October that they didn’t give out because it was 80 degrees on marathon day, we didn’t really need afterwards either because it was pretty warm at the end of the race.

 After leaving the runners area, we headed to the lines for the shuttle back to our cars.  Like I said before, the organization getting runners to/from the designated parking lots was impeccable, we stood in line for about 15 minutes and we were back to the car in no time.

All in all, I would say that this is a good race.  After running two other Marine Corps Races I would say that the 17.75 is the most laid back (yet, still well organized) Marine race that I’ve done.  Will I do it again? Depends on whether or not I can register fast enough next year!

DONE!! Access Granted! 

Have you run this race? I would love to hear your thoughts.