[Biscuit]

Best of luck Watcher, I'm sure you'll smash it

[Watcher]

Hi Biscuit,

Things ran smoothly. I went to the expo straight from the airport and had no issues with the train. Luckily I ordered my pass ahead of time since the lines were long to purchase one. The expo was crazy crowded and I would have rather skipped it however that was the only way to get your race bib and shirt.

Race day was a cold 46° with no sun at all. I wore a winter hat and gloves. My walk to the start line was 2 miles from my hotel at 6am and the walking crowd grew as we walked down the Magnificent Mile.

I went through security and was in my corral by 7:15am so I had plenty of time for my 8am start which had a 7:45am corral closure.

I believe 48,500 runners were announced. The course was wide and I never felt crowded. They did use water cups at this race and I believe I liked the London water bottles method instead. If one did have a bottle then the volunteers were able to fill it.

They also had Biofreeze stations. Most of the stations had large bottles , sort of like hand sanitizer, and one applied it themselves. However, around mile 22 they had an actual pitstop where they just sprayed your legs down and that felt so good.

My stomach was acting up in the 20's. Maybe I had too much sodium intake between the gels, Gatorade, and these sodium gummies that were handed out at the expo. I barely was able to eat a banana at that point.

The official results had me 8 minutes ahead of my London time through 35K. I knew I was running too fast. At one point my Garmin read 24.75 miles run and I was excited it was almost over. However, I then noticed my first mile marker and it read mile 24 and I was like WTF.

Apparently the Garmin screwed up because I replicated the problem the next day while walking. Some people say the tall buildings run interference. Anyway I was deflated because here I now had another mile to run. So the final 3 miles had me finishing 8 minutes off of my London time.

It probably took me an hour to walk back to my hotel and I was cold. The usual hypothermia set in after I took off my wet clothes and my stomach emptied itself out. Something about taking off wet clothes and the air hitting exposed skin.They do act as a barrier against the air until taken off.

I did walk 25 miles on Friday and Saturday so I was indoors by 2pm on Saturday because I thought I walked to much. I ended up with 40 walking miles over the weekend.

Downtown Chicago was very nice, as well as, the Navy Pier, Grant Park, Wrigley Field, Soldier Field, Buckingham Fountain, Millennium Park and McCormick Place.

So 4 World Majors are completed and I have to wait on the final two for acceptance. I am walking fine and just have typical leg muscle soreness and my right ankle needs to adjust itself.

I have the Marine Corps Marathon in 3 weeks so hopefully I will be healed up and ready to go.

Thanks

[UrsaMajor]

Your Garmin was a victim of what is called "Multi-Path Interference".... It is, as you were told, caused by GPS signals bouncing off and between large buildings in big cities giving an inaccuracy to GPS positioning by up to about 1 km spherical. It is a real pain in the "sit bones" with respect to navigation unless GPS is combined with Mapping. One way to minimize it is to have devices that use other SatNav systems (like Galileo) in conjunction with GPS as the frequencies of the systems are different so that the reflection/refraction characteristics are different and can be used to "correct" each other....

Your Rocket Science lesson for the day <snort>

[Watcher]

Hi UrsaMajor,

Runners had similar Garmin complaints about London with the satellite interference. My Garmin stats did not save for London while Chicago clocked me running at 36 mph at one point, lol. I wish.

This weekend is going to be too hot for the Marine Corps Marathon. I think this is going to be a repeat of the NYC Marathon in 2022 with the heat and humidity. So I believe I will be running slow.

I have an 8am start with temps at 62° and 91% humidity. Temperatures will rise to 77° and humidity will level out around 70% by noon so that doesn't sound good. People have also commented on how there is absolutely no shade on this course.

I started NYC at 11am so hopefully the 3 hour earlier start will help. The start/finish is in Arlington, VA and that's where I am staying while the expo is in Maryland at the National Harbor so I have to figure out how I'm getting to it. The trains look easy enough actually.

The train to Eisenhower Station with a free shuttle to the expo seems to be the way to go. I have to plan my logistics before the expo on Friday. I prefer to knock it out Friday and have an easy day Saturday.

I'm driving to this one since it's only four hours away for me. The 2020 medallion had Iwo Jima sand in it and this one opens up and has dog tags inside. Very cool looking in military green.

This is not a World Major so I can only guess at 20,000 runners participating. IDK, maybe I will be surprised by the turnout.

I didn't have much time to plan for this one. I ran two weeks at 30 miles each and my legs feel fine. I probably went to kickboxing 8 or 9 times since Chicago in addition.

I will be around 1,750 miles run after this one and I may try to reach 2,000 miles to finish out the year.

I was also reading that I am grandfathered in with these 6 World Majors so I will not have to worry about chasing any new ones that are added in 2025 like they are planning. I'm still working on Tokyo and Boston so I have no Spring Marathon planned yet.

[Biscuit]

8am start sounds good!

You’re not driving the 4 hours the morning of the race I hope?

Best of luck!

[Watcher]

Hi Biscuit,

On Friday I arrived at the National Harbor in Maryland for the expo to retrieve my race bib. It was a very nice location.

On Saturday I did a walking tour of all the pertinent monuments in Washington DC. The Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, U.S. Capitol, Grant Memorial, WW2 Memorial and the White House, etc....

Unless one was going inside the White House to visit I would recommend not to go bother looking as it's on lockdown and no decent photo of it was attainable. I walked roughly 13 miles.

On Sunday I left my hotel at 6am for a 35 minute walk to the race. A woman outside the hotel stopped me and asked if she could walk with me and of course I said yes knowing she probably didn't want to walk alone in the dark.

She was a first time marathoner from Florida and she marveled that I was running number 8, lol. Hmm, she asked if my wife was running with me and I replied, I don't have one of those. She mentioned at some point that she had an ex, lol.

So we arrived safely at the venue and talked the entire way about running and hiking, because she asked me what other things I liked to do. She had just hiked the Shenandoah.

She stayed by my side until the start at 7:55am and thanked me profusely for walking with her and making her feel comfortable about the race while answering her questions.

She did invite me to dinner for being a gracious host with her three girlfriends afterwards but I told her she really would have to see how she felt afterwards. I told her I'm usually knocked out for a few hours easily. I think she was just being nice.

So the race started and we went our separate ways. The course was beautiful and the spectators were great as well as the Marines throughout the course.

I ran a very good half marathon and I was happy at the midway point. I did pass a Marine band playing the Halls of Montezuma and I wanted to stop and take a photo but I didn't so that was a regret. After all I'm not in any contention to win so I should have stopped.

There was a section called the blue mile. The first half of it was large photos of service members who have been killed. I don't remember any people being in that section. Just the photos. It was absolutely the quietist section of the marathon and how could it not leave its impact.

Immediately upon emerging from that half mile stood their family members cheering on the runners and waving their flags. That was the blue mile. Just an incredible stretch along the route.

So after 13 miles I knew I had to shut it down. It was incredibly hot and humid. People were dropping all around. I think I saw one runner in cardiac arrest and responders were begging for water from the runners as we passed the scene. They were just throwing water on the guy.

The race temps started at 65° and probably reached into the 70's. It was mostly cloudy but the sun opened up around mile 20 and it was just brutal. I noticed a tremendous amount of people struggling after mile 20 and many vomiting.

I struggled through the 20's but I finished. I was glad that I finished but I wasn't really thrilled about my time since I had just completed two good runs at London and Chicago.

So I had a lot of doubt about myself on the drive home on Monday because it felt like a step backwards.

However, I was reading online today how the organizers closed the marathon down early because of all the heat related issues. I didn't know that they stopped people from running and apparently I had made it through the emergency shutdown cutoff.

Some people were upset because they weren't allowed to finish the race while others reported what I had seen with my own eyes with the deteriorating conditions.

Today I am just grateful that I finished and really could care less about my time. I did have my medallion presented to me by a Marine at the finish line so it was mission accomplished.

I will reevaluate things over the next few days. The heat and humidity were brutal. I also think I ran Chicago and the Marine Corps Marathons too closely together.

Sunday will be the NYC Marathon but I'm just volunteering for that one.

So that was Marathon #8.

[UrsaMajor]

Washington, DC... where the temperature and humidity race to see which one can hit 100 first....

In those conditions, finishing can be considered a win....

[JohnnyBravo]

I arrived in DC on Monday and was shocked at how warm it was for the end of October. Cold front came in at night and Tuesday was back to seasonal on Tuesday. Too late for the marathon, but I’m glad you paced yourself and were able to finish!

[Watcher]

Hi UrsaMajor, Johnny Bravo.

I have been dealing with a sore ankle for about a month which I am slowly recovering from so my running has been limited a bit. I am at around 1,850 miles for 2023.

I have to think long term so I won't push onwards to 2,000 miles and will settle around 1,900+. I finished my 4th qualifying attempt for the 2025 Tokyo Marathon meanwhile I have not heard a word from this charity regarding the Boston Marathon for 2024.

So I still have no marathon planned yet for the Spring, however, I have a few back up choices. I am registered for Montreal and New York City Marathons in the Fall.

I received a letter from her real estate attorney and they want us to settle this escrow account where they withheld money from the home sale 18 months ago. They threatened to send it to family court ,minus attorney fees, if we both don't reply.

So I will either receive my share or it will just be lost money as I have no intention of going to her favored family court over it. They withheld her address because she is the victim ,of course, and they used the wrong name for me in an attempt to emasculate me because I'm male.  So I replied just to ensure my name is properly endorsed on the returned monies.

The second notice I received was actually from her favored family court and it dealt with the termination of CS. Now I received a text, a voicemail and a mailed letter and it's all BS really just to poke me because ,again, I'm the male in this story.

The current order expires in March 2024 and she can re apply, and will be granted an extension, so why bother to notify me. I already know how it works, therefore, CS is really not being terminated in March 2024 as they claim.

She will get the extension and it will be terminated finally in March 2026. So I will humor the court and not be shocked when we go through this dog and pony show again in March 2024 with the court threats etc.....as what happened in Oct 2022.

Supposedly HER son should be a junior in college however it's really not about a degree for the court. It's about that magical age of 23. A degree does not matter, which I am fine with, because I'm on countdown mode to this being over for good.

The funniest remark on this court notice dealt with extending CS beyond the age of 23 if I were receptive in doing so. They would help me with filing the necessary paperwork. LMAO....

Why on earth would I pay CS to infinity and beyond ? LOL ...I have 3 marathons in 2024 and 3 marathons in 2025 and then CS is done.

[UrsaMajor]

Another one for the "You couldn't make this $#!t up if you tried" file.....