Marine Corps Marathon Review
By Kyle Volluz
The Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) is, quite simply, a great race. To begin with, the Marines
are in charge; everything is extremely well organized as a result. The expo is top notch.
One can easily spend 2-3 hours looking at booths, etc. Of course, Friday is the best day
to go to the expo and pick up your race packet. The crowds can get quite large on
Saturday. There are a few hotels that are very close to the start/finish area. You should
find out how far the hotel is from the Iwo Jima monument (the closest landmark to the
start/finish area). The course starts on the Virginia side of the Potomoc and runs south
toward the Pentagon. After looping the Pentagon and the USMC headquarters, you turn north
(crossing the start line) and head into DC via Georgetown. The crowds are great at the
start and around the Pentagon but can be a little sparse in between. A USMC band plays
marches in front of the HQ (I remember hearing "Waltzing Matilda", which made me
think of RunOn's owner, Bob Wallace, a native of Australia). Of course, once you get into
DC the crowds are mostly very good. After Georgetown, you do an out and back into a park;
crowds are thin in the park but there are a few bands. I recall seeing a South Asian
bagpipe band that was quite amusing. After Georgetown, you encounter what you came to DC
for in the first place -- the monuments and the sights. To name a few, you see the Kennedy
Center, Dept. of Agriculture, Federal Reserve Bank, Capitol Hill, and the Lincoln and
Jefferson Memorials. Capitol Hill is really on a hill, so be prepared! After the
monuments, at about mile 20-21, you come to the absolute worst part of the race -- the
bridge across the Potomoc which returns you to Virginia. There is no crowd whatsoever. The
bridge is built with quite a pitch, and, therefore, you are faced with a lengthy uphill
run with no support from fans at the time when you are most likely to hit the wall. Once
you've conquered the bridge, you are required to run the stretch from the Pentagon to the
finish for the third time. This, perhaps, is the only real criticism that I can offer
about the race; you have to run one stretch of a few miles three times during the race. In
any event, the crowd begins to pick up, and, by the time you hit mile 26, the crowd is
several feet thick on the sides of the road. You are not done at mile 26! Just for fun,
the MCM sends you up yet another hill that goes around the Iwo Jima Monument. The crowds
here are awesome. You then finish, getting your medal --- and a salute if you ask for it
--- from a young Second Lieutenant (the USMC officers' training school is located near the
race site and the USMC uses the young officers in all sorts of roles).
This is a marathon that I would recommend to any runner who has at least one or two
marathons under his or her belt. |
