Marine Corps Marathon

Washington, D.C. - 30 Oct 2005

Last Spring, Kristy and a few friends decided that it would be cool to run a marathon despite never having done any distance running before. Now, were it me, I might have backed off from such a vow in no more time than it takes to sober up, and I wasn't sure that she would stick with it, either. But six months, countless early morning training walks (because walking was the original intent), one half-marathon, and a 10K run (in Ann Arbor) later, there I was in D.C. stalking the course of the 30th annual Marine Corps Marathon to record the big event.

Kristy left the house at about 5:30am to meet her friend and running partner Sonya and join the 20,070 other runners who were to start the race that morning. Since my mission was to catch her as she ran around the Mall - more than 11 miles into the race - I had a more leisurely morning, leaving around 10am to catch the Metro to L'Enfant Plaza. As these photographs attest, her achievement in finishing the race was exceeded only by my own valiant efforts to record it for posterity.

The race is often called the Monument Marathon for obvious reasons. For the curious, here's a map (PDF, 1464KB) of the course.

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