I provided support sherpa services to a friend running the Marine Corp Marathon over the weekend. I had run this marathon in 2003 on as part of my four marathon extravaganza that year, running four marathons in four consecutive weekends: Chicago, Baltimore, Marine Corp, and New York City.
The Marine Corp Marathon in 2003 was described to me as the best organized event and also known as The People’s Marathon. My experience was that the marathon was sufficiently managed and executed, neither extraordinarily better nor worse than any other marathons that I had run. The finisher medal as adequate, but I don’t recall getting a T-shirt in the runner’s packet, as is the practice of most other marathons.
The marathon this weekend past was again decently run, but there was a nice long sleeved shirt in the goody bag. V-22 Ospreys made fly-bys at the start line, and the official starter must have been a hasher because he called out “on-on, marathon” over the PA system just prior to the starting gun. The finisher’s medal was a big honking Eagle, Globe, Anchor hunk of metal, and all finishers also received a Marine Corp Marathon coin, admittedly not in as heavy a weight as a challenge coin.
This weekend eventually degenerated into us concluding that I must have run the Marine Corp Marathon during the sucky years, which has resolved me to return to running marathons. Right up front, I want to start my season with the Chicago marathon in 2010, and I definitely have the Marine Corp Marathon in my sights as well. Other possibilities are to sandwich in the Baltimore marathon, and/or the Wineglass Marathon in Corning, NY. Oorah!