10/28/12
Way back many many months ago when we signed up for the MCM
quickly the second that registration opened we never thought that it would come
at a time of Hurricane Sandy. As the
days approached we ran around wrapping things up at work and around the house
for our 4 day extended weekend we didn’t pay a ton of attention to the
weather. Our discussions were really
more around what we would be doing in DC, who we would meet up with, and our
marathon plan. We were just generally
excited to have a mini vacation time to ourselves and looking forward to
relaxing running and seeing the sights.
Our flight out went as planned and we even had an entire row
to ourselves of seating, which is always a wonderful thing on a cross country
flight! We arrived on Friday evening to
a beautiful sunset clear skies and took the Metro out to our hotel in the heart
of DC. There were no issues getting to
our hotel and we quickly checked in and headed out on the streets to walk
around, stretch our legs, and find something to eat for dinner. We walked around noticing how much
construction was going on all over the place.
We found a nice Thai food place close to our hotel and had a light but
delish dinner there and continued to walk around a bit after dinner just to
explore and then headed back to our hotel for a restful night of sleep- the
beds at this place were extremely comfortable and so we slept in Saturday
morning enjoying our vacation! Saturday
it was back onto the Metro and to the expo to pick up our bibs and race
shirts. Overnight the clouds had rolled
in, but it was still warm and not raining- I didn’t even bring a jacket with
me. The expo was crowded and the only
time we have ever had to go through a security check to get into the packet
pick up, but overall it was same old same old in terms of vendors and set
up. So we were in and out pretty quick
just picking up what we needed and opting not to by any of the extra junk they
are always trying to sell you. We met up
with Jasha’s cousin Tegan at the expo and took the metro back to the mall where
we walked the entire thing and took in all the sites in one go.
By the time we had finished taking it all in it was already
time for dinner as we were going to meet up with fellow marathon maniac
Margaret Barrett, the person who also reminded me the day registration was open
for this race and get us to sign up. We
had a delish dinner of pizza and pasta and caught up on life. The three of us had a lot of fun, but did not
stay out too late as we all were tired from running around all day and knew we
had an early morning wake up for the race start the next day. We were back to our hotel and in bed by
9:30pm for a 4:45am wake up.
Race morning we were worried about rain, but it was pretty
dry out and still pretty warm. So Jash
and I dressed in shorts and t-shirts and I added arm warmers while Jash opted
for his light wind breaker rain jacket just in case. We also were bundled up in some “throw away”
clothes that we ended up keeping and checking in so we could dress in warm
stuff after the race in case it did get rainy and cold. The set up before the race was good with
plenty of bathrooms and covered areas and things to do. As we made our way over to the starting corrals
though it was clear that this was going to be a mess. We joined around the 4 hour group, but it was
so packed and you could tell from the runners around us that we were not
starting with the 4 hour people. We did
not want to fight our way farther forward though as it was packed and not very
organized in terms of areas for people to enter and travel and there were
little to no distinctions on what was what time. So we just headed out with everyone in the
mass start. This I thought was
insane. The corrals were a mess and they
did not wave start us so this created back up all over the course the entire
day. It is really the main and only
problem I had with the race, well than and ending it at the top of a freeway
overpass with a huge hill in front of the finish line. Well that and the course being a 26.5+ mile
course- which everyone consistently registered on their watches. Not that it mattered to me as I was not going
for time, but for those that were and were just on the edge of the BQ that is
not fair to them!
So away we went at the start. It was very slow going even after we had
crossed the starting line. There were
walkers all over- which I HATE in races like this- they have plenty of time to
be out on the course with a generous time limit and do not need to start at the
front and make all of us back up and trip going around them. It is not safe and just plain rude of those
walkers to do this. I get very livid
when people in marathon maniac apparel do this as they are giving our club a
bad name and they just know better. The
crowed really did not let up this entire race.
It was crowded to the point that it was uncomfortable I believe due to
the fact that people did not actually start according to pace, but just really
based on whatever time they showed up at the line and the earlier you were the
closer you got. Jash and I were plugging along staying positive
but at mile 6 with some jerk came up behind Jash and I am physically grabbed us
and pushed his way between us to try to get past I had enough. This tool received a nice hard shove from me
as well as an “asshole” loud enough that everyone else could see who I was
calling out. He continued to do this and
received similar sentiments from the rest of the group. This is the first time that something like
this has happened in a big race and I have raced some of the biggest so I feel
like it is another testament to the needed for RD’s to fix the start and spread
people out a bit more on the course.
The rest of the race went on without any other
incident. We took in the beautiful fall
colors and all of the sites. We enjoyed
the crowd support and the ample aid ensuring we were drinking and keeping on
top of nutrition. We also enjoyed the
weather very dry with a great overcast.
There were signs telling us to outrun Hurricane Sandy, and whatnot, but
really that was all that we thought about it.
During the time of the race it was not something that we were worried about
hearing that it was going to make landfall sometime after we left and we
figured we would be long gone by the time it got there. We
finished up the race together hand in hand running the entire event together
which is really the best way to spend time together have fun and keep each
other going. After we received our
medals I realized that I had completely tied my shoes too tight and my feet
were paying the price you would think after 88 of these that I would at least
have that part down. I loosened those up
before we continued on to get food and drink.
The finisher’s tunnel they take you out of was so long that we took time
to sit down and eat a little before we were able to get out. By this time it had started to rain just a
little bit, so we hurried to find our gear and put back on our warm clothes as
we still had to walk to a metro site and find food before making it back to our
hotel. We never were able to find the
beer garden and collet our free beers. We
made it back to our side of town and found a local pizza place where we took a
few slices and some salad to go and made our way back home to shower and put
our feet up.
When we got home Jash retrieved his phone and while I
showered he learned from a friend that the flight we were both supposed to be
on Monday night was canceled due to the storm coming in. By the time we got on the phone with them to
find out what was going on we could not re book a flight for Tuesday and ended
up on a Wed. evening flight back to Portland. So it looked like we would be
spending Halloween in DC. We next had to
work on booking another hotel for the next 2 additional nights as our hotel was
booked. We found one in Crystal City
just outside of DC close to the airport that we snatched up before they could
get sold out and then had to figure out how to get there the next day as we
were learning they were shutting down all public transportation. We called local cab companies and found that
they would be running the next day.
After watching the weather channel we realized that it was supposed to
hit us at about 1pm the next day so we started planning for an early check in
at our other hotel so we did not have to be traveling during the storm. We also ran to the Safeway that was walking
distance from our hotel- by this time it had started to rain pretty hard so we
were huddled under the umbrella supplied by the hotel. The store was something I had never seen before-
all of the produce was gone. Water was completely
gone and most shelves were almost gone.
I was very worried at this point so we bought some flavored water- the
only thing that was left on the shelves.
We also found a candle- as we didn’t have a flashlight with us and they
had none it was the next best thing in case we lost all power. We also bought some cans of soup, crackers,
cheese, and wine and beer- figured we would be sitting around hold up in a
hotel for some time. With all of our
loot we made it back to the hotel ate dinner and packed up everything that we
needed for the next day planning an 8am departure over to our next hotel so we
could be out of the storm.
By morning it was pouring and the wind had started to pick
up and it was FREEZING! It was amazing
how quickly the temperatures had dropped.
We landed a cab and headed over to our new hotel and marveled at how
empty the streets were, except for the accidents that is. The rain it seemed caused many accidents as
people were trying to get places at the last minute. We were able to check in early at our new
hotel and headed down stairs for a warm breakfast- since they ate least had it
there and we didn’t know what was going to happen in the coming days. After a delish breakfast we did a quick run
next door to rent a couple of red box movies… what else is there to do when
stuck in a hotel room for 2 days straight?
Don’t answer that.
We checked in with your other friends that were there, Ken
and Lisa with their 3 year old Katie and Margaret B, they were all doing the
same thing that we were doing in terms of just holding up in their hotels and
hoping for the best. Watching movies was fun, but after a while I got
a little stir crazy and tried to go work out in the hotel gym- which had been inundated
with children. So I did a few weights,
but none of the machines were open or available so I went up and down the stair
well climbing the 10 floors as well as lunges up and down the hall of our
floor. When I got back to the room around 4pm all
sweaty we watched as the power suddenly went out in the apartment building
across the street from us. So I quickly
jumped in the shower while we had power.
Then I of course filled the bath tub with clean good water- just in case
and we settled in for the worst of the storm to hit. That night we ate soup and cheese and
crackers in our hotel room and watched a few more movies. At some points during the storm our windows
were shaking and sounding like they were about to smash in. We also kept flipping back to news stations
when we had power to get updates on what was happening locally as well as the
rest of the east coast that was getting hit by the storm. We sent out a few times onto a parking garage
that was next to our second floor room to get an idea of how strong the winds
where whipping and how cold it was getting.
I was quickly ready to go back inside our room after a few min of
this. Also we had to keep towels down as
the windows to our hotel were leaking like crazy.
We went to sleep that night with the winds strong hoping for
the best, and worried now even more for the flooding conditions that NY and NJ
were getting. When we woke up the next
morning we did have power and the wind and died down and it was just
rainy. Jash was up for another movie,
but I was ready to get outside so I met up with Margaret and we walked around
and checked out the down poles, power outages, and downed trees as well as marveled
at how cold it had gotten. We ended up
walking for over 2 hours and I wished I had remember my gloves! My hands were frozen, but we made it back to
Margaret’s hotel and I ordered a warm coffee and headed back to my hotel to
meet up with Jash.
That night we met up with Ken, Lisa, and Margaret and went out
to dinner and just enjoyed hanging out on our mini forced extended
vacation. Jash and I were lucky enough
to be heading home the next day on Halloween, but the rest of our group was there
till the day after not being able to get a flight out until Thursday
evening. So we went out on Wednesday the
next day and checked out some of the sites as the metro was finally open. We checked out the space museum which was a particular
treat for Jash!
Then we also checked out the gardens, a treat for me!
Then it was back to the airport for an uneventful flight
home! We were very happy to be back home
in OR and although we missed our Halloween, we survived our hurricane adventure
and had a fun run and spent some great quality time together. Overall we deemed it a success even though it
was not quite according to the plan that we expected!
