Lower Potomac River Marathon 2014 – Race Report

Marathons: Paul #34, Leah #24, State #19 : Lower Potomac River Marathon 2014
9th March 2014, Piney Point, Maryland, USA
Finish Time = 3:52:21

We arrived at the island of St George on Saturday evening after flying in to Washington DC, just in time to catch the sunset over the river from our hotel balcony. We headed over to The Ruddy Duck, the bar/restaurant by the hotel for some dinner. The place was packed with a mixture of locals and runners, and to save time we sat at the bar to eat.

We got talking to an older couple, a retired 30-year Marine Corps veteran who had a distinguished career including some years in the Vietnam War. He now teaches law at University, has published several books, he’d also had Presidential appointments in the past to advise government officials on law.

More Wine?

We’d had wine with dinner and after we’d finished and were ready to leave he insisted on buying us more wine. We tried to say no but he wasn’t having it. They were both a really nice couple and we enjoyed talking to them. By the time we left the restaurant we were definitely feeling a lot more merry than planned!

In contrast to the previous week the weather was good for running, cool but also sunny. It was a small event (170 finishers) but made a nice change to be running alongside the ocean and beside beaches, rather than through a city or around tall buildings. At one point a group of seagulls flew overhead, unleashing the contents of their lunch which landed with a loud splat a few inches to the side of me. It was a very lucky escape, I was way too close to nearly being covered in bird crap for the rest of the race.

Starting out in the early morning

Starting out in the early morning

There was a long section of road where we had to run into a headwind which was tough, at the turnaround point that became tailwind but at around 18 miles the muscle fatigue from running a marathon 7 days prior definitely set in. The rest of the miles were a battle and headphones were strictly prohibited so taking the pain away in a world of music wasn’t an option. There was no Britney Spears tracks to save me Leah.

Potomac02

We pushed on through and at mile 25 we saw a few female runners up ahead. Our goal was to finish in under 4 hours, but our competitive side couldn’t let the opportunity pass. We stepped up the pace and ran an 8:09 last mile, faster than any other mile of the race, to notch up a few female finisher places higher for Leah. We crossed the line in 3:52, with Leah placing 4th in her age group and I placed 12th.

Coming in to the finish

Coming in to the finish

We made it back to Washington DC just in time to grab a celebration burger before the flight. This marathon was our 14th within an 11 month period, we just need to squeeze 2 more in within a month to get to the next Maniac rank. Watch this space.

Elevation Graph from my running watch:

2014-LowerPotomac

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