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Herve is HAPPY: the hard work paid off. It is 7 pm on Sunday and today I raced my first Marathon. I am so glad to be sitting in my hotel room right now. My legs are so happy when I give them a rest. And I think they deserve a rest because they got the job done, and did even better than expected. My finishing time was 3h26:35 according to my watch. That put me in 629th position. 24,588 runners registered, 17,641 actually started the race and 17,186 finished! The official results are available at http://www.marinemarathon.com/theresults.html. There is also an excellent article about this race in the Washington Post.

The day started at 4am. I had four alarm clocks setup: my watch, my digital diary, the hotel radio and a hotel wake up call. They all worked! I am so paranoid! The weather was perfect. 55 deg. F in the morning is bearably cold when waiting for the gun to start the race. 70 deg. F at the end with a 96% humidity feels very hot when there is no shade to hide on that 14th Street Bridge, but we all survived. 

At mile 7.5 we went over the Key Bridge into an are of DC that I had never seen before. Nice little shops on cobblestone streets; it reminded me of Boston or a typical little French town. There were a few ups and downs on the course between mile 8 and 9 as we were running under a bridge, then over it, then down again. This is why my mile 9 time is faster than I planned. I wanted to average 8 overall, so I needed a bunch of 7:40s in the first half to make up for the time I took me to get up to speed, and an other bunch of 7:40s in the second half to make up for the fatigue that would probably slow me down towards the end.

At mile 9.7 we got on Constitution Avenue, the one that runs along the White House and in front of the Washington monument. At this point everything was perfect: the temperature was cool enough, the sun was shining, the clouds were rare, the crowd was everywhere and very boisterous. We had plenty of space to run but I always run close to one side and smiled at the people cheering. It was my way of showing my appreciation for their encouragements and they liked it because they all looked at my singlet and redoubled their: "Go France", "Vive la France", "Allez, allez France!".

Another domain that was perfect were the water stops. All manned by Marine Corps soldiers. The stops were placed every two miles always half way between mile markers. I really like it when there is plenty of distance between mile markers and water stops. That gives plenty of time to runners to check their pace as they don't have to grab water at the same time. Also, those water stops were all at least 100 yard long! That is great because I like to get at least 2 glasses of water. So if I happen to be eating with one hand I can grab a cup with the other, get out of the way of other runners trying to get a cup too, drink it all as I run and then grab another cup towards the end. They were also serving some sport drink called Ultima, but as I had never used it during my training I did not want to take the risk to have my stomach not like it.

Mile 12 to 14 took us around the US Capitol. At that point I remembered that famous quote: "Monuments? I didn't see any monument.". So far I could see the monuments so I figured that I was in good shape. The only thing that was troubling me were blisters on each foot that I could already feel. I had never had them so early and painful before. And I did apply a fair amount of vaseline on my feet. So I focused on keeping my running form, on not changing my stride because of the pain because that was going to make other things hurt or even injured. And after a while I tuned it out, no doubt thanks to the scenery: both the monuments and the beautiful female legs I could see here and there - some of them were really stunning.

Mile 15 took us along the other side of the Washington monument and towards the Lincoln memorial. We saw all the Vietnam war sculptures as we run in the shade of the trees in the park. The crowd was there too! Lots of them! More "Go France", "Vive la France", "Allez, allez France!" for me.

Then came mile 16 to 18 along Jefferson Memorial where they have those beautiful Japanese Cherry blossom trees. Autumn in Washington is such a wonderful season to run. Whenever we were running under trees and the wind picked up a little we were sprinkled with a few yellow leaves. During this section of the marathon I really felt at my strongest. I was catching up a lot of people in the 3:20 pace group. Even some 3:10 that dropped off.  We were running along the Potomac River on Ohio Drive around the East Potomac Park all the way out to the Hains point that is just across the river from the Washington Reagan National Airport. When we turned Hains Point to take Ohio Drive along the Washington Channel is when I started feeling really tired. It's funny how 2 miles before I was feeling invincible even though at mile 17 both my feet had blisters burst on me -- a very refreshing experience for the feet. Feet pain was relatively easy to bear but leg muscle pain and general fatigue were something else.

At mile 20 to 22, I was really trying hard to keep my pace at 7:40 but all I could do were upper 7:50s. I knew that was OK though because I was 5 minutes ahead of schedule and there were "only" 3.2 miles left. I also knew that I was not bonking (translation for non runners: hitting the wall, hitting that sudden total depletion of energy) because I had done a good job of eating throughout the race. I was ingesting 330 calories per hour: Powerbars, Gu and PowerGel -- only things that I had trained my stomach on. I did not want to eat anything else offered by the organization like oranges at mile 6.5, bagels at mile 14, Gu at mile 17 (I took one there) and Jelly Beans at mile 24. I was very paranoid about eating and drinking: I would not even take the water offered at non official stations. I only took water from Marines, ate the things I had brought with me and sipped my Herve Aid that run out at mile 23.

Between miles 24.5 and 25.5 the crowd was fantastic. They were literally carrying us with their cheers. Whenever I'd hear "Allez, allez France!" I would wave back as I had done throughout the race, only it was more taxing now. Then the horrible part stared: The hill to the finish. It's not that tough a hill -- the ones in Tallahassee are way tougher -- but at mile 26 it hurts! Mile 26 was very close to the top of the Marine Corps War Memorial. After that it seemed to level off a little and there was some shade. When I crossed the line I cold hardly believe that I broke 3 hours and 27 minutes. I was exhausted but I was elated! I had done it. Even better. 

One of the top things that give me great pleasure is knowing that I gave it 100% of myself. All I could do in the last 1/2 mile was to try and reach the finish line. I had absolutely nothing left to even pick up the pace a little, though I did try. Now all I have to do is sleep a lot (naps are a must), rest, drink and take it easy for a few days. I am so glad that I did not have a plane to catch after the race, I don't know how I would have managed the walking part of traveling, especially the connection in Atlanta.