This was the inaugural Marine Corps Half Marathon, held May 18, 2008 entirely within the city limits of Fredericksburg, VA. They limited the entry to 5000 people, had a course with a few hills (nothing compared to San Francisco) and managed beautiful weather for the event. The expo center was less than a block from our hotel, well organized and although small had the usual gear, food and so forth.
Our TNT walkers from the DC area were well represented, with seventeen alumni there in purple and green to show our colors. Althugh this was not an official TNT event, we all had a great time, including our own private pasta partySaturday night before the race. Homewood Suites gave us a kitchen, complete with pasta pots, so a little "bring your own" and we were eating well.
Kevin Frederici did a great job cooking pasta to go under the sauces provided by Naomi and Tom, Pam Parks and Ellen Cohen brought a salad, John Phillips furnished the bread, Katie Collins made a fine cake for dessert to go with the one Marni Matyac brought, Karen Brooks provided vino, and John Park brought good beer. Guaranteed to be better than any $30/plate banquet center pasta party. Photos of the pasta party and race at http://adobe.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=d4oq73e.c2xg59oa&x=0&y=8gvyc6&localeid=en_US
Sunday morning was sunny and about 60 degrees, with the start/finish line directly in front of our hotel, no buses needed. Most of us started at the back of the pack, since it's not a lot of fun to have the runners elbowing you out of their way, even if we do pass many of them before the finish. Course was well marked, good water stops and other necessities, even later in the race when walkers sometimes find them out of water. A couple of the early stops had not been equipped with rakes or brooms so had more cups on the ground than we like (they get slippery) but even there some of the Marines were picking them up by hand.
Don't know when I've seen so many smiling local residents out to cheer us along, lots of Marines all along the course, and they all seemed to appreciate us being there. The Marines even interviewed a couple of us for the Quantico post, don't know what they will do with those tapes but they surely made us feel welcome. Several of us have already made hotel reservations for next year's event, which will be on May 17, 2009. See you there.
Our TNT walkers from the DC area were well represented, with seventeen alumni there in purple and green to show our colors. Althugh this was not an official TNT event, we all had a great time, including our own private pasta partySaturday night before the race. Homewood Suites gave us a kitchen, complete with pasta pots, so a little "bring your own" and we were eating well.
Kevin Frederici did a great job cooking pasta to go under the sauces provided by Naomi and Tom, Pam Parks and Ellen Cohen brought a salad, John Phillips furnished the bread, Katie Collins made a fine cake for dessert to go with the one Marni Matyac brought, Karen Brooks provided vino, and John Park brought good beer. Guaranteed to be better than any $30/plate banquet center pasta party. Photos of the pasta party and race at http://adobe.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=d4oq73e.c2xg59oa&x=0&y=8gvyc6&localeid=en_US
Sunday morning was sunny and about 60 degrees, with the start/finish line directly in front of our hotel, no buses needed. Most of us started at the back of the pack, since it's not a lot of fun to have the runners elbowing you out of their way, even if we do pass many of them before the finish. Course was well marked, good water stops and other necessities, even later in the race when walkers sometimes find them out of water. A couple of the early stops had not been equipped with rakes or brooms so had more cups on the ground than we like (they get slippery) but even there some of the Marines were picking them up by hand.
Don't know when I've seen so many smiling local residents out to cheer us along, lots of Marines all along the course, and they all seemed to appreciate us being there. The Marines even interviewed a couple of us for the Quantico post, don't know what they will do with those tapes but they surely made us feel welcome. Several of us have already made hotel reservations for next year's event, which will be on May 17, 2009. See you there.
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