As soon as we crossed the start line, a wave of giddiness washed over me. I was running a marathon! Energy levels were high, the air was brisk, adrenaline was pumping, people were cheering, it was hard NOT to be giddy and excited. Remembering our yoga lessons from the day before, Ben and I started slow, working to wake up our legs and get into a gentle, steady rhythm. Before we knew it, 4 miles had gone by, and we found ourselves running across Roslyn Bridge and into Georgetown. We hadn’t had too many spectators between miles 1 and 4, but Georgetown was awash with people cheering, playing music, etc. The only downside was that this was one of the sections where the course double-backed, so you could see the hard-core runners sprinting back on the other side, which served as a painful reminder that they were so much faster than you, and would finish so much earlier than you.The morning of our marathon we woke up bright and early for a 5:30 am breakfast of bagels and coffee, and then were quickly out the door for a warm-up jog to the metro. Luckily we had a straight shot to Pentagon City on the yellow line, which took us less than 15 minutes. However, we were not prepared for the mass of humanity waiting to exit the metro at our final destination, and it took us another 20 minutes just to get ourselves off the platform, up the escalators, through the exit turnstiles, and out the door of the metro station. We followed the throng of thousands for a mile walk to Runner’s Village, where we watched the Osprey flyover and tandem jump while waiting in a crowd to get through “security,” a half-assed and entirely unneccessary “bag search” that created an annoying traffic jam without really enhancing security in any meaningful way. By the time we got into the Runner’s Village, it was 7:30, only half an hour till the start of the race, and we still had to check bags and wait in the long port-o-potty lines to do some very important business before the race! We decided that two of us would save spots in the bathroom lines, while two ran to check our bags. Taking off our warm clothing was not so much fun, as it was a very nippy morning, but we did and dutifully waited in line while standing in a huddle to keep the wind off us. By the time all 4 of us had finished with the port-o-potty, it was 7:55, five minutes to start! We quickly jogged the 1/4 mile from Runner’s Village to the start line and found our pace corals just as the clock hit 8 and the first runners took off. It took Ben and I another 12 minutes to cross the start line, and then, we were off!!!!

It was between miles 5 and 8 that I began paying attention to other runners. There were certainly a good deal of people in costumes, being that the race was the day before Halloween. Some were dressed as superheros, which worked well with athletic clothing. Others wore costumes that looked tremendously bulky and uncomfortable, including one dressed as a rubber whoopy cushion, and one dressed as Uncle Sam, beard and hat and all. Other runners were carrying random objects, including an oar for rowing. I’m sure these objects held some symbolic significance, I just didn’t ask. And then you had the marines, running with their heavy boots (which I’ve heard are uncomfortable), and 35 pound packs on their backs. Andy said he even saw a marine running with another marine on his back. He didn’t know if they were alternating or if the runner had to carry the other for the whole 26.2 miles. If it was the latter, I’m sure it sucked for both the carrier AND the carryee. In any case, I’ll take a sidebar to note that all the marines present at the MCM, both the runners and volunteers, were super professional, friendly, and impressive people. It was a joy to experience, and I certainly wish everyone in the U.S. armed forces were such exemplar representatives of their country and service, but I know sadly that is not the case.

Between miles 8 and 9 we had finished our northern loop and were running back through Georgetown. Ben and I were still in high spirits and goofing off. At mile marker 9, I gave my phone to Ben to snap a picture of me cheesing in front of the sign with two marines behind so I could tweet it. As you can tell, we were absolutely totally serious hardcore runners. As I was cheesing with my peace signs, I heard someone shout my name. It turned out to be my colleague Patrick, who was also running and only noticed me because of my photo shenanigans. I mean really, who stops to take pictures in the middle of a race? We said hello, and then continued at our separate paces (Ben and I were a bit faster than my colleague). We continued our run south towards the Lincoln Memorial, and that’s when the mob of spectators quadrupled! As we were bending around Ohio Drive in front of the Lincoln Memorial, the space for runners narrowed as the crowd pressed in on the road to cheer us on. I could have stretched out my hands and given high-fives to the spectators on both sides of the path, that’s how close they were pressing in. If they hadn’t been cheering and waving and smiling, it would have been quite suffocating and ominous, but the mood was overwhelmingly exuberant so I don’t think any runners minded the crush.

We had just passed mile ten when I felt it… a sharp pain up my knee. An expletive immediately came to mind, but a few more strides and the pain subsided. However, it was a bad sign to have knee pain so early in the run. A short while later, Ben also admitted to having some ankle pains. We were not even half-way through the race… this was not good at all. Miles 11-13 Ben and I ran mostly in silence, listening to our joints, trying to assess what our bodies were telling us. Was that throb a warning that a muscle was about to tear? Those needle pricks a precursor to a sprain? Our fear was not that we’d injure ourselves, but that we would not be able to finish the race.

Luckily, I had extra-strength advil in my pocket, one for me, one for Ben. As soon as we crossed mile 13, we popped them in, and hoped for the best as we continued along. The trouble with my knee pain was that it hurt the most if I stopped or slowed, and then re-started. So from mile 13 on, I couldn’t slow down for water or snack breaks. Ben, being the good big brother he is, would go off to the side and grab water and snacks for two while I trotted on ahead steadily, and then he would pick up the pace to catch up with me and hand me a cup and food, which I would down while still maintaining a steady pace. He did that for every water and food break for most of the remainder of the race, which of course put him at a disadvantage in terms of maintaining his strength and energy. Thanks Ben!

Andy found us at mile 15, and mostly stayed with us on his bike as we ran around the mall, past the museums, toward the Capitol. He had his camera, and was snapping away, until mile 19, when we were just doubling back from the Capitol, he tried to take a video and discovered there was no memory card in his camera! All this time he had been taking photos, none of the photos had been saved. A pity, but there were of course photos available to purchase. from mile 15 to 20, things went fairly steadily for Ben and I, although Ben had to exert more energy and speed for all the snacks and water he was bringing to me. All that extra effort finally took a toll on Ben between mile 20 and 21, just as we made it onto the Bridge back over to Virginia. His ankle and calves were hurting, and he had to stop and stretch. Unfortunately, I knew if I stopped, I wouldn’t be able to restart with my bum knee, and very apologetically abandoned Ben on the bridge. The bridge was the worst part of the run for me, not just because I was separated from my running partner. Mentally, you are rejoicing at the fact that you only have a 10k left to run, but also cursing the fact that you still have a 10k to run. Plus, you are on a long concrete slab of a bridge, with only the concrete city of Roslyn looming ahead of you, not very emotionally inspiring. Plus, there were no spectators on the bridge, they’d been routed to a pedestrian path, which meant no cheering for motivation, and also meant I didn’t have Andy pedaling within sight to give some comfort. That was the longest mile of the run.

I finally got to the other side, but couldn’t find Andy. All I could do was steel myself and run the last five miles through Crystal City and back toward Roslyn by myself. I spent miles 21 through 23 reciting a mantra in my head to the rhythm of my feet slapping the pavement, “smooth and steady….smooth and steady.”

At mile 22 my stomach began gurgling. It didn’t feel so great. For a mile I debated whether I should stop and use a port-0-potty, or steel myself and finish the race. At mile 23 I noticed a band of port-o-potties with no one standing in line for them, and took it as a sign I should use the restroom now. I thanked the MCM gods that I had paid attention at the First Timers Pep Rally and brought along a “poopy pack” (extra tissues), because there was indeed no toilet paper left in the stall. My knee was not happy at having to start up again after that break, but I pushed through the initial pain and got back into rhythm for the last 3.2 miles. “smooth and steady….smooth and steady.” Finally, after what seemed like ages, I got to mile 25, the point of no return. As I was passing under a bridge, I heard someone yell my name from the other side of the road. Andy had found me! He had been looking for me since he was detoured at the bridge. The last full mile was a straight long road, which allowed Andy to bike beside me on the other side of the grassy meridian. I had mixed feelings about his presence, glad that he was there, self-conscious about my running speed. I wasn’t about to slow down to a walk, but his presence ensured that I’d keep my pace as fast as I could. Finally, mile 26 arrived, .2 more!! I pushed up a final hill, a bend, surrounded by swarms of people, lost Andy, and finally, the finish line! I jumped across the finish line, too elated to even look at the time on the clock.

And then I was stuck. The finishing pen was PACKED. I couldn’t move. I was shoulder to shoulder with others who had spent the last 4.5 hours running, only to find themselves at a stand still in a crowd with no space to cool down or stretch. Everyone at least was in good spirits after finishing, but I felt bewildered and lost. Another crowd again. How would I find Ben? I was the only one who had a phone. How long till I could see Andy? He had disappeared in the crowd outside the finishers coral. The reason for the logjam was that a row of marines were personally putting medals around the necks of every finisher and shaking his/her hand. A very nice touch, but slow-going when there are 30,000 runners. I got past the initial logjam, and found a cinder block to stand on as I waited and scanned for Ben inside the finishers coral. Every passing minute made me worry whether Ben’s injuries had been so bad that he couldn’t finish, but in less than ten minutes I had found him coming up through the throng of finishers. We took some victory photos, got our gatorade and bananas, and finally found Andy.

And then we tried to get home. Andy had his bike, so he left us on that. Our initial plan was to take the metro, but it was too packed to even get inside the station. Then we saw a line for the bus, which we decided was also too long. The taxi line was longer. Our only course of action was to walk to a point where we could get on some sort of transportation. So, after having run 26.2 miles (on top of the 2 miles that it took for us to get to the start line), we walked another 1.5 miles over Roslyn Bridge and through Georgetown, where Mom and Dad came to get us. Thanks parents!

All in all, Ben and I covered about 30 miles on foot that day. Here’s to our next marathon in Las Vegas in December!

This race is a point to point race to take advantage of running over the Potomac River via the Woodrow Wilson bridge. We were all bussed out of overflow parking at National Harbor the full 14 miles to Mount Vernon where the race started in order to run back. This meant logistical complications, but somehow we met our number one goal- finding the shortest line at the port-a-potties. Because of the cold morning, race officials started handing out mylar blankets– which were nice, except that there were none left at the end of the race when I was well and truly cold!

Devi and I ran together for the most part- which leads to some interesting questions about our times. We both crossed the 5 and 10 mile splits at the same time, yet my time is 44 seconds slower than Devi’s? Devi did take off after the last 3/4 of a mile in order to beat 2 hours, so our finish times should be different, but not that different. In addition, as you can see, Devi’s chip time and gun time are corrected for the time it took us to cross the starting line, so are Lala and Kylee’s, but mine are not? For that reason, I’m going to place my time at 2:00:28, unfortunately still not under 2 hours, but a bit closer- and that is the time to beat next year!

Kylee and Lala also ran this race last year- and they both beat last year’s times. Because last year was the first annual Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon- I think they have to make this a thing and run it for the next 50 years!

Mom seemed really excited when attending our races at the beginning of this year, and confident that she could also compete in them. We convinced her to put her money where her mouth was, and got her registered for the EC5k. Good friend and training partner, Nan Jefferies then jumped in to support her in training and compete herself! They had been training together for a few months before this race.

There were 244 finishers at the EC5K. The winning time was 17:29.4 and the last finisher came in at 61:02.4. The course was an extremely tough one- mostly downhill to start the race, but then a 167 foot climb in 1.44 miles, the total uphill elevation change for the race was 289 feet! At many parts in the race, runners went head to head, as the trail was split into two- even with less than 250 runners, this posed a challenge to those squarely in the middle of the race!

So what’s next? A 10k! Mom and Nan have already started training for the Clyde’s 10k, but they might also participate in a moonlight 10k, and the Baltimore Running Festival 5k.

Devi finished well ahead of her goal time of 2:30, although she wasn’t too thrilled to not come in ahead of me! Her run was definitely her strongest sport and the swim time wasn’t bad either. She was slightly handicapped on the bike, having not been used to either climbing or clipping in. I suspect this time will decrease rapidly for her next triathlon, especially when she starts bike training.

Kylee also did an excellent job on her first triathlon. She was a little worried about the swim portion of the race, but handled it with easy by taking her time and remaining calm. Her best event was clearly the bike, which she owned at a 15 mph pace! She PR’d the course, but she’ll have to beat her Celebration time come Iron Girl, when she’ll be in the water yet again for the same exact course!

Check out an awesome video from the race! Celebration Triathlon Trailer

The Columbia is about double the distance as the Nanticoke race- 1.5 km swimming, 40 km biking, and 10 km running — 51.5 grueling kilometers (0.93 miles swimming, 24.85 miles biking, 6.21 miles running). This qualifies the Columbia as an “Olympic” distance event, as opposed to the sprint event I did at Bivalve. There are also Ironman and Half-Ironman distances, but those are a little crazy. A full Ironman is 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run. Half Ironman is half of that. Maybe I’ll get to those distances one day, but not this year!

This was also our first official Team Fight race, so Lala and I had to raise money for it. Thanks again to everyone who donated this go around! For those of you that didn’t, don’t worry, there are still another couple of Team Fight races coming up that you can get involved with! The next Team Fight race is the Celebration Triathlon on June 24– Devi is also competing in this race, so that should be a lot of fun.

Spectators at this race included Devi, Mom, Dad, Kylee, Jen, and Winston- so it was a pretty good crowd. It was also a gorgeous day for it- one of the first races in a long time that hasn’t been plagued with rain. Of course, Lala, Kylee, and I got there at 530 in the morning, so we didn’t really notice the weather, as we were busy being nervous and getting ready for the race!

My race started off with a hitch- namely, I lost my timing chip. So I had to get a new one, and that made me worried my time wouldn’t be official. Luckily I did end up finding my original chip! The swim was great, it felt really good to be in the water, and I swam it really well I think. The bike was also a lot of fun, if hilly. I may have taken it a little too hard, and I forgot one of my three nutritions, because at around mile 4.5 on the run, I bonked hard. My pace on the run slowed from 9:15 min/mile to about 12 min/mile. That was really disappointing, because I might have beat three hours (and my goal was 3:30, which Lala made). But still, it was a good time for a first race.

Now I feel like a real triathlete!

Race Result

There may be some video coming later, but I haven’t quite gone through it yet to see.

Some pictures from the race:

Needless to say, today’s race was a pretty good experience. Chris and Dad joined me and we spent the night in Salisbury, MD preparing for the race and eating Olive Garden. Bright and early we headed down to Bivalve to rack the bike and set up the transition area. Coffee and hydration later, we watched the kids head out on their triathlon, and it was pretty cool to see them going for it. I think that my kids are going to have to participate in a few tris!

After stuffing myself into my wetsuit, I all of a sudden found myself in the water with 30 other people and the race siren going. After getting kicked in the face quite a few times (and probably kicking a few faces myself) I finally managed to get my stroke and it was no time before I was out at the first buoy.

The real race started on the Bike- the Bivalve area is flat and that means super speed on the bike. There were a group of 7 of us that kept surging and trying to get past each other. I stayed in my biggest chain for the entire ride, and in the aero position and averaged around 26 mph for most of the race! It was super fun!

The problem was that getting off the bike and into the run was pretty tough after that. I barely got into my stride, and everyone I passed on the swim and bike probably passed me again on the run- so it’s clear what I have to work on. But my time was much better than expected, and I’m totally stoked to be a triathlete!

Race Result

Pictures are up on Picasa: https://picasaweb.google.com/bbengfort/NanticokeTriathlon

Videos are currently on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/bbengfort#grid/user/9DDAABDCC51D7D7F

All three Bengfort.com participants beat their goal times solidly. Devi was attempting a 54 minute 10k, Ben a 56 minute one, and Mike a 75 minute 10k. The race was a relaxed affair and everyone felt pretty good throughout the run, except perhaps during the giant hill on 108 and the final climb on Little Patuxent to the finish line.

The full race results can be found at striders.net. Our personal race results are below:

Ben's Marathon Race Results

Beci's Marathon Race Results

Ben and Beci Finish the Fargo Marathon

Beci and I completed the Fargo half-marathon on Saturday this week, and actually both of us smoked it! Beci finished in 2:08:15 – which is less than a 10 min/mile pace! I finished in 2:32:45- which is an 11:36 min/mile pace- but considering that I only started running in February, and the most I’ve run since then is 5 miles- I feel pretty good about it! For those of you who don’t know- a half marathon is 13.1 miles, and it was pretty miserable the entire way, but also lots of fun.

One thing about Fargo marathons- it was cold! It was 33 degrees when we got to the race, and it couldn’t have gotten much higher than 45 the entire morning. Luckily I made it in before the rain started- but the poor marathoners got a dose of some cold water from the sky. I never got warm the entire race, even though I was moving (I did the first 7 miles in 70 minutes!) but I spilt a lot of water on myself since I took the water at pace, and that probably didn’t help much.

I can’t speak for Beci- but I think racing in that kind of environment is a lot of fun. There was a ton going on- Elvis impersonators, bands, lots of cheering crowds. It made it more fun than just boring running. The course wasn’t great since it was a loop- I actaully was passed by the first two marathoners that placed (they ran the marathon in about 2:20), but it was still a good environment to run in. I had a great time!

So now, I am just soaked in Ben Gay and waiting to recover!

Ben Marathon Finish

Beci Marathon Finish