Well, after all the stress I decided to put on myself, and the lack of sleep, the event turned out pretty damn good when all was said and done. The perfectionist that I am, I wanted hundreds of people to attend and 50 or more runners to join along, but really, I couldn't have asked for a better turnout. The Thursday and Friday leading up to this thing was filled with ups and downs that I expected (like my volunteers, all of them, bailing on me) and that I didn't expect (like my musician bailing). But in the end, the whole thing went off smoothly and, while I always expect great things from myself, realistically it was a "huge" success given what I had to work with.
But then they started to show up. one by one really. And at 7:28, we had 10 total runners, all in their Riding With Courage Marathon shirts ready to go. We huddled together just outside the back entrance to the studio, I thanked them all for coming, we took a couple pictures, and we took off, 7:31, just one minute behind schedule. The course that my good friend James designed led us down 14th street towards the mall. Around the Capital, back through the mall, up passed the White House and onto Dupont Circle for the first 10 miles. We were all having a blast, talking, taking pictures, enjoying the perfect running weather and each other. The couple road bumps were hardly noticeable. First, we missed our first aid station. The guys I was able to round up last minute came in a little late and when I left the intersection for the first spot, I left it in the wrong region (as in, North East when it was really South East). It wasn't that big of a deal really, but it caused a little confusion. I knew the second aid station would be impossible to confuse. The next was our run up the long steps at the Lincoln Memorial. We were already starting to get a little distracted by our many photo op stops and I could definitely hear some grumblings as we trudged up the steps about 7 miles into the run. When we got to the top I started to give James a hard time for adding all the steps, but he said he had nothing to do with this decision. Turned out, one of the runners thought it would be a perfect photo to add to our collection. Well, it actually was a great photo, but I knew that I would be feeling those steps come mile 20. Little did I know that I had much worse in terms of challenges coming my way.
The big pick-me-up came in form a my Dad though. Just a few blocks from the start, he came screeching up in his car, yelling his support to all of us (scaring the crap out of a few of the runners) while snapping off pictures. The best part, he drove the entire course, the entire time, supporting us all. What a damn cool guy he is.
At Dupont, mile 10, all the runners broke off to go their seperate directions while James, my friend Amy and myself kept on. We grabbed a couple extra waters from the guys at the aid station, and headed up the long hill of Mass Ave. From there, we cut down Wisconson and headed through Georgetown until we got to our first fully organized aid station at lululemon, just about mile 13. They had a table set up with water and Gatorade, they were flashing off pics and giving us some great words of encouragement. A couple friends were there as well and they agreed to meet up at the next aid station to join in for the run. James and I set off to what would end up being the most "interesting" portion of the journey.
At this point we were actually about 10 minutes ahead of schedule, but once we hit Rock Creek Park things changed fast. We broke off the paved trail and hit the woods, the dirt path turned to rock and at one point, we actually had to scale a full 15-20 feet of sheer rock. This crazy path lead us for a little over a mile or so and when we broke out of the woods onto Connecticut Ave I realized we were south of Van Ness, meaning, about 3 miles from our next aid station. At this point we were already about 20 minutes behind schedule somehow and I started to freak out. I felt a ton of responsibility to be back on time as I was the organizer and host of this event. But James reminded me that I was out on the road now, and all I could do was enjoy the run. He was totally right, I needed to chill out, enjoy my time, and know that everything would be all good.We got to the next aid station at The Running Company about 30 minutes behind schedule but we were greeted by a energetic crowd and some great refreshments. The two other runners joined in and we headed back on the 7-mile, mostly downhill journey to the finish line. I was tired. My head was bobbing, my sight was a little fuzzy, but luckily, my muscles were ok. So we kept on moving through the final miles until we found ourselves on the home stretch. As we approched Balance Gym Thomas Circle, we could see the crowd of people standing there waiting. It was a rush, and an absolute blessing to have that many people come out to show their support, not only to me, but to all the runners and of course, the great cause as well.
The next couple hours were great, people hung out and chatted, snacked on the great food, and I housed around 5 Honest Teas. All in all, I am so happy that people came out and people ran and that we were able to have a good response like that. It makes me really excited for the next event because I know, with the time I have to prepare, this next one will be much, much bigger.After the weekends events, we were able to raise about $1500, bringing our combined total money raised for the Children's Miracle Network to $6500!
I will be posting up a few more pics as the next post, along with a couple videos (I hope!) of the event this past weekend. Thanks again for everyone who came out! And keep checking this site (and your email) for new info.
Thanks everyone for your support!
Josh Courage
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