Besides eye-balling Rock'n'Roll Virginia Beach next fall, I've found three more races that I'm totally in love with:
The
Lejeune Half Marathon is pretty much what made me want to do a marathon. I did my first race in August 2004. When we first moved to NC, I saw a flier for an
8k Mud Run that I wanted to do so badly, but I thought that there's no way I'd ever be able to survive 5 whole miles of running. The next summer while Chris was in Afghanistan, I started running to get into shape and decided fuck it - I'm signing up for the 8k. I never thought I'd make it past 2 miles, so crossing that 8k finish line was like being reborn. I discovered that the person I thought I was is no match for the one I really am. The next thing I knew, a flyer showed up in my mailbox for a 10k. Well, if I made it 5 miles surely I can do 6. And I finished my first 10k. Then a flyer arrived for a half marathon. No way, everyone told me. You'll hurt yourself, that's too much for you, you'll never make it. So I didn't sign up.
Then I started see people wearing these beautiful long sleeved blue shirts from the half marathon. I wanted one of those shirts. And I realized, I didn't even try. Once again I gave up on myself, once again I let fear control my life and keep me from doing something I wanted to do with my whole heart. I decided, not any more. I made my 2005 New Year's resolution to do the most foolishly impossible thing I could think of - a full marathon. I finished my first half marathon in September 05 and my first full January 06.
Coming back to Lejeune to do the race that got all of this started would be a dream come true.*
The OBX Marathon was started just months after we left NC. I've done marathons in Oregon, Washington (next month), Virginia, and Florida and I'd love to add Cackalacky to that list with OBX :) I've read that the organizers have fixed the major issues with the race. The only major complaint I've come across is the difficult spectators have getting to the finish line. But if I run the marathon, I'll probably be running by myself (the baby -knock on wood- either with a good friend in Jacksonville or at the base day care. Hubby will either be too busy with TBS or in need of a good long weekend of sleep and I understand that).
Beach2Battleship is an Iron distance tri in Wilmington, NC. I love Wilmington! If I were to chose a place to live on the East Coast, Wilmington would be it. I've ran parts of the course doing some 10k's in Wilmington (one of which started my addiction to Bojangles chicken biscuits), so I'd love to be able to come back and run the complete half marathon course. I also really need to replace the 26.2 sticker on the car and I refuse to replace with anything other than a 70.3
Plus - I haven't even scratched the surface of what's going on around Quantico and DC. Marine Corps Marathon is in the fall and I'm sure there's plenty to explore around the base.
Of course, all of this depends on when/if I get pregnant, how much training I'm able to do comfortably while pregnant, how our finances are doing, and when Chris begins TBS in Quantico. We've still got over 9 months before we know where we'll be next year. The Marine Corps has been very good to us with MECEP and being stationed at OSU, we'll just have to see how things work themselves out. As the saying goes, anything that can be changed will be changed until there is no time left to change anything.
Holy flipping crap - I'm getting excited about returning to the fleet :)
I miss the smell of cammies every morning, I miss driving on base to pick up my Marine at odd hours of the day and night, I miss forgetting to bring tip money to the grocery store, I miss KV meetings, I miss watching his LCAC disappear into the ship, I miss having an endless supply of boot bands all over the house, I miss the OWC ladies, I miss going to the beach hoping just to catch a glimpse of the lights on the horizon, I miss homecoming sex, I miss phone calls at 3am where all you get to say is "I love you" before the reception is lost, I miss reading the trashy gossip magazines every Sunday during Hubby's hair cut, I miss scrubbing cammie paint off the tub, I miss knowing that no matter how far away he is I'll always be in his heart, I miss having to translate for our civilian friends, I miss running through fake protesters and real riot squads, I miss the guys in the unit, I miss the incredible liquor selection at every c-store, I miss seeing a movie with a coke and popcorn for $5, I miss stressing out because I can't find the POA, I miss getting hit on everywhere by you go, I miss his smelly PT shirts, I miss every other store being a tattoo parlor, strip club, or pawn shop, I miss SOCEX and CAPEX and TRUEX and all the other EX's, I miss being called Mulkey's Wife, I miss feeling like a family with an entire town...
I just miss being a real Marine wife :(
* I forgot to mention, in 2005 the entire race series for Lejeune was cancelled due to lack of Marines to participate and we left before the race in 2006. I'm not sure why the race organizers thought that OIF3 would make participation so low, or maybe OIF2 made 2004 such bad year they didn't want to try in 2005. Regardless, I never got the chance to run the "one that got away".
