50th Marine Corps Marathon - Washington DC. Oct 23-Oct 27

 More blog catching up to do!

The Marine Corps marathon was one of the marathons that I signed up for in 2025 because it was the 50th year of the marathon.  I figured that because it was a special year, the race would be extra special.  And it went along with my 50th year as well!

I left for Ronal Regan Airport late on Oct 23.  Got into DC just fine and then took an Uber to my hotel.  My hotel was super nice and I was very pleased with it!  I was just south of the national mall and 3ish miles from the start of the race.  Luckily, Lime has a huge presence in DC, so it was super easy to find scooters and bikes to rent. Besides a couple of Uber rides, most of the time I was walking or scootering all over the place :D 

Landing at Ronald Regan Airport.

Entrance to my hotel  Highly recommend!

I was so happy with my room!  I had a full kitchen so I could make food easy

The next morning, I took an Uber to the race expo at Gaylord National Convention Center.  It was too far for met to scoot there!  At the expo I got my bib and shirt.  I looked later and saw that the 2025 race was the MCM's largest one yet with over 40k runners!

There was a lot of testosterone flowing at the expo. haha

A nice lady took my picture for me.

After I got my race packet and ate lunch, I took an uber back into DC because I had tickets to attend the Holocaust Museum.  To avoid the crowds at the expo, I had walked a little bit away so I could catch an Uber more easily.  I was standing outside of this hotel all by myself, when my uber showed up.  I got in, we said hi and then took off.  About 1 minute into the drive, someone called my uber driver.  He starts freaking out and saying "are you heading to the airport?".  I'm like, NO!'.  So, what had happened is that I got into the wrong uber!!!.  The uber driver turned around real quick and I was able to get into my correct uber, who was waiting there for me.  When I got out of the wrong uber, I saw the guy standing there completely pissed.  I said I was sorry, but he wasn't having it.  Whatever...I'm sure he was mad because he was late and he wasn't outside waiting for his uber like he should have been!! Anyway, lesson learned!  Even if you are the only one waiting for an uber, make sure you get into the right car!!

I have been to many Holocaust museums, but I always learn and see new information that I have never seen before. 

I thought it very strange to think that I have been to this exact same place in Germany where the Nazi's held rallies.  The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

This is a real rail car that was used to transport Jewish prisoners to the camps.

I have been to the Auschwitz concentration camp and I have seen piles of shoes taken from the Jewish prisoners.  The one thing that I didn't remember from Auschwitz was the smell.  These shoes were not completely sealed behind a wall.  The glass wall was open at the top and you could smell all the shoes.  That made it seem very real and it hit you a lot harder.

It was a total coincidence that I was here at the same time that this woman was here telling her story.  I could not believe my luck of getting to hear her story!  She talked about how her parents shipped her and her brother to America to save them.  It wasn't until a year or so later that I think they were reunited with their parents.  She talked about how she would have to interpret between German and English for some soldiers.  It was quite a moving story.  It's also a stark reminder that there are not a lot of people left to tell their stories from WWII.

I had no idea that this is as close as you can get to the White House!  There are so many layers of fences and barriers.  I wouldn't dare to anything in the slightest because the streets were teaming with gun wielding police.  I don't know if that is 'typical' for around the White House for security purposes or if there was more of a presence because of the government shut down or other factors.

I honestly thought I would see more nonsense around the White House but I didn't.  There was this guy selling MAGA hats, but that was it.  Everyone was minding the Ps and Qs.

When I was in DC, they were working on the big White House Ball room.  There were fences all around and they were 'blacked out' so you could not see the construction.  All you could see was the tall equipment over the top of the fences (like cranes).  These news people had ladders with them to try and get footage of the construction over the fences!

I had never been to DC or the White House before.  I had no idea that each station had a covered 'shed' where they could wait for the president to come out of the White House and film.

What this picture doesn't capture is the smell of the old house.  I could smell this house just by walking by the open store door.  It smelled like cold, old, wet stone.

I just happen to be there when the government was shut down. It didn't really affect me too much

If you recognize these stairs, then you were a child of the 80s/90s watching horror movies on VHS at your friend's sleepover.

Today was the day I grabbed a scooter to head to the Ford's theater tour.

I have no words for this, but here we are

Tour guide Shane. So, the one disappointing thing about the shutdown was that my walking tour of DC was affected.  I was supposed to get to tour the Ford Theater where Lincoln was shot. BUT, the Ford Theater is considered a government entity, so we were not able to go inside.  I was so annoyed....until we had an amazing surprise at the end!

The shocking thing about this picture is that we were told Lincoln was 56 when this was taken.

If I recall, this was at one time a public well for water

Just a cool mural. 

Because we could not go inside the Ford Theater, our tour guide took us to a place that we could go in.  This building was discovered by accident to be Clara Barton's original office where the Red Cross was established.

I'm in the upstairs looking down. The history of this building was lost over time. At some point, the owners of the build 'walled off' the upstairs because it did not meet the new building codes.  Then in the late 90s, the current owner was going to tear down the building. HOWEVER, he decided to 'just have a look' in the upstairs. That's when they discovered historical items that appeared to belong to Clara Barton. They called in historians and discovered that this building had been her original office to tend to soldiers who had been injured in the civil war. The entire upstairs had been perfectly preserved for over 100 years!

Wish I could remember what this shelf was used for.  I do know it was original though

The historians took samples of the original wall paper to a manufacturer to have them replicate how the rooms were originally wall papered.  They put plastic caps over inscriptions, like the example above, to preserve as much as possible

clothing, socks, shoes, letters, gun pieces were among the items that they found in this walled off floor.

They also accidentally found stuff up in that attic space

This was our entire tour group!

Building across the street from the theater. This was where Lincoln died, but only the facade is original now.  It's a flipping gift shop as of 2026

The outside of the Ford theater.  I was a little sad that we weren't able to go inside, but after talking to our tour guide, I found out that so much of it has been redone multiple times over that nothing on the inside is really original, so I wasn't bummed about it.  I learned that "our American Cousin" was the name of the play Lincoln was watching.  Booth's plan was to originally kidnap the president, but then his plans changed. Booth thought that if he could kill the president, he will get the confederacy back to being 'number one'.  He was ultimately the murderer, but there were many co-conspirators who were involved and some of them served at the prison in the Dry Tortugas

I had to take a picture of this. haha

At the Vietnam memorial, there are books where you can look up peoples name so you can find them on the wall.

The wall is much larger then I thought.  You can't wrap your head around how many thousands of names are on this wall.

A lot of soldiers put their boots along the wall. It's a very heavy and emotional place to stand

You are allowed to take rubbings from the wall.  they have nice paper and an envelop for you to keep your rubbing inside.

It was really emotional seeing Vietnam veterans meeting up to visit the wall.  They would have their jackets on....they would hug....and all walk to the wall together.

My dad had a couple of friends from High school who were killed in Nam.  He gave me their names, I looked up where they were on the wall and had a volunteer do a rubbing for me.  I gave these to my dad the next time I saw him

Lot of people hanging around the Lincoln memorial.  Even saw some tiktok dancers...lord help me

Korean War memorial

This cemetery is HUGE!!!  Just white stones laid out across these mowed fields

Where the Kennedy's are buried

Placing flowers on the tomb of the unknown soldier

I just happened to be there when they were doing a ceremony.  These men just happen to be from Michigan

What I did learn, is that one of the tombs are empty now.  One of the people in the tomb had been identified by DNA in the late 90s.  The family of that person had them exhumed and sent back to Minneapolis or something. 

The most hilarious thing I did in Washington was rent a Lime scooter to get to the start of the marathon, which was at Arlington cemetery.  All the streets were empty and closed for the marathon when I started my ride to the start.  I decided to just 'scoot' down the center of the street. It was kind of fun!

Start of the marathon!

If I remember correctly, this is called the Blue Mile.  It's dedicated to all the service men and women lost in service.  Every flag represents a person.  Again, very emotional.

Running by the Capital!

As we ran by the Pentagon...we were around 22ish miles in.  I was so tired and delirious I literally thought to myself, "What the heck is this giant building we are running by!"

The Finish!

End at the Marine Corps Iwo Jima Memorial.  It's a very emotional finish.  The last 0.25miles of the race, both sides of the street are lined with Marines clapping and cheering for you.  And a Marine places the medal around your neck when you cross the line.  It feels very humbling to have a Marine telling you how amazing you are.  I hugged the Marine that gave me my medal! haha.  This was such an amazing run!  And the most well organized race ever! haha

After the run though, it was soooo difficult getting back to my hotel.  Once you left the race corral, it was a cluster of people trying to get out.  The public transportation was swamped with people.  Road access was closed.  It sucked.  So, I started walking.  I ended up back at the Exorcist stairs and tried to call an Uber.  But because of closed roads and 40k other runners trying to uber, I couldn't get a ride.  SO, I started walking again...I was about 5 miles away from my hotel at that point.  I walked a little bit, and came across a Lime scooter.  So I started scooting...the battery was low, so I had to switch scooters halfway back.  I scooted FIVE MILES to get back to my hotel.  That alone was harder than the marathon itself!!!  

All of my swag from the 50th Marine Corps Marathon!

So...while I was in DC I just used Lime scooters and bikes the whole time.  the first night I was on a Lime electrical bike when I fell off of it.  To be fair, the bikes are very heavy because of the batteries.  I knew it hurt when I fell, but I had no idea how deep the bruise was until about 3 days later when it reached it peak purpleness! After I fell, I only used the Lime scooters from then on.  Easy to use and easier to handle.

It was an amazing race and I'm so happy I got to run the 50th anniversary of it. I would run this again in a heartbeat!!!