You have no idea how close I came to not even showing up to the 2026 Marine Corps Marathon.
A DIFFERENT SORT OF RACE RECAP
This is going to be a different sort of race recap, one more focused on my personal experiences than the ins and outs of the course. Incidentally, said course remains basically the same, so if that’s what you’re looking for, please check out one of my other Marine Corps Marathon race recaps.
Here I’d instead like to talk about the run-up to the race, all the reasons I could’ve easily thrown in the towel before I even left the house, and the suspected psychology behind it all. Do you experience gastrointestinal issues when anxious? Let’s talk!
IT’S BEEN QUITE AN OCTOBER
I’m having a bit of a stressful October. Believe it or not, when I say stressful, I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way! Just a lot going on, some of which was unexpected and all of which slowly snowballed.
The end result being that I wound up with a rapid-fire slate of to-dos within the course of less than two weeks. First I had to fly to NC for my grandmother’s memorial service; then I jetted to DC for a couple days with my work team; next the Marine Corps Marathon that weekend; and finally off to Universal Studios for Halloween Horror Nights.
I had solid plans for all of it… but my digestive system was not on board.
THE TROUBLES BEGIN
It all started the night before my flight black to Puerto Rico from North Carolina. For some reason my stomach started absolutely roiling and continued all night. I felt better when I woke up in the morning and was able to fly back to PR without incident. Over the course of the next couple days things improved, although I still wasn’t particularly hungry. Still, I felt well enough to continue on to DC and pass a few uneventful days on site at my job.
Then I headed over to Erika’s house to prepare for MCM – and on Friday night, things took a distinctive turn for the worse. On Saturday – crucially the day before the race – I could barely eat. Over the course of the entire day I had an apple, some fruit snacks, two pieces of bread, and some cantaloupe. I tried to get down a Pop Tart but could only manage a quarter. Not exactly good marathon fueling.
That night the stomach issues persisted. I even threw up a bit of bile around midnight, at which point I considered calling Pat because I knew he’d encourage me to pull myself from the race. After I threw up, however, I felt a bit better, so I decided to wait until my alarm went off and see where things stood.
TIME FOR MY SEVENTH MARINE CORPS MARATHON QUESTION MARK?
And when that fateful alarm went off at the runDisney-could-never hour of 4:40am, I felt… okay. Not great, but okay enough to try, I figured. The Marine Corps Marathon has robust course support with multiple med tents, so I knew it would be simple enough to pull myself from the course if warranted. I went ahead and got myself ready, albeit minus some of the fun glitter and braids I had planned. And in a fit of pessimism or pragmatism or both, I packed my health insurance card just in case. That’s where my head was.
At this juncture longtime readers may be thinking: wait. I feel like I’ve heard some variation of this story before. Good memory! You have! This is almost beat for beat what happened before my 2026 WDW Marathon in January. Hold that thought; we’ll circle back to it.
Erika wasn’t running this year, so instead of driving she dropped me off at the Metro. I was surrounded by runners in good spirits, which was nice but also felt strange from my little puddle of fear.
AND WE’RE OFF
It’s a long walk from the Pentagon station to the start line, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. By the time I got out of my pre-race porta potty stop the race was already starting. That was fine as I was back in corral 10, and it meant I didn’t have much time to stew.
After the usual rigmarole, including the Osprey flyover, the race was off. I crossed the start line just under half an hour later, and felt immediately tired. I wasn’t sick at least, but I didn’t feel great. Hmmm.
I had already worked it out with myself that if I needed to pull myself from the course, I would. I told Pat and I told Erika and I told Kate. Heck, I told Instagram.
And then it got really weird.
I started to feel better.
MY MARATHON RE-RAVELS
I wasn’t 100%, of course – how could I be? Minimal sleep and almost no food for days hardly set me up for success. And did I mention I’d been having some trouble with my hip flexor lately? Yet for some reason as the miles ticked by I grew more energized. The Marine Corps Marathon has so much collective effervescence, both in the field and in the many, many spectators; I think that helped me. I kept down all my gels and even some magnificent spectator-provided Coke (!!!). By the time I hit the Blue Mile of fallen veterans and the halfway mark I even started to believe that maybe I could finish.
Indeed, while I was slow, I was holding surprisingly steady. Under the circumstances I chose to take a brief walk break more or less every quarter mile, which probably sounds like a lot but if you recall I was pretty freaking nervous. 😅 This somehow resulted in one of the most consistently paced marathons I’ve ever run??? Every disaster a learning experience – that’s the runner’s motto, right?
A MARATHON COURSE I KNOW WELL
Soon enough I was running the National Mall, another MCM course highlight. Here I managed to miss Kate twice, which while disappointing was a fun throwback to my first-ever MCM when I failed to locate Pat. The Mall is CROWDED. Check out her nifty sign, though!
Then it was the dreaded 14th Street Bridge, where I met with mile 20, continuing to trudge along with my little homemade intervals. Admittedly even this gentle pace was starting to feel like work this far into the distance. Thankfully the roaring crowds of Crystal City awaited me – my personal favorite part of the race!
Finally, by some miracle, only a handful of miles lay between me and the end of the road. My IT band began to complain, forcing me to walk a little more, but at the point there was no question in my mind that I could finish. I bagged my second Mr. Incredible high five of the day in the tunnel, stopped for a mile 26 pic, and blasted as best I could up the very mean hill to the finish. Marathon #24 done.
And I was fine???
Oh, I was tired, naturally, and my body was still off from the affects of not eating or sleeping, but my digestive system wasn’t upset at all. I collected my medal and snack box and such without incident and wandered out into the post-race area as I turned things over in my mind.
And I think I know what’s going on here. I think the problem really is all in my head.
MIND OF A MARATHONER
Not to armchair diagnose myself, but the pattern has now repeated twice: the night before both the WDW Marathon and Marine Corps Marathon, my digestive system locked up. In both cases, I decided to try anyway, half-convinced I would have to pull myself off the course. In both cases, I was able to not only complete the race, but by the time I finished the digestive issues were kaput. I can’t have been sick; if I were sick, attempting to run 26.2 miles would hardly help. It’s got to be psychological.
What perplexes me, however, is that there’s no clear trigger. In neither case did I have any specific thoughts that started me down the road to panic town. I’ve run plenty of marathons – heck, plenty of WDW and Marine Corps Marathons – so it can’t be fear of the unknown. And I’ve gotten pretty good at beating back more traditional panic attacks. Sure, I was a bit stressed, but nothing went actively wrong. I am at a loss here.
Ultimately, I think what I need to do is talk to my doctor – because I have had quite enough of this experience. I love running marathons, but not if every one of them is ushered in by a physical breakdown! Er, I don’t suppose there’s any chance that simply by acknowledging the problem I’ve fixed it…?
LIVE TO MARATHON ANOTHER DAY
Well, I’ll tell you this much: I’m not giving up. Running a marathon is so hard, particularly a non-runDisney marathon. It is also the most fun I’ve ever had. I may never be fast, but I deserve to feel and perform with the best I’ve got. I’m not letting my brain take that away from me without a fight.
So that was my 2026 Marine Corps Marathon. It was not what I hoped it would be… but it did happen, and at midnight the night before I was putting real thought into not even showing up. Clearly I have a strong mental game of sorts – I just gotta figure out how to get the rest of my psyche on board.
I hope this rambling pseudo-race recap was at least mildly entertaining. Perhaps as a reward you might drop any advice you have in the comments? And if you, too, suffer from race nerves, know that you are not alone and WE WILL BEAT THIS. Okay? I’ll do it if you promise to do it too!
Let’s close it out on a high note: my nieces showed up at the finish with signs just for me. They sure do know what I like!
Don’t forget, you can follow FRoA on Threads @fairestrunofall and on Instagram @fairestrunofall. If you have any questions or thoughts, leave a comment or email fairestrunofall@gmail.com. See ya real soon!