Ultimate Family Death March Part 1

As Jody mentioned the other day, this weekend 6 members of the Culkin family completed the Marine Corps Marathon--Billy, Eric, Marc, Kym, Molly, and me. For those of you who know me pretty well, but didn't know I was doing this, well, I wasn't fully committed until about two weeks before the fact. Molly knew I had registered, however, and kept sending me encouraging (threatening?) e-mails letting me know I was going to be running Oct. 29. A variety of health issues, as well as the summer of many critical events (both happy and sad) left me way behind in my training, so I wasn't too sure about this. Also, going to Argentina and eating steak and gelato for 10 days is not really a great way to train for a marathon. (Training for a marathon, however, is a good way to lose the weight you gain eating steak and gelato in Argentina.) Anyway, I promised myself if I could complete the 20 mile training run, I would do the marathon. And with that run down, I was in . . .

On Saturday morning, I took the 7 AM bus to DC. The movie was Bringing Down the House, which is really weird. I was supposed to meet the rest of the crew--who had arrived the day before--at the Armory, where we could pick up our race bibs and attend the Expo. The DC bus depot always seems like a kind of scary place, and when a taxi driver came up to me, I wasn't sure if I should get in the cab--in New York, there is a taxi line at the bus and train stations, and only rogue drivers come up to you. Then, he told me I wasn't allowed to put my backpack on the seat and had to put in the trunk. Anyway, the cab did seem to be a real cab, and so I got in, but I did have my hand on my cell phone. Obviously, everything was fine, and the driver and I had a nice talk about politics and horrors of the Republican Party. He said, "You would not believe the things I have heard driving people on the Hill." When I said he should tape then, the driver replied, "No way. I do that and they have someone take me over to the ghetto and shoot me, then say, 'That poor cab driver--he got killed when someone held him up.'" He probably has a point.

At the Armory, there was a huge line to get in. I couldn't get anyone on their cell phones, so I got on line. I had my backpack, so standing around for 30 minutes really wasn't too much fun. (Molly said later when she did this race 2 years ago it was incredibly well-organized, but now that all the Marines are in Iraq, there are not personelle to help keep the race running smoothly.) The line did move pretty quickly and soon enough I had my bib, timing chip, and hideous race mustard yellow mock turtleneck (seriously, it may be the ugliest piece of clothing I have ever owned.) Eventually, through the wonders of cell phones, we all met up and had a group picture taken for free at the Tylenol 8 Hour booth--I'll post it when it becomes available (an estimated 72 hours after the event.)

With Molly as our tour guide, we took the Metro to get some lunch. Afterwards, everyone but me set off on a Family Death March of another sort, to see the Jefferson Memorial, which owes its existence in part to our great grandfather Francis Dugan Culkin. I headed off to the hotel for some rest and some ice therapy. I had hoped to sleep, but watched Walk the Line instead.



We all wanted to carbo load for dinner and Molly had a great Italian restaurant in mind. Unfortunately, there was some confusion over our reservation or lack there of, or something, so we choose another one nearby. But on our way out, the desk clerk told us it was a notoriously horrible place and gave us another recommendation. We were pretty big party at this point--not only the six runners, but 5 friends of the various Culkins and Necks. The food was fine and we had a great time, but there was a mysterious 45 minute wait between the appetizers and main course. Any other night it would have been less annoying, but we all really wanted to get to sleep and we didn't leave the restaurant until after 10. Luckily it was the night to "Fall Back," so we got the extra hour of nightime. Marc and I shared a room, and before falling asleep we watched a little of the Dave Chappell Show and discussed how we both in denial about the fact we were going to run 26.2 miles the next day.

Molly taking care of dinner plans

William, Billy, and Marc

Eric and I

Coming Up: The Big Event.