I have a few questions about the Marine Corps Marathon that the website doesnt seem to answer, if anyone has info I would appreciate it.
-It appears the entry is either first come/first serve or a lottery with no guarenteed entry, is that true?
-If it is first come first serve, how quickly does it fill out?
-I am hoping to run 2:30 and a friend is shooting for 2:40, are there corrals/seeded sections, or do you have to just fight your way to the front?
-General thoughts on the race.
Marine Corps is extremley light on sub 2:40 runners. Check out recent results. You and your buddy will be running most of that race alone unless you get lucky. I'd look elsewhere for a fall marathon.
-If you were going for 2:30, you'd be out in the open, and at least this year it was very windy. You're running along the Potomac for a large percentage of the race. It's not exactly a PR race, although it is fun.
-It fills up quickly but not as quickly as people told me it would. As far as I know, it's first come first serve.
-If you have a 2:30, I'm sure you could get to the front. I wasn't elite, but I was within 10 seconds of the start just standing there without fighting anybody. I don't think you'd have any problem at all getting to the front even if you didn't have an elite bib.
-I liked the marathon while I was running it. The crowd was great and if you are a tourist you can see a lot of the sights as you are cruising along. I wasn't in any kind of shape at all so I took it easy and had a good time. However, the beginning of the race was a horror show. The baggage drop was about a half mile from the Metro and another half mile from the start, nobody had any idea what was going on. So, I would arrive with plenty of time to spare.
MCM is unique for a major in that there is no prize money, hence no professionals. When I ran it in 2004 it was a lottery system, but the next year they went to a larger field limit, two wave start, and first come first serve entry system. In 2004, they had markers for estimated finish time in the start corral and generally people seemed to honor that near the front. They may have a different corral system with the wave start.
If you can run 2:30, you will likely crack the top 10 and your friend at 2:40 would expect 30-40. MCM is the Armed Forces Championship so it gets some decent runners from the various US and some foreign services, but they don't attract a field of national or world class runners. It is a moderately flat course, though there are some hills, the worst one being the final quarter mile up to the Iwo Jima Memorial to the finish line.
MCM caters, more than any other major marathon, to the recreational/first time marathoner and is notoriously crowded mid-pack. This would be a non-issue for you or for that matter anyone running under mid-three hours assuming you can get a decent start position.
bump
The 2005 edition, the first time it was a first come-first served system (at least for quite a while) sold out very quickly. The 2006 edition sold out but not nearly as fast.
2005 was the 30th running, hence the increase in field size (to 30k) and the quick fill-up, even w/ the expanded field size. This was supposed to be a one-time deal, but it worked out so well that they kept it last year, w/ a 2-wave start.
Note that MCM, in keeping w/ its motto as the "People's Marathon," is actually LOWERING its entry fee this year. Pretty much unheard of - big HOORAH to RD Rick Nealis and the rest of the staff for doing that.