The expo: was definitely awesome but I tried to get there early to snag an extra large swag bag only to find out everyone else did the same thing. They chose some people in the front of the line and did something, but quite frankly I had no idea what it was because you could not hear the MC on the mic.

First things first, it's so super easy to take the metro to the race start line. There is roughly a mile walk from the metro to the start but at 5am following a pack of people you don't even feel it. Here is the bad: We waited in security for roughly an hour with thousands of people until they finally gave up and let everyone through. Once we got through I raced for a port-o-potty, of which there were plenty, only to find out that of toilet paper, there was none. And what did all of this mean? By the time I got to the race starting line, it had started 20 minutes earlier which means you miss out on all the fun opening ceremony things which sounded awesome.

And now for everything else: The course is really quite beautiful. You run through woods, you run through the National Mall, you run through tiny surburbs and almost everywhere there are people cheering for you. There were marines every half mile or so ready to give high fives, vaseline and towards the end to push you up that last hill. What's that you just said? Yes, this race ends on a hill. The majority of the elevation is not bad and this is coming from someone who trains in the flatlands of Chicago, but ending a marathon on a hill is really just quite mean.

Keep your eye out for the blue mile. I believe it was mile 12 where they had pictures of fallen soldiers and then supporters holding American flags that you run through. As someone whose Marine parent recently passed away, this was definitely the part of the course which almost got me a little teary eyed.

This is really a great race for beginner marathoners. The crowd support is just amazing and abundant and overall it's really a great race.

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