On the Marine Corps Marathon 2025: Mile by Mile

A mile-by-mile recap of my 2025 MCM on a sprained ankle

I ran the Marine Corps Marathon today. I ran it on an ankle that I sprained two weeks ago. I honestly wasn’t sure that I would be able to. It wasn’t a terrible sprain but it did re-injure a sprain from June. The orthopaedic surgeon I went to said I probably wouldn’t blow up my ankle if I tried to run it (unless I got a new injury) but obviously was not going to say it was a great idea. A great PT, Elliott Place at Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation in DC, worked with me and thought I might have a chance to try.

Critically, my ankle was not hurting, and I went for a few short runs this week and was pain-free. So I decided to try running it today. I held no goals of a PR, being in my 40s I had no interest in additional injury, so I promised myself I would quit if it hurt too much. I was rolling the dice on whether I would resprain it. I would classify this under things I would do again but wouldn’t recommend.

This was the 50th running of the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM), in a year where the Marine Corps is about to celebrate its 250th birthday, so you can imagine that for a service known for its subtlety, the branding was muted. The MCM is known as “The People’s Marathon” because it is the largest marathon that doesn’t offer prize money and is said to be the best marathon for beginners. The race is extremely well organized owing to the fact that it seems like every single Marine north of Quantico is ordered to staff the marathon.

I am a fierce DC partisan, I think DC is one of the world’s greatest cities to run in, and the MCM really showcases that. The course is an incredible tour of Virginia and DC, past almost every national monument and landmark in the area. My city has been battered by the first year of the Trump Administration, from DOGE to masked ICE agents jumping out of cars. Today on a gorgeous fall day, the city and its residents (and NOVA) really shined.

This was my third time that I have run the MCM, I ran it in 2008 and 2023. My father ran it when I was a kid, it was maybe the first marathon I was ever aware of. But I was honestly not sure I would finish the race and I honestly wasn’t sure how far I would get before I had to quit.

So I decided to try and enjoy every mile and think about the memories I have in every part of this city from twenty plus years of living here. Here’s a mile-by-mile account of my 2025 Marine Corps Marathon.

Mile 1: The first mile is characterized by running past the finish line, passing the Iwo Jima Memorial that you hope to see again in a few hours.

Mile 2: The second mile is characterized passing through Rosslyn and then up a pretty decent hill that runs parallel to 66.

Mile 3: To me this mile is about passing the legendary Italian Store in Arlington, though it’s really about the rare opportunity to run on the GW Parkway along the Potomac, with a beautiful view of the Georgetown University campus across the river.

Mile 4: The Key Bridge from Arlington into DC. You catch a glimpse of the bridge from the GW Parkway and the crowds on the bridge.

Then you’re on the bridge and there’s Georgetown University to the left, cheering crowds to your right, and Georgetown ahead of you.

Then you are in Georgetown on the famous M Street. I pass the bar where I celebrated my 21st birthday and another bar where I almost threw up on my friend Paul’s hot cousin.

Right on Wisconsin, past the Pacers where I’ve bought too much running stuff over the last few years, heading towards the Georgetown Waterfront.

Mile 5: Along the Georgetown Waterfront towards Virginia Avenue. There is my freshman dorm, formerly the Hall on Virginia Avenue (HOVA), formerly the Howard Johnson hotel where a lookout for the Watergate break-in was stationed, now remodeled into trendy apartments called “The George.”

Mile 6: Now we are heading north on Rock Creek Park and now we are on my home turf. One of the reasons I got back into running was I moved next to Rock Creek and promised myself I would take advantage of it by picking up running again. Four years later and here we are running another marathon. I have run this route dozens of times to come home.

Mile 7: Now we are reaching gut check time. I am constantly aware that I am running on a sprained ankle and that my run could end at any moment.

The turn around at Cathedral is just a few minutes from my house. If my ankle is hurting too much, if I think this is too much, I can just turn right instead of turning around and run right home. I could be home in literally five minutes.

But the ankle is…fine? Like it is a little stiff but it doesn’t hurt and my fitness is carrying me along.

There it is. I can see the turnaround.

Fuck it, we’re going for it. Ankle don’t fail me now. I can check in again before I hit Hains Point. I hit the turnaround and head south.

Mile 8: I am just trying to enjoy the fall foliage in Rock Creek, one of the true urban running gems of any major city.

Mile 9: Along the Potomac and under and past the Kennedy Center. As a freshman I used to love leaving from my dorm across the street and going to the Kennedy Center at night and staring at the city that I had already fallen in love with.

Mile 10: Nearing the Lincoln Memorial, my first running route in DC. Leave HOVA, my aforementioned freshman dorm, left on along the Potomac, past the Kennedy Center, to the Lincoln Memorial or across the Memorial Bridge to Virginia.

Mile 11: Nearing Hains Point and another gut check. Hains Point is a lonely three miles around the peninsula where if my ankle is hurting too much, I’m going to have to walk around the whole thing to get back to help. But we’re feeling okay so onward to Hains Point we go.

Mile 12: The Wear Blue Mile is a section of the MCM that is dedicated to fallen servicemembers with blue Faces of the Fallen posters lining the section. It is heavy on those KIA in the GWOT and also those who have been lost to its long shadow after they came home. I see the photo of Travis Manion and think of his family and his memorial foundation. Towards the end of the Blue Mile I see a woman stop in front of a picture, kneel in front of it, and begin to weep.

Mile 13: Make it to a half marathon, secure in the knowledge that if I have to stop, at least I made it halfway. But I am feeling okay and press on, rounding the tip of Hains Point, and heading back towards the mall.

Hains Point is a fairly ubiquitous feature of almost every DC road race because it gives you three plus miles next to the mall that are relatively car free and easy to close. But it can be quiet and lonely, though at this point I am so used to running it, I do so mostly on auto-pilot.

Mile 14: Can I just say that it is insane the Park Service does not close the public East Potomac Park Golf Course for this race. There are 40,000 runners going through Hains Point and they have to keep part of it open to cars to let people onto the golf course. As I run by the golf course, I do not see the dirt they have trucked here from the demolished White House East Wing, though I do look.

Mile 15: I see an incredible sign that says “U.S. Marine Corps Refueling Point” and the dude is holding a vape underneath. I get a nice view of the Jefferson Memorial.

Mile 16: Past the Washington Monument and we are entering what they call “The Gauntlet” which are huge cheering crowds lining the National Mall. A huge boost of energy as we run past the historic Smithsonian museums, closed due to the government shutdown.

Mile 17: The United States Capitol. It looks incredible in the fall sunlight. The West Front, where the clashes on January 6th started, past Capitol Police officers who defended the building that day and watched the President pardon their attackers. A building where one chamber, the House, isn’t even in session right now during the shutdown.

Mile 18: When I ran MCM in 2023, this is where I got leg muscle pain, because like most amateur runners I skipped strength training. Well I did not do enough strength training this cycle but I did some and I hope it’s enough. I run past the new entrance to the Air and Space museum, which looks very cool.

Mile 19: Turning out from the mall, past the Jefferson Memorial, heading to the 14th Street Bridge. Time for another gut check, if my ankle hurts too much on the bridge, I’m stuck limping across before I can quit. But everything feels..fine? I mean my legs are getting tired but that’s from running 19 miles but my ankle is not hurting. So we press on.

Mile 20: The 14th Street Bridge can be a real soul crusher. You lose the cheering crowds, the sun has come out and the heat is rising, and there’s nowhere on the bridge to hide. You see everyone start to slow down. You do get the unique experience of having planes from DCA take off and land above you (see below).

The year I ran MCM the first time in 2008, I heard that the year before they had put Hains Point and the 14th Street Bridge back-to-back. So you faced like 6 miles of no crowds and baking sun. Apparently everyone just wilted. The next year, every communication from the marathon was like “we have heard your feedback on the course from last year and adjusted it” so now you get the cheering crowds in the gauntlet between Hains Point and the 14th Street Bridge.

Mile 21: Okay fuck this mile. The course clearly needed to add some length so we ran into and around a big Pentagon parking lot.

Mile 22: Into Crystal City and another wall of cheering crowds. Huge energy from this second Gauntlet. I am feeling the fatigue now in my legs but my ankle feels fine. I’m entering the pain cave now but it’s honestly not that bad, just time to disassociate and hold on for a few more miles. I do not pull out my phone for a few miles.

Mile 23: More Crystal City, I am sorry National Landing, through Amazon HQ2 and heading towards the Pentagon. Just trying to keep it together.

Mile 24: The most interesting thing I have to say about this mile is that when I ran the Army Ten-Miler and MCM in 2023, the underpass under the 14th Street Bridge was under construction, and they made us all collapse into one lane. That construction has thankfully been completed.

Mile 25: Now you are just on Richmond Highway, baking in the sun, with no cheering crowds, just endless asphalt. To the left is the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery but you’re in the right lane so you can’t see much. This is the hardest mile of the marathon because it is all mental and your body is tired and hurts. You just have to dig deep and push through.

Mile 26: The Marine Corps Marathon ends on a hill. Of course it does. Marines take hills, especially when it’s hard. You run up the hill and towards the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial. Cross the finish line and see the Iwo Jima memorial in front of you. Hard not to be moved.

I finished. My ankle survived without additional injury. No PR, I ran this marathon 30 minutes slower than my time in 2023 but 20 minutes faster than in 2008. Guess I’ll have to do it again sometime.

You should run the Marine Corps Marathon someday too.

Bonus Pic: I do not understand why or how Big Watermelon sponsors this race but they did in 2023 too.