Thank God there weren’t more of them.

three or four times a week. Then one beautiful spring day in 2007, she

walked in and announced, “We are running the Marine Corps Marathon.” She said it in that tone and manner that precluded any possible answer except, “Well, yes, dear, of course we are.”

As calmly and reasonably as I could, I asked Catherine why she thought we should run the Marine Corps Marathon. She calmly, and with a mind completely made up, stated that since our son-in-law Garrett was deployed to Iraq and still would be at the time of the marathon, we would run it in his honor and the honor of all the other soldiers. Now, Garrett was in the Army and not the Marine Corps, but it did not seem right to get picky at that point. Instead, I decided it was time to start training in earnest.

The Marine Corps Marathon is run in Washington, DC, in late October, so that meant training through the sweltering mugginess of a south-Georgia summer. Only those who have done it can appreciate three hours of shuffling through 80-plus temps combined with 70-plus percent humidity .. . at seven o’clock in the morning! We employed long runs, walk breaks, trips to the gym, and appointments with the physical therapist. On our vacation to Hilton Head, SC, we dutifully ran our long run. Catherine had money to stop for sports drinks and water at the convenience stores along the way. Instead, she bought beer and ran the last two miles to our condo with a six-pack under her arm. I love my wife. We topped our long runs at 18 miles, and Catherine suffered an injury that resulted in a two-month taper. At least she would be well rested.

Since this was our first, and probably only, marathon we decided to go all out and take in the entire experience. We stayed at the host hotel. We rode the bus to the race expo and bought lots of stuff we did not need. We bought coffee cups and socks that were guaranteed to prevent blisters. We listened to the guest speakers and met ultrarunning legend Frank Bozanich. He was at a display selling $100 sunglasses, and I almost bought a pair of those before Catherine dragged me away.

M y wife started it. I was fat, dumb, and happy running a couple of miles

As we wound our way through the expo, I saw a display for the Air Force Marathon. I was in the Air Force many years ago. If I ran the Marines’ marathon, then should I not run the Air Force’s, too? I will get back to that later.

Race day was clear and cool, perfect for a first marathon. Catherine and I followed the mass of runners from the hotel to the Metro entrance and made our way to the starting line. There were hundreds of porta-potties lined up in the parking lot with hundreds of runners standing in line and hundreds more behind every bush and tree in sight. After standing for the national anthem and finding a good spot at the starting line, we reviewed our race strategy. We would stay together for the first two miles, and then we would settle into our respective paces and find each other at the finish.

When the race started, we began our combination of running and walking along with numerous trips to the bushes to relieve nervous bladders. At one stop, as I followed Catherine to the side of the street, a voice came from the underbrush, “This is the ladies’ side of the road. Men to the other side.”

After two miles, we hugged and wished each other luck. As I left Catherine I thought about our respective goals. Mine was to try to stay around a 12-minute-permile pace, and hers was to make it to the 20-mile mark before the course closed.

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The Marine Corps Marathon gives you until 1:00 p.m. to make it to 20 miles, and if you do you can take the rest of the day to finish. That was Catherine’s goal.

Our oldest daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, Chris, were riding bicycles around the course and taking pictures of us. They were surprised to see me smiling and having such a good time. But when you are as slow as I am, you might as well have fun because you sure aren’t going to win. Running through Washington, DC, was amazing and we enjoyed every minute of it. Seeing the monuments and the neighborhoods was great, and the spectators could not have been better. Catherine and I had shirts printed with our son-in-law’s name on the front and his unit, the 82nd Airborne Division, on the back. We received a lot of support throughout the course. There were a lot of military-themed shirts in the race as well as a lot of Virginia Tech shirts because this was the year of the horrific shooting on that campus.

And there were fun shirts. I passed a woman wearing one that read, “Naked Marines at the Finish.” Well, whatever motivates you!

I made it to the finish line just short of five and a half hours and received my finisher’s medal. I then wandered around with the rest of the walking wounded wearing my medal, space blanket, and a grin from ear to ear. Elizabeth and Chris found me, and about an hour later we saw Catherine coming down the sidewalk with her medal and space blanket grinning from ear to ear also! It was the greatest moment in my running career.

Later that night we hobbled down to the hotel lobby wearing our medals to enjoy acelebratory beer and burger. As we made eye contract with dozens of other

<4 Micah and Catherine complete their mission at the Marine Corps Marathon.

obbling medal-wearers, we smiled and nodded and realized we had joined that special fraternity of marathon finishers. Catherine’s idea could not have turned out better.

Remember the Air Force Marathon? Well, it took two years, but in 2009 Elizabeth offered to run it with me. Elizabeth was not in the Air Force, but she was born in an Air Force hospital so it seemed appropriate that she would run it with me. So once again I hit the sweltering summer training routes to prepare for a September marathon, this time at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. And this time I had huge ambitions beyond just finishing.

You see, Elizabeth was a college cross-country runner. Elizabeth has run several marathons. Elizabeth has run the Boston Marathon . . . twice! Elizabeth would pace me to a sub-5:00 finish. Or so went the plan.

I drove to Dayton from Georgia, and Elizabeth flew up from Texas where she was now working as a physical therapist. Yeah, I had my own physical therapist for this race! And at the advice of my own physical therapist, we limited our time walking around the expo. Instead, we walked around the national Air Force museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Maybe it was not the best thing for our legs, but it was great for boosting the morale of this former Air Force officer.

Race day was another perfect day for marathon running. It was sunny but cool, and when we lined up for the start we were treated to a flyover by two F-16