MCM

 So the MCM sold out at least 92 days before the big day.  All the sponsored hotels seemed to be sold out, too.  Lions couldn't afford to book more than 90 days in advance.  In the question of money vs convenience, lions opted for the convenience of Hilton Arlington.  It's worth a lot of money to not have to rent a car or wait for multiple trains.  Lions also regretted not staying 1 more day in the past.  

The MCM is very car dependent.  Bib pickup is all the way at Gaylord convention center, 7 miles from the starting line.  The sponsored hotels are really far from food or tourist attractions.  The difference in price between the sponsored hotels & what lions picked was $60/night.

 This one would be roughly $2000, not including the race fees.  Prices rose since the last trip in 2016.  It's the most expensive hotel lions ever stayed at.

It would be another red eye.  It's hard to beat taking red eyes to packet pickup.  Lions found Dulles to have the most non stop flights, allowing 1 night to be shaved off the hotel.  Reagan had no good options.

 Visiting Udvar Hazy requires a 2nd trip back to the airport, no matter what.  There's no place to store luggage without a rental car. 

The general idea is Sat: packet pickup, white house, capital & skylab.  Sun: marathon Mon: Udvar Hazy Tue: Run video.  Capital & skylab depend on what the lines are like & how long it takes to recover.  Need to check if the white house doesn't have the riot fence.

The training hasn't been pointing towards any miracles, but it's a matter of making the most of the trip.  Lions will probably finish in the high 4 hours.  It's still going to be all business.  Lions won't be looking around or have a camera.

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Tried taking in glucose slower, but still cramped in the 24 mile range.  Only burned 2 cliff bloks this time.  Peak temperature was 77F & lions were definitely pouring sweat, taking in 6x32oz of water.  The last water was 2 miles from the end.  The only consolation is lions have been going out faster for longer in these efforts, trying to accelerate the arrival of the trouble spot.  Kind of disappointing to not see any improvement from 7 months of marathon efforts.

Sciatica has returned in the left leg.  Pushed through it for all 27 miles by exaggerating the stride.  It was intermittent.  It doesn't cause cramping.  It just causes numbness, these days.  Sciatica in the past was aggravated by sitting down & overly padded shoes.  Now, it might be diet, heel striking around the tendon injury, or over training.  It was back to running every other day.