Marine Week Honor Run

So when I heard that the United States Marine Corp was going to be in St. Louis for an entire week, I knew I wanted to get involved in one way or another. My dad served in the Marine Corp, and he instilled a sense of Marine pride in me since I was a little girl.
And let’s just be honest — I wanted to see some sexy Marines in uniform. Hellooooo eye candy!
I heard about the Marine Honor run, and I immediately signed up. And although I usually don’t spend money on short races like this, I figured it would totally be worth it.
And I was right.
The race started downtown, right across from Busch Stadium. The 3-​mile course was fast, flat, and led us through downtown, where we were able to run by some pretty badass USMC vehicles. Nice.
Oh, and the Marines. Oh baby. OH BABY. The Marines. There were tons. I figured they would just be interspersed with the rest of the runners, and some were. However, the majority ran in formation and chanted/​sang the entire time. THE ENTIRE TIME! Super impressive.
I sped up my usual turtle pace to keep up with them. Somehow, running 8:30 minute miles doesn’t seem quite as hard when you have such a pleasant distraction. The energy was just SO amazing.
Hands down, this was one of my favorite races ever. I felt such a strong sense of pride running with the Marines. And although there weren’t many spectators on the sidelines at 7am on a Saturday morning, the few that we did see gave the passing Marines thumbs up and high fives. Nice to see such a show of patriotism.
I don’t know if Marine Week will be in STL next year, but if it is, I’m definitely going to do this run again. AMAZING.