In six days, runners will take over the streets of D.C. and Arlington for the 50th Marine Corps Marathon, and one of the highlights is the \u201cWear Blue Mile.\u201d<\/b>
\nIn just six days, runners will take over the streets of D.C. and Arlington, Virginia, for the 50th Marine Corps Marathon, and one of the highlights of the race is the commemorative \u201cWear Blue Mile.\u201d
As runners approach the halfway mark of the race, they will turn calm and silent \u2014 Mile 12 on Haines Point in the District has no crowd and no cheering. Instead, a sea of blue signs showing the picture and name of a fallen service member will line the route, along with family members of the deceased.
Every few paces runners will see another face, another name and another date of death, and even the age of the service member when they were killed. On each \u201cFaces of the Fallen\u201d poster is also an American flag with a black ribbon.
John Cox, who has run the race 39 times, said the Blue Mile is a relatively new addition, but a very moving one.
\u201cYou can\u2019t help but be impacted by it, because there\u2019s so many faces and their sacrifice was for you,\u201d Cox told WTOP. \u201cAnd you see the reactions of the people who are running for individual people who are there, and they stop and acknowledge, and have their moments. It\u2019s sobering for me.\u201d
Two runners this year have not only passed by the faces numerous times, but they have also volunteered at the 12th mile, setting up signs and spending time with the military families who sit alongside the remembrances of their loved ones.
\u201cTo stand there holding the flag representing one of our fallen warriors \u2026 we watched literally the entire race,\u201d Andrew Dalbey, who volunteered with his wife in 2023, said. \u201cWe saw the emotions of every runner. We had people coming up, the sweeper bus had actually passed them, and they\u2019re like, \u2018You know what? I\u2019d heard about the blue mile and I just wanted to get to this point.’\u201d
Dalbey said the mile is a \u201cspecial section\u201d that started in 2012, and that \u201cbasically, they\u2019ve been out there at the Marine Corps Marathon ever since.\u201d
\u201cWear blue: run to remember,\u201d the organization behind the emotional mile, was founded in 2010 by several military spouses and family members who lost loved ones in combat.
Now when they place the blue posters on the route, they also add the service members who have died by suicide.
\u201cWhich is incredible. It\u2019s important to remember them as well,\u201d Dalbey said.
One such Marine who will be honored is Caleb Murfield, who died by suicide in 2007.
His father, Loren Murfield, will be a Blue Mile runner this year and told WTOP, \u201cCaleb will have a poster on mile 12. My wife is going to be holding his flag on the tribute mile.\u201d
This will be Murfield\u2019s first time running the Marine Corps Marathon and seeing this stretch.
\u201cI suspect, knowing how I run and, at 70 years old, how my body is taxed, I\u2019m not sure how emotional I will be at the time, but I\u2019ve already shed many tears over what it will look like,\u201d Murfield said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen posters, I\u2019ve seen pictures. I\u2019ve already had that emotion, and I\u2019m sure for the rest of my life, I will remember it.\u201d
Other first-time runners, such as Navy veteran Kylie Vitukevich, will experience the Blue Mile for the first time this year.
\u201cI think I\u2019m most excited to see that. I\u2019ve heard that it\u2019s a very overwhelming, in a good way, spot to run,\u201d she said.
Margaret Gill, a fellow first-time runner, said, \u201cI think it puts into perspective how you have something big, like the military or marathon runners, and you can just break it down into individual people. So, taking the time to see those names, see those pictures, it lets you really get more intimate with what\u2019s happening and who\u2019s involved.\u201d
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