The Marine Corps Marathon finishes with an incline for the last .2 miles of the 26.2 mile race, ending at the Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial) in Arlington.  The memorial depicts the 5 Marines and 1 U.S. Navy corpsman that raised the American flag using a pipe found in wreckage at the summit of Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima, February 23, 1945.  The battle at Iwo Jima lasted 36 days with many casualities – 21,800 Japanese and 6,800 American lives were lost.  Many, many more American soldiers were injured.

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