My cousin Ryan drove down from Virginia Beach to run it with me. Last fall we were looking at marathons to do together, the Big Sur marathon was at capacity (that would have been an amazing marathon!). But, this one was lined up in the same time frame that he'd be moving out to California. So, we both signed up and race weekend got here really fast!
This was also the first marathon that Nikki and the kids would be out on the course to cheer me on! I was really looking forward to seeing them on the course and I wanted to run well for them. We drove up to Jacksonville Beach on Friday night and got checked into our hotel, we got upgraded to the kids suite that had a bunk bed in it. Conner and Maya were very impressed, and Maya was telling anyone that would listen that we were staying in a 5-star hotel.
Saturday morning we made our way to the expo to pick up our bibs and packets. The kids tried a bunch of free samples and Ryan and I bought some Swiftwick socks. They're pretty nice socks, but even with a buy 2 get 1 free deal, they are pretty expensive!
The packet pickup process and expo went a lot more smoothly than the Marine Corps Marathon, owing to the fact that there weren't 30,000 people trying to pick up their packets. I like running in big marathons, but there are advantages to running in smaller marathons also.
The course was more or less 13 miles north on A1A then back south to a 4 lane highway that took us to the finish at the Mayo Clinic. The run north featured running on the beach from mile 6 to almost mile 9. My mother also came up with my nephew, Caden, for a night and had a hotel on the beach at mile 8/19. So, I was going to have a pretty big cheering section:
The morning of the race, the temperature was already at 57 degrees at 6 am, with almost 100% humidity. I think by the time I finished, the temperature was almost 70 degrees. Pretty hot for a marathon, but it was cloudy, so at least the sun wasn't beating down on us the entire time.
The first 5 or 6 miles flew by and I was feeling pretty good. All of my mile splits were under 6:50. I was in a pretty good crowd of people and was just enjoying the scenery. I grabbed 2 GUs a little after mile 5 and took one of them at mile 6. Then we hit the beach. I was looking forward to this part of the race, I knew I'd see Nikki and the kids soon, and I thought it'd be a nice change of pace to run on the beach for a bit. Running on the sand, even the packed, wet sand, seemed to take a toll on my legs though. My pace dropped from the low 6:40s to the high 6:40s even though I felt my effort was the same.
About halfway through the beach run, the half marathon and marathon routes split. And, suddenly, I was running all by myself. It was strange. I'm used to big marathons and running in a pack for the whole race, so this was a new experience. Eventually, I caught up to a guy, and we ran together for a bit and chatted. And then, I saw my family!
It was a short lived visit, some high fives and some yells of encouragement, and then I was off again.
Miles 8 through 19 were pretty uneventful. We continued north on streets parallel to A1A and then ran through some nice neighborhoods to get in some extra mileage before heading south again. I took another GU at mile 12. I was starting to struggle with the pace a bit around the halfway mark, but I was still running under 6:50. I wanted to try to maintain that pace until mile 19-20 and hopefully that would have banked me enough time to slow down a bit and still break 3 hours.
But, then around mile 18, it became apparent I was going to have to stop for a bathroom break. This was really disheartening to me, because I was pretty sure that it would kill my chance at breaking 3 hours. This is now my 4th marathon, and I've had to stop at a porta potty on each one. I've got to try to figure out what works on long runs and my nutrition beforehand to prevent these bathroom breaks. When I was running 4 hour marathons, it didn't matter so much. But, now, trying to break 3 hours, every second counts. Right after I passed mile marker 19, I saw Nikki and the kids again! And, right across the street was a porta potty, I made a bee-line for it and Nikki got some great action shots!
After my pit stop, I could never get my legs moving again. Mile 20 was ~8:30, and then every mile from then on was ~7:10. Also, the marathon and half-marathon routes merged together after mile 20 and now I was running in a crowd, but it was a crowd of walkers. That started messing with my mind. I haven't walked on a marathon since my first marathon, but seeing all these walkers, all of a sudden my brain was like "yea, walking would be nice... we should do that". It was a huge mental battle just to keep running. So, I didn't meet my goal of a sub 3 hour marathon, but I am happy that I kept running the whole race.
That last 4 miles were on a 4 lane highway heading west to the Mayo Clinic. The on ramp to get on the highway seemed to go on forever and running on a highway is pretty lonely as far as crowd support goes. And then, at mile 24 you could see off in the distance a huge bridge at mile 25 to cross the intracoastal. So you get to dread that climb for a whole mile before finally tackling it. The cool thing was, at the top of the hill, there was a water stop and a huge crowd of people cheering you on! I ran the whole way up that monster! After the hill, it's downhill to the off ramp and then the finish line. I kicked as much as I could, even though my feet started cramping and crossed the finish line in 3:03:14, and my chip time was 3:02:31. That's about 45 seconds slower than my PR at the Marine Corps Marathon.
My cousin, Ryan, unfortunately didn't get to finish his race. It started storming and when the lightning started they closed the course and shuttled all the runners to the finish line. I think he made it to about mile 21 or 22. It took forever to find him!
Overall, I enjoyed the race, the last 7 miles were rough though. Jackonsville Beach is a beautiful city to run in. And, it's definitely a different feel than the Marine Corps Marathon. The crowd support isn't as large, but lots of people come out of their homes to cheer you on and throw block parties while you run through their neighborhoods. Running on the beach for 2+ miles was also really cool, but I still have a feeling that the sand may have taken some of the gas from my legs and I felt it later in the race. In any case, if you're looking for a smaller marathon field, and a flat, fast course... then this is a great marathon. And you're helping to support a great cause!
Here are my mile splits for the race: http://connect.garmin.com/splits/450522986
For not feeling that great in the end, you still kicked some major ass! So congrats on finishing! You gonna wait till next year to try again for your sub-3?
ReplyDeleteWith the bathroom breaks, I had the same issue and found that I could not eat sugar AT ALL during a race. Not regular, not natural, but artificial sugar was ok. So that means Powerade Zero for me and low sugar PB&Js or pretzels during the run. It sucks to chew when that's the last thing you want to do, but I don't have port-o-potty stops anymore.
I'm thinking about doing the Spacecoast marathon, if I don't do that one, then my next marathon will be Boston in 2015.
ReplyDeleteI take GUs on my long runs during training, and never have issues. I think it's more of an issue with my carbo-loading strategy. I normally eat a very low-carb diet, and when I start carbo-loading, everything tastes great and I start shoveling cookies, cakes, pasta, ANYTHING into my mouth in the name of carbo-loading. I might just try to tone that down a little bit.