My marathon morning started at 4:30. I did my standard breakfast of a PB & J, banana, and Diet Mt. Dew. I had everything laid out the night before, so I quickly got dressed and headed out the door. Parking at the race site was easy. I parked across from TrySports and walked to the trolley pickup point (about 50 yards). I found all my friends/running buddies and got in line to take the trolley down to the race start point.
We got dropped off at the police station at Wrightsville Beach and had about a ½ mile walk to the starting line. Dave, my training partner, and I walked to the bag check truck and then got in line for a quick bathroom trip before the race start. The start was delayed about 10 min due to no natural sunlight but soon we were off. Dave and I had moved to the back of the pack as we planned to start very conservatively. We ran the first 2 miles at an easy 12 min/mile pace to warm up and do our best not to go out to fast and cook our legs. We quickly dialed in our race pace based on my Garmin data and how we felt and were happily running along at about 11:20 to 11:30 pace. We turned into our first loop through Landfall and began looking for a porta-potty for Dave. The water stops all had long lines for the porta-potty’s so we kept going. We were at mile 6.8 when a lady standing in her front yard was cheering us on and inviting us into her house if we needed to use the bathroom! Dave jumped at the chance - not to have to wait in line – oh yah. I kept my pace and expected Dave to catch up to me at the next water stop but it was not to be. I ran the rest of the race mostly by myself. The race course required all racers to go though Landfall once and the full marathoners to go though twice. Loop 1 was really nice as I had lots of people around me. I came out of Landfall at about 9 miles and ran up Eastwood and Military Cutoff roads. This section had lots of people cheering for us. As the ½ marathoner turned left toward their finish – I turned right into Landfall for my second loop.
This was totally a different race now. I had about 50 meters between me and the next racers, it was like running alone. I did notice how my training was helping me. I was keeping the same basic pace and was slowly picking off people the rest of the race. I would lock in on the next person and slowly gain ground, pass them and lock in on the next person. Running my second loop, I really felt good. My legs were fatigued by never felt bad, no foot pain at all, and no heal pain! I finished my second lap in Landfall and started up Eastwood/Military Cutoff for the last time. I passed 20 miles at 3:56 and turned into the 6 miles of the race. I was at a new point in my running career now. My longest run had been 20 miles and now……. I have to admit – I was not worried about the last 6.2. I kept telling myself that you just keep the same pace and let your body cruise the last miles. Yah – that was naive on my part! I got to 22 without incident and then the wheels fell off. Miles 22-24 had nothing good except at the water stop at the school - they had food and a very nice lady had set her sprinkler up to water one side of the course - I stopped to rinse my face off. I had salt crustys on my face that were driving me crazy. Walking and running and then walking some more I got to mile 24. I slammed a coffee gel with 2X caffeine and did my best to finish with style. I did not run all of the last 2 miles but I did run most of it. I was still passing people and was only passed in the last 2 miles by one person. The last 800 meters are a blur. I picked up the pace to catch one last lady and then tried to keep my legs from cramping before the finish line. I gave the crowd a little arm pump as I came in the last 50 meters and finally I finished my first marathon (5:19:42)!
Now a couple of days later – what did I learn? Marathons are hard but wonderful. Would I change anything? – No! I had set my goal to just finish and have a good day. I made peace with not being under 5 hours by the time I hit the ½ way mark so that was never an issue as I did the second 13 miles. I am already thinking of what is next – and when I figure it out – I will let you, my faithful reader know.
RACE REPORT: 2024 Get in Gear 10K
1 day ago
