Rehoboth Marathon Race Report (Read 980 times)

Well how about that for both of you!

Good job.  YAY

It was a great marathon. I was going to go with shorts and short-sleeves, but I parked near the Running Co. to go hit the port-a-potties that I thought were next to it, but as soon as I popped out of the car, my teeth started chattering and I realized I'd never survive in short-sleeves. My wife gave me a throwaway jacket -- one's she used for Rehoboth last year, when it was unseasonably cold (and she never took it off).

Then  I went over and found out the port-a-potties don't get relocated to the Running Co. until after the race starts. Oh well, so much for attempting to be clever. Happily the permanent beach bathhouse facilities were open, down at the boardwalk. (And there were also port-a-potties down there somewhere, but I didn't see them, or care, really.)

Just as we started to warmup (b/c my wife was running the Half), we found Quint, and wound up chatting instead of warming up, and anyway they started announcing the start really quickly thereafter.

My planning is more entertaining in retrospect. My wife wanted to shoot for 7:30 pace. I'd divided Quint's 3:20 goal to find it meant a 7:38 pace, and my wife had said that was ok, she would run 7:38 with us. I wanted to run with Quint not only for the fun of the company, but also to help prevent me fading in the end; in my last goal marathon, I'd just gotten tired and slid off pace in the last 10K (no particular pain or problem, just got tired and lazy). So my plan was to run 7:38 pace with Quint for the first half, and then speed up sometime at the half or later, assuming I felt the energy.

My wife accelerated ahead of us within the first mile or two, as she felt good and wanted to go faster. As it turns out, of the two of us, Quint had the more energy, and we actually moved up faster than 07:38 by the second mile, and actually kept my wife in sight ahead of us for the first 9 miles.

This is an interesting aspect to Rehoboth; the Full and Half run together for 9mi, so if you can find someone running the other race at your desired pace, you can run that far together.

As we came toward the turnaround, I said to Quint, I want to count women, so I can tell my wife her placement, and the two of us counted them off; it wasn't too difficult, and we determined that she was in fourth place. As we passed her just before the turnaround, I greeted her and shouted twice "Fourth Woman!" That was exciting; we hadn't realized she'd be positioned so far to the front of her field.

Before race day, Quint had said a couple times "Don't let me hold you back". Long before the turnaround I'd realized that that was not a problem; the reverse was actually more plausible. Quint was running effortlessly, happy and chatty, and I was feeling some effort - not a whole lot, but felt some tiredness in my upper legs. While of course one doesn't want to be envious of one's friends, I must admit I wished I felt like I was doing an effortless long run, the way he seemed to be.

Also I had "overall average pace" showing on my watch, so I knew our overall average was more like 07:34 than 07:38, so I knew we were in good position for the goal time.

Long before the park we'd picked a woman running not far ahead of us and who appeared strong and steady as our "pace bunny", intending to keep pace with her -- and in Quint's plan, eventually pass her. In fact we were slowly passing people, all though the race.

We caught up to a couple guys who were friendly heading toward the park, and ran with them for a mile or so, before moving on ahead.

The park (13-17.5) went well. I had forgotten we have to run up the "Great Dune" hill, and remember being disappointed when I discovered that, but actually it wasn't bad, and none of the small hills in the park bothered me. People from hilly areas may not have noticed them at all, but us flatlanders noticed them

Coming out of the park, there was some headwind, but it wasn't as strong (or bitterly cold) as last year. We caught up to our erstwhile pace bunny, and greeted her, and chatted with her briefly. She'd run JFK50 (and also ChesapeakeMan, she mentioned afterward), and I had some questions for her about JFK50 (it really tempts me, except that 50 miles is *so* far). As we moved ahead of her, Quint tried to encourage her to come with us, "Come on, 50-miler!"  She didn't come with us, but then (I think) no one did; I guess because we were going slightly negative splits, and apparently no one else near us was doing the same.

I did suggest to Quint a couple times in the park that because he was so comfortable, if he still felt good as we returned to the J/B trail (c. 21) he might want to push the rest. As we passed back through Lewes, he took another gu pack, and all of a sudden without any warning, took off like a bolt. He told me afterward that it was a double expresso shot; I'm still not sure if he was kidding about that, but it was a shocking take-off.

After a minute or so, I got inspired to chase him, as I realized I was on pace for a good chance to PR, and chasing him would be the best way to help that. I chatted briefly with a runner and cyclist who were talking, as I caught them, and when they said I was looking strong, I explained that my race partner took some caffeine or something and was that guy flying out ahead -- and the runner said, oh yeah, he blew by.

I ran fast miles, at least for me for the latter part of a marathon, for the last 10K of the race. I never really had a chance of catching back up to Quint, but the chase was a great motivation, and it was the opposite of the slow fade I experienced at the end of ChesapeakeMan.

Had great hot food afterward, and sitting around talking with various people.

One highlight was that a local Rehoboth area runner, Dick Hipp, just turned 70 this year, and another guy told me that Dick had just broken the state age group marathon record. I know Dick casually, as I've had the pleasure of running with him, and I wanted to stay to hoop and holler at his award announcement (and shout out something about the record in case they didn't announce it). Awards were for every five years, and all the Half went first, and they were done young to old, so his was at the very end, maybe an hour after they started. I'd already sent my wife back to the car so she could ice, but I found a chair and waited. Sure enough, they announced the record when they called him, and I hooped and hollered a bunch with all the locals

Thanks guys.

Oh, and the gels are the double espresso types by cliff shot. I drink a good bit of coffee and like the flavor. Kind of like a real sweet espresso except it's a gel.

Way to Go Guys! Very Impressive, and Mrs AP too! Someday I'll get those kind of results, you two make it sound easy!

 Thanks, and I forgot to mention that Mrs AP had a great day.

Thanks OB.

AP, I just noticed you hit 3,000 miles within the last day or two. Congrats.

That's a big PR.  Congrats.  Good to see that all of the hard work paid off.

 Thanks. I also felt fortunate that we had nice running weather on that day too. It seemed to help. That, and it just made the race that much more enjoyable.

Yeah, almost noone appreciates how underpaid the race volunteers are. Usually all it takes is a tenner (to anyone in the timing chain -- from recording to digitizing) to get a better time, or a twenty to really knock it out of the park.

 

 You got a discount. They charged me fifty.