Notes
After months of training, the day of the Shamrock Marathon had finally arrived. I awoke at 5:00 AM after a “wonderful” sleep at the Super 8 in Virginia Beach. The hotel wasn’t actually as bad as most people claimed. Sure, the stairwell doubled as a bathroom (or at least smelled like feces) and the floor and bed generated tons of static electricity that my girlfriend Jessie and I unfortunately shocked each other with many times over the course of the night and morning, but other than that, it wasn’t so bad. [Side note: the static electricity really hurt. I got up and reached for a metal part of a light switch and saw a gigantic blue spark when I was shocked…]
After the alarm rang, I jumped out of bed, went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth and put in my contacts, and walked upstairs to my training partner Ben’s room, so I could let Jessie sleep a bit longer. I ate a few whole wheat pitas with Smart Balance peanut butter, some whole grain bread, and a banana, along with a lot of water.
At about 6:45 AM I ran across the street to the 7-11 and bought some coffee. Last year I started drinking coffee about an hour before every race, and I’ve found it really helps in longer races, particularly when it’s cold out. And boy, it was cold today. The temperature was about 33 degrees at the time the race began. On top of that, the winds were gusting like crazy. The weather said winds were “10 to 20 mph” but at times it felt like much more than 20 mph gusts.
At 7:30, Jessie, Ben and I checked out of the hotel and started walking over to the starting line, which was only about a half mile from our hotel. The race began at 8, so Jessie held our stuff and we warmed up an easy mile at about 7:45. As we were jogging back to the starting line, we heard an air horn and saw people running. My heart did about three flips, thinking that I had missed the start of the race. Ben and I began running pretty quickly towards the starting line, but we realized that they had just started the wheelchair marathon racers, and not the marathon runners. Thank goodness!
A few minutes before the race began, I stripped down to just my singlet and shorts. I was thinking about wearing a long sleeved shirt or a hat or gloves because it was only about 33 degrees, but I was so amped up standing on the starting line that the cold really didn’t bother me. It felt like 50 degrees, and I felt fine. I walked around and wished the rest of the guys in my training group, Team Blitz, good luck.
Finally, the gun went off and the race began. A large pack of runners surged to the front, and I found myself running all alone on an island, with no one very close to me. The first mile was little fast – 5:32 – but the wind was at my back and I didn’t think much of it. I looked around me in hopes that there was someone to run with but I had no such luck, people were way ahead of me and way behind, but no one was running a pace I wanted. Oh well.
I had no idea what the next few mile splits were, unfortunately, since the race organizers had the first five or six miles mis-measured. Luckily, a pack of guys from behind me had begun getting closer to me, and I began running more relaxed so that they’d be able to catch up and I’d have people to share the burden of the wind at a turnaround point. They eventually caught up to me at mile 6, which I hit in 33:54, so I was definitely running a good pace at that point and had a bunch of people to work with to continue running fast.
From mile 6 to the half marathon mark, the winds were pretty brutal. I shared the burden with a group of three other guys by trading the lead every mile or so, but even with people to block the wind, holding pace was tiring. I still managed to get to the half marathon point in 1:14:43, which is a pretty respectable half marathon time by itself. The time made me feel pretty good about myself, and as an added bonus my pretty girlfriend gave me a pre-opened Gu packet at the half marathon mark.
The winds continued to haunt us, however, as one of the guys running next to me dropped out at the half marathon point. The other two stayed with me, but definitely left me in the front to do a lot of the work for a larger portion of miles 13-18. At mile 18, I started feeling like I was falling apart, and the two guys I was running with breezed past me, and I went from running 5:45 miles to at 6:00 mile at mile 18.
I thought I was doomed at that point, because once my pace starts slowing dramatically over the course of a mile, I usually crash and burn. But fortunately, I was able to hold off disaster. I told myself if I could hold 6:00 pace for until at least mile 23, I could set a huge personal best. And I did. My last three miles were not particularly impressive, but they were fast enough (6:17, 6:17, 6:24), and I ran them as I was passing the two people who had dropped me earlier to move from 12th place into the top ten for the marathon overall.
The end of the race goes along the boardwalk of Virginia Beach, in a straight line so you can see the finish line for about 1200 meters. It’s very mentally challenging, but seeing that finish banner is a real motivator to kick as hard as you can to get to the end. I spent that time on the boardwalk doing my best to focus just getting to the finish line. My calves had lost most of their strength by mile 20, so I didn’t have much bounce in my step, but knowing that just getting to that line meant I would set a big personal record in the marathon was motivation enough to get there quickly. My last 0.2 miles were 1:22. I don’t think that’s particularly quick compared to my pace for the rest of the race, but I felt like I was running all out.
When I crossed the finish line, I felt incredible. I glanced at my watch and saw the time: 2:34:18. It was a personal marathon record by nearly five minutes. I sort of raised my hands in celebration and stumbled around for a while. Somebody put a medal around my neck and a couple people shook my hand, including my friend and training partner on Team Blitz, Tommy, who had finished in 9th place in 2:32 mid. Next, someone took off my ankle chip bracelet that registers my time at different points on the course and I found out that there was blood all over my right shoe. Apparently the ankle chip had rubbed a lot of skin off my achilles, and had created a lot of bleeding. Oh well.
I stumbled in the direction of Jessie, who was waiting for me with food, warm clothes, and much needed walking support. She helped me over to the medical tent, where my achilles got bandaged up, and then she helped me walk to the food and beer tent where I would sit with her and my fellow members of Team Blitz for the next few hours.
Team Blitz, the team I race and train with, did really well. Trevor Cable was our top finisher in 2:28 high for 7th place, followed by Tommy Antenucci at 7th place in 2:32 mid, followed by myself at 10th place in 2:34:18, then Sherif whose last name I do not know since I just met him a month ago in 2:48, then Ben Beiter in 2:48 just behind Sherif, and Josh Haney in 2:55. Everyone was psyched about their time, and we were even able to win the team marathon title and our B-team got 3rd for the team marathon competition. It was an awesome day.