“Like the marathon, life can sometimes be difficult, challenging and present obstacles, however if you believe in your dreams and never ever give up, things will turn out for the best."
-Meb Keflezighi, U.S. Oympic Marathoner
2014 was always the year I was targeting to punch my ticket to Boston. This is the year my BQ standard would go to 3:25 standard for 2016 qual year this fall. I always wanted to take one shot at 3:15 this year for 2015. Looking back I don’t think I was ready emotionally to be all in for a BQ last year in Philly, but if Philly taught me anything it gave me confidence I can do this with strong finish I had and would help me as I entered a new marathon training cycle.
I really had a hard time figuring out what the goal race would be this spring not unlike any other time trying to fit it in with my family’s schedule. My options were limited and the Ocean Drive Marathon in Cape May, NJ seemed like best fit as course goes and weather (or so I thought).
The Hanson advanced plan from their book worked so well for Philly used for training again. I had a solid training cycle this time around more so than Philly with not missing any time with any ailments. It was probably my toughest cycle to date for sheer fact most of my quality the first few months was done exclusively done on the treadmill at my second home the Y. This was most I’ve run on the treadmill since my first year of running. You get used to it after a while but still tough. I am a believer of getting workout in as intended vs. dealing with snow and ice and risking a serious injury. I still managed to get bulk of the miles including my long runs outside with solid mileage in the peaks weeks leading to the taper. Averaged 64 miles per week going into taper which is the highest I’ve averaged in my previous 6 marathons. I felt prepared for the task at hand for #7.
Race weekend I left in morning for my 4-5hr drive to Cape May. It was only fitting I had to drive thru Philly to get there passing by the Art Museum and the Rocky steps put things in perspective. A reminder of how Philly went down and focused me that it would not be a repeat of that. I got to Wildwood for expo (if you want to call it thatJ ) and met up with my friends Kevin and Kim from my running group who were also running. This is always the fun part of the marathon outside of the race itself.
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| Hanging at the expo with my running buds. |
The weather leading up to the race really was not looking favorable with rain and nasty headwinds in the 20-25mph range. Tried not to think about that much as week went by but hard to when you’re so focused on a goal for so many months and weather does not want to cooperate. At least thought about downgrading my goal during race week and would make a final decision come race day.
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| Ready to rock! |
Race morning woke up before alarm as is the norm for me. I actually slept pretty good and was not too nervous, but no matter how many you run you still get the butterflies. Weather looked like it would hold out and wind did not look like it would be an issue at the start. I decided a BQ would still be attempted and revise as I ran if weather took a turn for worse. Kevin and I drove to finish at Sea Isle City to take shuttle down to start where we met up with Kim. We had plenty of time to kill as race did not start until 9am. Race organizers had it set-up that runners could hang out in hotel nearby start to stay warm and not have to hang out in cool weather. We were all thankful for that.
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| Chilling before the race |
One last trip to the bathroom I started to make my way to the start. My back felt a little stiff walking to start. I tweaked it day before somehow but felt OK to run and sitting around for a while probably contributed to that. Gun went off exactly at 9am and I was off running my 7th marathon.
Miles 1-6– 7:37, 7:19, 7:27, 7:26, 7:39, 7:26
Race started and just tried to find a groove early on. Not used to that flatland being from hilly central PA so finding my pace was hard at first. First few miles were short by .05. but that’s normal. Clock had me at 7:19 that first mile but weatch read 7:38 when I hit 1.00 mark. Lot of turns in the early miles with first bridge for a “hill”. Took it easy up it but might have been too conservative with it. Wind was calm to mile 6 but I was not sure it would last.
Miles 7-13 – 7:29, 7:46, 7:55, 8:00, 8:13, 7:53, 8:03
Another bridge at miles 8-9. Wind picked up again around Mile 8-9 too. Wind was not serious but enough to feel like I was working harder than I should at this point. Hit boardwalk at about same time too and wind really picked up coming off the ocean. It was at about Mile 10 I decided it was not a day to BQ, but still run a solid race today as best I could. Slowed the pace to 7:50-8:00 range hitting the 13.1 mark at 1:41. Still felt confident I could run something in 3:20-3:25 range at this point.
Miles 14-19 – 7:52, 8:32, 8:28, 8:15, 8:27, 8:49
I got a little break from the wind miles 14-17. This part of race had a nice flat portion from Mile 15 to 23. The headwind was really starting to blow at about Mile 17-18 and really was hard to maintain my pace. Just kept running what I could at this point. Really started to slow down, but never thought about walking.
Miles 20-26.2 – 9:23, 9:46, 9:59, 9:58, 10:03, 9:18, 9:24, 8:08 (last .2)
Wind was becoming too much to bear. I was really struggling at this point and my hands were numb from lite rain and wind blowing. I cursed at the wind a few times to make myself feel better. (It didn’t btw! J ) I was not giving in and I was going to finish this race strong and still PR. That was all I cared at this point. I walked thru water stations just to give me slight breather and seemed to help. I saw lot of runners walking at this point as the wind had broken them. I was not that runner today. Something happened at Mile 24. I don’t know if it was my brain telling me I was almost done or just found a another gear. Pretty much knew I had a PR at this point and that kept me going. I just wanted this to be over. I hit Mile 26 and just gave it all I had left and crossed the finish at 3:40:46. Relived it was over and by far toughest marathon I have run to date.
I finished 92nd overall out of 600+ runners and 25 out of 79 in the 40-44 AG. Not the race I was hoping for, but I ran a solid race and PR’d to boot so it was a win for me today. This race really makes me wonder what I can do on a good weather day and gives me the drive to work even harder now to get to Boston. Keep moving forward.
Thanks for reading!
