I headed up to Cocoa on Saturday pretty early so I could pick up my race packet and check into the hotel before the FSU vs. Florida game started. Packet pick up was at Kennedy Space Center which I had never been to. I was almost tempted to actually take a tour….key word “almost.” My hotel was in Melbourne, so I decided to take the scenic route down to the hotel on A1A through Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach and Satellite Beach, none of which were very impressive. I was also almost tempted to stop by Ron Jon Surf Shop to get a T-Shirt but easily resisted. I made it to the hotel just in time for kick off. I not include my thoughts of the game.
The race started at 6:15am, so I was up and moving at 4am. It was 50 degrees out, but felt more like 30. I made it to the race start with plenty of time to eat my PB&J, Banana and Coke Zero in my warm car before heading to the porta potty and the start line. A major highlight of the race was that I only had to wait for about 2 minutes in line to go to the bathroom. Unbelievable right?
At the last minute I decided to try and stick with the 4 hour pacer. Her name was Amy and she was running her 70th marathon. Pretty amazing since she only seemed to be in her late 30’s. She gave everyone in the pace group jingle bells to put on our shoes, which at the time I thought was cute, but would later regret. There were about 15 people in the pace group, all very nice and friendly. I enjoyed chatting with everyone the first 8 miles or so. Amy took a 15 second walking break at one of the water stations, so I kept running and left the pace group behind. Most of us actually split up at that time. That was my biggest mistake of the race. I should have just stayed with her.
The first 15 miles were awesome. I was running at a great pace and felt amazing. I actually caught up to the 3:55 pace group and hung with them for about 3 miles. All I could think about is the fact that I was on pace to cut 20 minutes of the Marine Corps Marathon PR from a few weeks ago. I stopped to walk through a water station around mile 18 and lost the 3:55 pace group. I couldn’t seem to catch up. They were only 10 seconds ahead of me…but they kept on pace and I was getting slower and slower every mile. At that point I still thought I had a good enough cushion to finish in 4 hours.
Miles 22-26.2 were absolutely dreadful. I wanted to cry. For most of the race I didn’t even listen to music. I think I was on a mental high speculating that I was going to blow my PR out of the water. I tried to turn my music on during the last few miles, but it just annoyed me. I suffered through the last few miles in silence, with exception to the damn jingle bells on my shoes. Then I saw Amy pass me which was very disappointing. There went my goal of a 4 hour marathon. She was running all alone though. No one in our pace group could keep up with her which made me feel a little better.
My Garmin had shut off for some reason at .6 miles, so at that point I had no clue what my finish time was going to end up being. I was pleasantly surprised when I FINALLY made it to the finish line. 4:02:15! A new PR. The two minutes and 15 seconds will haunt me for the rest of my life. I should not complain…I cut 13 minutes of my Marine Corps Marathon time…which is pretty hard to do in a three week period of time.
Overall I am glad I did it. It was an interesting experience traveling by myself to a destination race.
