It was bound to happen. In fact I’m kinda surprised it took until my 12th full marathon to show its face. But there it was, mile 15 of the New Jersey Marathon. I was confronted with the fact that I has lost respect for the marathon distance and toyed with dropping out of the race.
I’m not sure how it happened? Maybe the fact that I PR’d the last three races I ran (including a marathon back in November)? Maybe it was the fact that I didn’t train with a group for this race (none of the folks that I run with regularly were planning to race)? I’m not 100% sure.
I do know, and can tell you for certain that when I got to the start on Sunday morning I did not have the feeling that I was about to run 26.2 miles. Usually at the start I’m a little nervous, a little put off that I’ve signed up for another one and I mentally of kick myself for thinking that I can do this again. But then the gun goes off, I start running and before I know it, I’m half way through and feeling great.
Not Sunday. Nope, not at all.
Here’s another key issue. I forgot my music. See, when I’m deep in the miles and start feeling, achy I need a little help pushing the negativity out of my head – I do this by cranking up my tunes. However, on this particular Sunday, my tunes were sitting on my desk in a brand-spanking-new, bought-for-this-race iPod that was still connected to my computer. I was, in a word, fucked.
I ran the New Jersey Marathon back in 2011 and thought it was a nice race. At the time, I had only run three marathons. Of course, those three were all in NYC so in 2011 when I got past the 13.1 course with the other 26.2 racers, I was like – hello? Where are all the cheering crowds? Why am I listening to nothing but my and my colleague’s footfalls? I learned a valuable lesson that day; NYC is a unique race that isn’t replicated anywhere else in the world, especially in Long Branch New Jersey.
All of this to say, that while the race isn’t NYC, it’s grown into a well attended, well organized race that really brings the flavor of the Jersey Shore to a marathon (a flat marathon at that).
And I think that may have been another of my issues on Sunday. I was under the false sense of pride that since I ran a 3:44 on a flat course in November, that I would be able to run that time or better on any flat course.
Um, again, nope.
I wound up finding my friend Natalie at the start and we ran the first 15 miles together at 3:40 pace (roughly 8:20s). I was fine up until 15 when the wheels came off. I started by walking through water stations and graduated to walking at the mile markers. In fact, I walked more times during this race than I ever have before.
I cursed the marathon gods for not making the race shorter.
I considered a DNF for the first time in my life and then I hit the head winds on the way back north from the Asbury Park boardwalk- 15 M.P.H. right in the face. Talk about adding insult to injury.
I watched as one by one, the pace groups ran past me. First the 3:45 follow by the 3:50, 3:55 and finally the 4-hour runners. I was confident than I was going to beat 4 hours up until around mile 23. At that point I should have just sucked it up, put on my big boy pants and just run.
Nope.
I stopped caring about the race. And then, it was finally over.
I was angry at myself for a few days after the run thinking that I should have trained better, I should have gone out slower, I should have. . . done a million things differently.
What it comes down to is that I had a bad day. We all have them, mine just happened to fall on a day when I was signed up to run 26.2 miles with 3,000 other people.
I’ll be better next time, I’m looking for a new race to run this fall in addition to the NYC Marathon.
Anyone have any ideas for me?
I am sorry you had such a shit time :(. I did the half and because of that wind (or at least that is the story i am sticking to) I missed my half PR by less than a minute. I don't know how you did it without music!!
Way to finish you are awesome!
sorry for the bad run, e. but go back and watch one of those motivational vids you've made about your trip over the last few years in running and riding. it's about the journey. that's the important part. the doing it. not the having done it part.
(and congrats on the other, non running thing.)
We all have bad days. You could have DNF'ed but something made you keep going. It's not always about the clock. Sometimes you are reminded how insane a marathon truly is. 26.2 miles is FAR! I enjoyed the Philadelphia marathon. It's in November as well. I think 2 weeks after NYC.