No heat issues this year, so we were able to leave Friday morning and get down there by the afternoon for some outlet shopping before checking in and relaxing at our hotel. We stayed in the same sweet room with a jacuzzi tub and had a great time overflowing the tub with bath bubbles, stealing snacks from the lounge, and partaking in afternoon cookie refreshments.
Race morning was chilly, but I still stuck to my plan of a short sleeves and a skirt for the long race ahead and telling myself that this was not nearly as cold as the start of the Marine Corps Marathon. I had to pee and contemplated skipping since the bathroom line was so long and I didn't think there was enough time before the race start, but decided to wait in line to pass the time anyways and made it out of there just minutes before the start.
The race took off a few minutes after 7:00 AM and the first 9 miles were familiar territory since it's the same course as the half-marathon up to that point. I got through those miles without any problem, keeping a comfortable pace between 7:50's to low 8:00's. At mile 3, I noticed the mile markers were off by 0.3 miles and sensed that something was wrong. Usually there is some variation between my watch and the miles markers, but never by this much. When the next few miles were consistently off by 0.3 miles, I sensed that something was definitely wrong but kept wondering if we were ever going to make up that distance. It turns out that the park ranger in the out-and-back portion through Cape Henlopen Park between miles 2 and 3 messed up the turnaround point and turned us around too early.
After we parted from the half-marathoners, the wind really started picking up in the next portion. I was trying my very hardest to draft off of people in front of me, but sometimes the wind would be blowing from the sides and drafting didn't help. I was also trying to run tangents, so staying directly behind someone and following their route was also not very effective. Someone from MCRRC's XMP recognized me and said as he was passing me, "I see you learned from XMP to run the tangents." I commented, "And also to draft people," looking towards the big guy in front of me I was running behind and telling the XMP guy, "Shhhh, don't tell him!" The wind was definitely affecting me and I was starting to feel moody. I also had the uncomfortable feeling of having to pee and was contemplating whether it was worth losing the time to feel better since the feeling was not going away, especially since I was still taking water at all the water stops. At mile 10, I was a little annoyed with the girls running the water stop because they were yelling they had Gatorade and I (as I do at every aid station) yelled out for water, so someone with water can hold their hand up and I can easily identify them. At this station, when I yelled out for water, the girls started shuffling around all confused and took way to long to go to the table and get water that I had to skip it and keep moving. At mile 10.5, I finally stopped to use the port-a-pot and lost about 45 seconds there. Because of that, I lost the pack of runners I was temporarily keeping pace with and had to face the winds alone. For the next mile or two, I was completely alone with the next persons about 20 seconds ahead of me and behind me.
After we crossed the bridge over into Lewes, the wind felt even worse. There were portions on the road where the sidewinds were blowing so hard that my leg in the air would blow into my planted leg and I would have to catch myself from tripping. The wind always seemed to be blowing into us from ahead or the sides, never from the back to help us out. Whenever it was a headwind, I kept thinking on the bright side that it would be a tailwind to help us out when we're heading back but that tailwind never came until the last 6 miles! Ugh, so annoying! The wind made it hard for me to hold even an 8:20 pace. But I kept struggling to stay in the low 8:00's, that the effort felt more like 7:30's. I was kind of surprised to have a few hills (or more like gentle bumps) to run through around mile 14 back in the dunes of Cape Henlopen, but was finally glad to have caught up to the person 20 seconds in front of me and pass him and be among other runners again. The course was definitely kind of weird in having us do a bunch of lollipops and loop-dee-loops and out-and-backs, but running in the park definitely brought back camping memories. At mile 16, we reached the end of one out-and-back portion that took us to a great view of the ocean from above. I took a second to soak in the gorgeous view before turning around and dealing with the annoying winds again.
During this somewhat quiet section, I could feel a woman behind me drafting off of me. In a way, I didn't blame her for using this strategy because I would have done the same, but I didn't like being that person being drafted off of! I started zigzagging to test if she would do the same and entertained myself with that for a bit. Finally she came up alongside me and asked what my goal time was. I told her I didn't really know, since I was trying to hold an overall 8:00 minute pace but the winds were making me struggle to hold even an 8:20 pace now. She told me about how desperately she wanted to qualify for Boston and I was thinking, "Oh great! Another one of those Boston-crazed runners that must qualify or else!" I had been there before and assured her she was on a great pace for breaking 3:35 with ease. She kept saying, "We can do this. We just need to find a big guy to draft off of." I didn't really want to stick with her and let her go on without me.
By mile 19, I just felt trashed from the wind. I stopped and walked through that aid station, which was around this building with sand all over the path and major gusting winds. The Gu temporarily made me feel refreshed again and I was able to hold miles 20 and 21 to 8:06 and 8:11, respectively. I took another Gu at 22, holding it would keep me from bonking, but as soon as we were back on the gravel trail portion, my legs slowed down significantly. During this portion, my pace dropped to 8:30's - 8:50's. I thought the gravel portion would be welcomed familiarization, but kicking off of loose pieces of tiny rocks proved to be a surprising challenge. By this point, I was half-trying to calculate whether I'd be under 3:35 (running the full course and not the short 0.3 course because I knew I'd definitely be under with the short course) and half not caring anymore. When I reached the road and the familiar streets of Rehoboth in the last mile, I was able to turn it up again and picked it up to 7:30 pace. I was still wondering if the course was ever going to lengthen out to the full 26.2 miles, but when I was told the finish line was just around the course and only had 25.8 miles, I finally knew it was going to come up short and that my time wouldn't be accurate. Then I started thinking, f@ck, if they extrapolate the times and adjust it according to what a full course would be, I really need to book it and give myself a window of time to work with to be under 3:35. I sprinted with every might through that last stretch to the finish line (no hamming for the finish line cameras) and was panting after I crossed the line.
I finished the 25.9 mile race in a time of 3:32:28. It would've been a PR if it was a full course, although whether or not it would've been under 3:35, I don't know. I probably would've kept booking it at full out force and made it merely seconds under. Unfortunately, I think my extrapolated time will put me just seconds over. But at this point, the Boston Athletic Association has pissed me off in more ways than one and I'm not even sure I care to run it anymore. Part of me is curious to see what the huge draw and awe is about this race people die to qualify for, but the other part of me is just indifferent about qualifying. I know with full confidence that I can run a 3:35 marathon now (unlike when I doubted my capabilities at LPRM of running a 3:40 marathon), so I don't really care anymore. I am still focused on my ultimate goal of trying to break 3:30, something I would've never dreamed possible the day I crossed the finish line of my very first marathon, so proud to have broken 4:30. Or even the day I broke 4:00 hours and was over the moon happy about that.
The post-race party lived up to last year's standards and did not disappoint in any way. Chris was there to greet me with a can of Diet Coke (my favorite after any long run/race) that he took from our hotel lounge. It turns out bringing my own soda wasn't even necessary because they had pitchers of soda in the tent unlike last year, but I was still happy that he answered my request and was also thrilled and proud of my race, probably even more so than I was myself because I felt like shit. I got a little food in me and went back to the room to clean up. I then came back to the post-race tent to witness the beer competition between Chad and Chris, eat more food and drink my own beers, mingle with familiar faces (so thrilled that so many people we knew came down for this race, especially people we talked the race up to), and claim my second in AG trophy.
