A Runner's Ramblings: Volume 20; 8th Edition
118.2 miles run in 2025 races
Race: Mother's Day Half-Marathon
Place: Rockaway Beach, NY
Miles from home: 1227 miles
Weather: 55 degrees; 79% humidity
This race was supposed to be two things:
1. New York was supposed to be the final state in my quest to run a half marathon and marathon in all 50 states before I turn 50. (I finished the marathons in February after sitting at 49 states for a decade.)When I was planning out the remainder of this year a few months ago I noticed that that I did not have Wyoming as a half marathon run. I had to scramble since there are not a lot of races in Wyoming in the early part of the year given the weather. Even fewer fit my schedule of already necessary races. Fortunately, I found a race just one week before my 50th birthday to hopefully finish this journey. It's a little bittersweet considering I wanted to dedicate this comeback to my mother on Mother's Day but alas.
2. I was also assuming that this race was going to be my return to running fast again. From when I first started running in July after my knee replacement until January I had almost nothing but an upward arc in getting faster and stronger. Then I suffered a few setbacks at the end of January and for the better part of three months I have barely run (have literally run only 25 times on that time period with 7 of those runs being races) because of extreme pain in my left quadricep and my right calf. I really think if that had not happened I would be back below 1:30 for the half-marathon at this race.
As it so happens I'm nowhere close to that right now but the good news seems to be that I have finally worked out the muscle imbalances in my quad and calf. Now I simply have to continue working on my physical therapy, and combine that with getting back into running shape again and maybe sometime this fall I will get the times that I'm hoping for.
I then had dinner in my hotel which was about .9 of a mile away from the start of the race, relaxed in my bed, and got ready for the race which was mercifully at 9 a.m. Of course, just two days prior I realized this would make it impossible for me to catch my flight at noon and had to change that. Some rare bad travel planning on my part. Nevertheless it was like the fourth race this year where I was just going to barely make my flight home. I find it helps you run faster when you realize you will miss your plane if you don’t.
Race Morning:
With packet pickup only being before the race, I had to get up a little earlier than I would have preferred even for this “later” race to go grab my bib number. I sauntered along the “boardwalk” we would be running on (the entire thing is concrete, which was far better than the potentially slipper wooden planks I thought it was going to be) after getting my bi and went to the bathroom at a building a few hundred yards down. By the time I made it back, the runners were lined up, not on the boardwalk as I expected but rather on a narrow winding ramp that lead up to the boardwalk. I had to quickly jump through a few people to get close to the start. I knew I wasn’t going to be in primes running form but I also knew I was going to be faster than most of the people who stood between me and the cones.
Barely a word was said and we were off.
First 3.55 miles:
The course was a looped course that we ran twice with the starting/finishing point being in the middle. We would run down about 1.78 miles west before turning around and heading home. There were two small right angle turns on this westerly portion which means we would hit them three more times. Fortunately it was an extremely wide paved boardwalk and there were not a ton of pedestrians out on this overcast but humid day.
I thought that the 5K and the half marathon were delineated by the different colored bibs and as such began to count where I was in the pecking order as we streamed away. I knew the man who was very first was running the half marathon simply because he said he had been to another friend when we were in the starting corral. After that it looked like there was one other guy and then a really young fella in front of me. So I was currently sitting in fourth as we made our way down to the first turn around.
My first mile went by in a shockingly fast 7:38. I haven't run that fast in over three months. That's when I decided I needed to slow it down just to keep within what my hopeful goal for the day was which was right around 8 minutes per mile. Doing so, a man and a woman running together and another woman passed by. It seemed to me that the man was running the 5K and his companion was running the half marathon but it was hard to tell. I knew I would figure it out when we got back to the starting line because that's where their race would finish.
As we got closer to that finishing point about 15 things happened in quick succession that surprised me. The solo female runner had pulled way ahead and now it was clear she was just running the 5K. The couple running together were both running the 5K I surmised as they left the course and down the "chute". A woman who had come up from behind me with about 1/4 of a mile to the finish did not go into the finishing chute but instead showed me that she was running a half marathon. About 1/4 of a mile later another woman passed me like a rocket and now I went from thinking that I was in 5th place, to watching two people finish their race and think I was in third to two others passing me and realizing I was in fifth again. Regardless, my second and third miles had been 7:59 and 8:07 respectively and I felt really good. I might actually run faster than my goal.
To the halfway:
Now with the first half of the loop done I was looking forward to seeing what the other half had in store and just get ready to do it all again. We had a bit of a headwind heading this direction so I didn't mind terribly well my next two miles were 8:16 and 8:22. However as we headed back on the other side of this loop I was passed by two other women in quick succession. I realized they weren't speeding up; I was slowing down.
I began to wonder if I had ever been beat in the standings by four consecutive women. I'm fairly certain it's never happened in my entire racing career and it looked like if things continue to play out how they were right now that's exactly what would happen.
The woman who had shot by me as we came to the start/finish line previously was now flat out cooking. The young fella I had noticed earlier was clearly done having run the 5K and one of the other runners who I thought was running the 5K was obviously running the half marathon. At this juncture I hadn't the foggiest idea what position I was in. Plus I was beginning to feel a little tired even with a tailwind. My sixth mile showed me that I was right in what I was feeling as I only could muster 8:25.
To the 3/4 mark:
Even though it was in the mid 50s I was completely drenched with sweat. Anyone who passed me in either direction looked like they might be perspiring a little bit and I wondered how it is that my body will sweat as much as it does. I could tell that the second-half of this race was going to be quite difficult for me as I simply am not in shape to run the speed that I want to right now for this distance. As two male runners passed me near the turn around at the western end I simply let them go by without a fight. Usually, I at least speed up a little bit and make people work for it when they pass me but I did not have it in me today.
One of the women who had passed me earlier was passing me again. I had seen that she had stopped to use the bathroom and was surprised it took her this long to catch up. It made me feel perhaps I wasn't slowing as much as I thought me because she looked strong as heck.
The boardwalk was filled with more pedestrians now and for the most part they noticed that a bunch of people seemed to be running in close proximity wearing bib numbers and tried to stay out of our way. Of course, as you can probably assume, others did not and almost looked bothered that we dare get in the way of their meandering.
I was now about 20 to 30 seconds slower per mile than what I was hoping for and it wasn't getting much better. I grabbed a small water bottle that the volunteers handed out and crushing the entire thing in my hand, jet-blasted 8 ounces of water straight down my throat.
To the Finish:
The remaining part of this race was me passing some people who passed me then having them pass me back and then just this game of back and forth between a bunch of us. It seemed a few other people were beginning to feel the effects of the humidity as well. It was indeed nice to have the Atlantic Ocean to our side at one point but for the most part I was staring 10 feet ahead of me at the pavement and just trying to do left, right, repeat.
I had one young lady slide by with about a mile to go and this one really hurt because she had been so far behind me earlier. My goal for today had been to run 1:44 but after hitting the halfway point right on pace it was clear that I had lost about a minute per mile for the second-half.
I'm truly hoping these extremely slow times are finally going to be put in the rearview mirror. Well, not totally because I know my final state half marathon in Wyoming starts and finishes at 8700 feet above sea level with a 500 foot climb the entire way back. I'm only hoping that somehow in the next two weeks I can get enough fitness in me to not make this my slowest half marathon ever. Even if it is, however, the states will have been finished and this will have been my 15th half marathon since late July of last year.
I truly think I should be the poster boy for my knee surgeon's practice.
One more to go.
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