ORC Seaside Half Marathon

I had all kinds of lovely titles thought up for this post. Hmmm, “I came, I saw, I conquered.” was one of them. Another one was “I’ve got one word for you … “

Let’s start off with I’ve got one word for you.

Wind.

Gusts up to 30+ miles per hour kind of wind.

Not fun.

Now, the other working title: I came, I saw, I conquered.

I came. It took me 2½ hours to drive to Seaside Heights from Allentown. It was dark and raining and slick roads make me nervous. I arrived at my destination around 8:45 am and headed inside Spicy’s to pick up my bib and registration materials. We got a nice looking tech shirt, a 13.1 sticker with the name of the race, a couple of pens, a magnet, some tissues and that’s about it. Just after picking up my stuff Joy called me to tell me she was there and we got to meet in person finally (she is so awesome!) and then we headed out to my truck so that I could gather my race gear and put on my racing flats. My phone rang and it was Lisa from the Runners World forum. I eventually got the chance to meet her as well when we were lining up at the starting line.

I saw. Joy and I headed out for a 2 mile warm up jog. That was perfect for gauging the temperature and wind. We shed some layers and headed over to the starting line. Let me mention right here that the ocean was looking pretty rough, waves were crashing into the shore and the wind was strong. I knew today was going to be really, really tough. However, I was still hopeful. So, at the starting line I look around for the 1:45 pacer, locate him and line up with him and a couple others who were looking to run that time.

I conquered. The race was a flat, out-and-back course which first headed south on the boardwalk and then into Island Beach State Park. A gorgeous park, by the way.  The first two miles are on the boardwalk, mile markers were posted along the way but I missed a couple of them so I didn’t get my mile 2 or 7 splits. The first half of the course flew by. I ended up ahead of the pacer and then slowed down to get back with him because at that point I told myself I didn’t want to regret that move later on. I hit 52 minutes at the turnaround which was exactly at the half-way point, so that would be 6.55 miles.

Splits to this point:

mile 1 – 7:56
mile 3 – 15:45 (7:52 pace)
mile 4- 8:14 – slowed down to run with pacer
mile 5 – 8:04
mile 6 – 7:49

And this is where the race took a turn for the worse. This is where you head back north and into the wind. 30-40 mph gusting winds. Constant winds. I’m talking leaning into it type of wind. Okay, you get the picture. I fell off the pacer but I could still see him. “That’s okay,” I told myself. This wind is crazy! I missed the mile 7 marker but spotted all the mile markers after that. I started searching for them and hitting the split button. (Remember, I wore my Ironman watch instead of my Garmin and I am so glad I did!) My pace is slowing, dramatically. But I was still making decent time even if my splits weren’t what I hoped they would be.

All of a sudden, struggling against the wind, gusts slapping me incessantly, I knew I wasn’t going to hit my goal, the effort I was putting into this seemed so pointless, this was no longer a race for me. Now it was a matter of me just finishing and getting back inside that restaurant and out of this wind! My feet were soaking wet from all the puddles that were in the state park, some puddles stretched across the entire road and you had no choice but to run through them. It started raining again once I hit mile 7 and my face was wet and salty. All I could think of was ending this torture. At mile 10 I decided that I wasn’t going to push anymore. Now I jogged. It was still really hard to run against the wind but at least at this pace I wasn’t trashing my legs as badly as in the previous handful of miles.

Splits for second half of race:

mile 8 – 19:01 (9:30 pace)
mile 9 – 8:55
mile 10 – 9:08
mile 11 – 10:00
mile 12 – 10:00
mile 13.1 – 9:08

I was okay with this decision. You know, every time you toe the line it’s a gamble. The one thing you have absolutely no control over is the weather. You can control everything else: your training, nutrition, how much sleep you get … Today’s weather didn’t look good, it hasn’t for several days and I decided to go run the race regardless of the weather. I knew it would be tough. I knew there was only a very small chance that I’d succeed at hitting my goal of 1:45. I feel very confident that I can run 1:45. I am trained to run that time. It’s unfortunate that my race and the weather collided so badly. There will be many more opportunities for me to reach my goal and for now it’s time for me to turn my attention to other things.

I’d like to mention that Joy had an amazing race. While this was definitely not a PR race she did end up with a new one and I’ll point you in her direction for her to unveil her amazing effort and experience. Congratulations Joy! I’m really glad I had the chance to meet you today and wish you luck with your training for Richmond.

I got to hang out after the race with a really nice guy named Chris (hi Chris, in case you make your way over here to my blog.) He ran with Joy today and when I was walking back to Spicy’s I heard him talking about running with her and we struck up a conversation. Chris has been running one to two half marathons a weekend for almost every weekend in 2009. I think he’s currently at race #44 on his way to 50 or more half marathons for the year. Just yesterday he ran a new PR north of Pittsburgh. That’s right, the Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. Something like 7 hours away today’s race. Amazing.

So, a good day and quite an adventure.

Oh yea, I forgot to mention, I placed third in my age group today. I got a beach towel with the name of the running club (Ocean Running Club) and the race embroidered on it. Cute. And hilarious that my 1:55:01 got me a 3rd place finish. I’ll post my usual stats once they are available. I’m not sure how many total people ran today but I did finish 148th.

Final time: 1:55:01

Overall: 148/595 (24.9%)
Age group: 3/36 (8.3%)
Gender: 32/278 (11.5%)

Total climb: 78 feet / 24 m
Total elevation change: 156 feet / 48 m