18 Mile Run - RunOther

I didn't really know what to expect at the start of the race. I thought I was fully recovered from my prior race but I had lingering doubts about whether my legs would hold up for the entire 18 miles. I did this race for the first time last year, and finished it better than I had expected at 2:29 (an 8:19 pace). This year I set my goal at beating that time. I figured I would start at 8:30 pace, and if I felt good after a few miles, I'd pick it up.

My friend John said he would go for a 7:30 pace, and I told him good luck and I wasn't going to try to follow him. Apparently I changed my mind when the gun went off, and found myself running just behind John. My garmin said that it was a 7:30 pace. Interesting. There were plenty of other runners at that pace, it seemed like a nice group, so I went with that. There'd be plenty of time to slow down later.

I figured I'd to a system check every couple of miles and assess whether I can keep running at that pace. Up until mile 5 or so, everything was functional, my RPE was good, so I figured I would try to keep this pace until half-way point (9 miles).

My pace during that segment ended up fluctuating between 7:28 (mile 3, my fastest) and 7:38. John had gone out faster (he told me later that at the beginning he was sub-7:30, down to 7:22), so I lost him pretty quickly. I could see him up ahead up until mile 2.5 (remember, flat and straight course), but no longer after that.

Around mile 8, the race passes in front of my house, where my wife and kids would be. Running faster than I thought, I was getting there a lot sooner than I told them and I started worrying that I'll pass before they got out. But when I got there, my wife was already out, yelled out encouragement and blew me a kiss as I ran by. She also told me that John was about a minute ahead of me.

Getting to mile 9, I thought I would stay with that pace longer, so I set the half-marathon mark as my new goal. As I got there, I hit lap on my garmin and saw a 1:38 half marathon time - which is a half-marathon best for me by several minutes!

From that point on however, I felt the fatigue settle in and my legs started getting heavy. I started slowing down, to 7:40, then 7:50, then miles 15, 16, 17 were all just over 8:00. Those miles are also tough because they're lonely, as the race goes through Harvey Cedars and Loveladies, towns with large private homes and not much else, so not many spectators. At this point the field was also pretty spread out, so I wasn't encountering many other racers either.

However, about 1.5 miles from the finish, entering Barnegat Light, I started seeing the dunes at the end of the island, which gave me a mental boost. Crowds started apperaring at the side of the road as well, yelling encouragement, and the cross streets had numbers that were counting down, I started noticing them around 30, and figured that was the number of blocks from the finish, which didn't seem that much. So I got to pick up the pace a bit for the final mile.

As we rounded the curve to enter the park, there was a tremendous amount of energy in the crowd, and found that I had enough for a kick. I saw my wife and kids on the left just before the finish, screaming their heads off, and managed to sprint and hold off a guy coming up fast to pass, and even passed a couple more runners just before chute.

Past the finish line, I was handed a card that said 108. Much better than last year, when it said 154 (but I secretly hoped I could break into the top 100 this year). Regdless, my time improved more than 10 minutes from last year, and before the race I wasn't even thinking that I would have a below-8:00 pace, so I was super happy.

Go out a bit slower and try to maintain pace for the entire race.

Grabbed a bottle of water and a powerbar, and immediately lined up for a massage (only a couple of people in line). Then I joined my family and hang out for a few minutes, found John, and drove back home.

After taking a shower, we headed back to St. Francis for post-race food and award ceremony.


Not a thing, this went better than expected.


This race has superb orgahization, from packet pickup to post-race food and awards, everything is top notch. If I could suggest anything to improve, I'd add a tech shirt option and a few more buses to the start line - I didn't take the bus, but the lines were _very_ long.