Inaugural Navy Marathon - RunMarathon

Ok, Marathons are hard. I know this, most of us know this. Unless you are some kind of super uber athlete who feels no pain you know that a Marathon is hard. The whole point of this Marathon was to use it as a long supporeted training run and really to give us an excuse to travel to a warm climate and race - or what my FTP and I refer to as a Race-Cation.


Well, we had intended to run somewhere warm and the temps actually ended up being perfect but THE WIND WAS BRUTAL. It turns out that we had sustained winds of 31 MPH with gusts up to 42 MPH. The wind was never really completely behind us to give us a tail wind...at one point we got probably about a quarter tail wind with the rest coming across us but for the most part it was blowing cross wind. There were literally a couple of times it almost blew me off my feet and I was definitely running sideways more than running forward in places. Then once we hit the turn around at mile 18 and headed back to the finish it was 8 miles of head and head/cross winds... to say that it was a tough race doesn't even do it justice. It was physically taxing as any marathon is but the wind, with as strong as it was just beat us up...and it made it a really tough mental battle. It's amazing how in a race like that something so small, so minute, something that wouldn't even phase you in any other race under normal conditions, whether positive or negative can be such a big deal.

At about mile 17 A gust came up and took my visor right off, it was like slow motion I felt it going but couldn't grab it...I chased a few steps after it but realized there was no way I was going to get to it before it went into the bay. I was totally distraught because I didn't have the energy to go after it let alone sprint after it and it was my visor that I picked up from the MCM in 2011 as a token of my first full marathon. I watched it go and tears started to stream down my face, but I just kept plugging forward as I was at the base of a bridge leading out to the causeway that took my out to the mile 18 turn around. I saw my FTP at mile 17.5ish and stopped and gave him a hug. Luckily he couldn't see how upset I was because my eyes were hidden by my sunglasses. I got out to the turn around and came back and as I came back over the bridge the Navy Sailor who had been stationed at the base of the bridge flagged me down and ran over to me to give my back my VISOR!!!! He had seen me lose it and chased it down for me. I thanked him and gave him the biggest hug ever, I am sure that was the last thing he wanted, a smelly, sweaty, salt-crusted chick giving him a hug. That small gesture was enough to carry me running into the wind for almost a mile without walking...

It was the first time this race had been put on so it was a really small field and there was virtually no crowd support and even limited support and aid stations so I pretty much ran this entire race in my own head, but I proved to myself that I could do it and something strange happened...while I did battle mentally, it wasn't as hard of a mental fight as my first two marathons despite this being the hardest of the three. In the end I was a little wobbly by the time I crossed the finish line, my nutrition was good but a lack of aid stations in the last 8 miles left me feeling really dehydrated but I made it. I even managed a PR, and a sizable one at that. Last fall I did Columbus in 5:22:22 and I finished this one in 5:09:06, so I am really happy with myself. I have had pretty consistent volume of 17-23 miles a week but I was really happy with this performance considering the conditions on the day and the fact that my longest run this year to date was 11 miles.

Despite the wind and the battle, I can say that it was a beautiful course and I am glad that I had the opportunity to have participated.

Nothing.

Not a danged thing. I don't think I could have done any better even if I would have had a few more long runs under my belt on the year. I made the best of very tough conditions. My FTP said the only Marathon that he has done that was harder than this was the Baatan Memorial Death March


This was the first year, so I am trying not to be too critical. Apparently they had some volunteers not show up which created some shortages for them but there was poor planning because of the course lay-out they managed to have an aid station at mile 18 at the turn around but the next one was not until mile 22 - 4 miles between aid stations on the back stretch of a marathon is really rough. Futhermore I feel like they may have over advertised the post race festivities. There was an announcer announcing the finishers and someone to hand you a bottle of water and a medal and a banana, that was about it. I think as it grows and as they learn it will get better and if it weren't for the wind, this could have been a fast course.