New Jersey Marathon - Run

Despite starting the run with a ss shirt, arm warmers and thin gloves, my hands (and feet) were cold. I crossed the line with the 1:55 pace group close by. Soon after we started, I heard the pacer mention she forgot her watch. Umm....ok. It wasn't a huge group, but it seemed most people wanted to be nearly right on top of the pacer. I tried to move over to get some room while keeping her kinda close. I didn't want there to be a gap and all of a sudden, she's gone. I tried not to look at my watch at all except during the mile splits. Just trust the pacer. The course had a lot of turns and while I tried to run the tangents, I still found the mile markers to be off from my Garmin.

The weather was perfect (sunny and cool) and it wasn't long before I peeled my arm warmers and gloves off (which I proceeded to carry the rest of the race despite the option of tossing them).

I took a GU around miles 4.5 and 9 and carried my small hand held water bottle so I could avoid the craziness of the water stops. I felt great during the first half of the race., despite some kind of annoying people (one singing to herself with her music from her headphones and another guy in our pace group barking out his pace so far for the race even though he started after us). My legs, lungs and energy all felt good.

From the start of the race and as each mile ticked off, I questioned if I could hold the pace I needed to PR, but I kept telling myself that there was no reason I couldn't. A new PR was here for me if I worked for it. Around mile 8, I could feel myself fatigue. I tried to turn my brain off from having 5+ miles left. I just focused on being in the mile I was in. At some point, I pulled slightly ahead of the pacer and pace group, but I knew they were only about 10 steps behind me as I could hear them (and see them at the turns). Somewhere around mile 9-10, the pacer picked up the pace a bit as the mile split was 8:3X. My legs were ok, but I could tell by holding on, my breathing was pretty labored. I kept the pacer and group in sight though.

The last few miles were tough. I was getting tired and kept doing math of how much time I had to break a PR. I didn't want to miss it by a few seconds. The half and full split around mile 11.5. The last stretch is along the ocean and we had a moderate headwind. The wind was cooling, but it also made it harder to keep going at that pace. I tried to tuck in behind people to get the advantage of their draft. I hit mile 12 and felt confident I would PR, but given how bad at math I am (especially during a race), I didn't want to chance it. The final mile hurt. I was so ready to stop running. I kept picturing the finish line where I could stop. After a few turns of the course, it was finally in sight. I crossed the line with a new PR of 1 minute 12 seconds and a huge smile on my face.

Absolutely nothing. Well, maybe not doubt my abilities. Brad and Kim believed in me that I could PR. It just took a little for me to convince myself I could do it.

This race was just what I needed to kick off my season. While I was going into the race disappointed I wasn't able to do the marathon, I finished the race excited of a new PR and proud of my self and my efforts to dig deep and not take my foot off the gas the last few miles. I continued to tell myself as things hurt the last 5 miles that I've come this far and to not let the PR slip away now.

I was so happy to be done moving. I immediately stopped and bent over to catch my breath and enjoy being done. Grabbed a space blanket and medal and left the finish area to find some place along the fence line to wait for Karen. I saw her finish and met her at the end. We grabbed food and our morning clothes and linked up with her friends that were also running.

We were hobbly and navigated through the fenced off area to find a spot on the top of a small hill where we could see the course. I ran to the bathroom in the hotel nearby and just as I got back, Karen said we should move down to the fence line to wait for Brad. I thought it was a little early as it was only about 3:05 into the race, but was happy to watch the finishers. Brad had also been dealing with an injury and was going to decide at the split whether he was going to run the half or the full. He said he would probably be around 3:30 if he was doing the full. Pretty much as she made the suggestion to go to the fence and as we were walking down the hill, she said, "is that Brad?". Dear lord, yes it was. We were close enough to cheer him on and he heard/saw us. We then made a b-line back to the finish area having to deal with being re-routed with fencing/security. During the walk, I was looking up what time he needed to BQ feeling pretty confident he made it. We met up after he got food and his morning clothes bag. Karen and I were so excited to hear he ran a 3:08 with a PR and a BQ!


The piriformis was a little achy, but I didn't have the deep hip joint/hip flexor pain I've had in the past so that's fantastic!


This was a great race! It was extremely organized and well run. The post race activities were fantastic...the finish is right on the water, there are a lot of vendors and they proceed you through the finish line area with efficiency (medal, blanket, picture, food, morning clothes bag). The point-to-point race wasn't an issue as they had a ton of school buses to shuttle people after the race. The expo was very organized and really good. I liked they had pacers for both the half and the full. I would definitely do this race again and highly recommend it.