Myrtle Beach Marathon

Myrtle Beach, SC
Saturday, March 2, 2019

Background:  While it wasn't the plan, it had been two years since my last marathon (Newport Marathon in April 2017).  A spring 2018 marathon never came to fruition due to crazy work hours on a major project implementation with a complete vacation freeze for the division I work in.  A fall 2018 marathon never materialized due to a nagging nerve injury that took months to go away.

The previous marathon was April 2019,
with Tommy.
(I couldn't get him to come with me to Myrtle Beach
Marathon; for some reason he preferred to stay at home
to be there for the birth of his daughter on same day of marathon!
Congrats to Shara and him.)

Why South Carolina?  I'ts high time to get in Marathon #20, but why go all the way to South Carolina for a marathon?  Well, I really wanted to get the long runs and marathon run and done early in the season, to avoid potentially warm weather in April or May, and also to have the marathon out of the way to concentrate on other running, as this year mountain running and the USATF-New England Mountain Running Series will be a focus for me.  Looking at marathons on the east coast in March, it came down to two possibilities:  Myrtle Beach in early March, and Shamrock (Virginia Beach) in mid-March.  Shamrock didn't work due to a conflict.  I had heard good things about Myrtle Beach when I was down here with Mark and Brady just two months ago, it's billed as the flattest and fastest marathon in SC, the flights were cheap, so Myrtle Beach it is!

Myrtle Beach, with Brady, in January of this year.
The gentleman who stopped to take this pic and talk for a while
talked up the Myrtle Beach Marathon and gave me a lot of details on it.
Back home, researched it more and it fit quite nicely for me.

Goals:  You put so much time and effort into marathon training, so I typically set A, B, and C goals so that I don't have a mental breakdown and hissy-fit and sulk if I don't hit any of my goals.

• Goal A:  PR (2:51:58 from five years ago)
• Goal B:  2:56 or lower
• Goal C:  Sub-3

Yes, at this point you know the outcome, but try into get into my race experience.  From the starting line, I knew that Goal A was not happening (with an average 6:31 pace needed, and with my tendency to really slow down the last 6 miles, that likely meant I would be running a lot of 6:20 or faster miles).  Goal B seemed possibly attainable to me (6:43 average pace), and my true goal was Goal C.  Yes, I had run seven straight sub-3 marathons, but I hadn't a marathon at all in two years, my last one I eked out in 2:58:59, and I'm getting old.

Race day:  7am race start on a Saturday morning; you've got to like that!  Set the alarm for 5:15am, but had already woken up frequently and tossed and turned in the hotel room at Breakers Resort (marathon host hotel).  The hotel opened up their breakfast buffet at 5:30am for runners.  After tasting and bypassing what I thought was oatmeal (it was grits; I'm in the south; I should have known that!), I had a bagel, OJ, cereal, and some fresh fruit.  Back to the hotel room to brush teeth and liberally apply BodyGlide, and off we go.  Took a very nice shuttle bus to the start, checked my gear bag, and ran a few strides before watching the start of the crank and wheel chair.  5 minutes to go!

Well, it turns out grits do have a lot of carbs and offer some
healthy benefits (well, maybe without the pat of butter),
but race day is not the time to try something new.

Start to Mile 8:  Trying to set a pace.  Lined up about four rows back, with most of the runners in front of me sporting a half-marathon bib.  In the row behind me, there was a guy I heard being called out by his friend, "you're going to run a 2:48 today", to which I promptly turned around and told him we should switch spots as I didn't want to hold him up, but he turned me down.  There was a very mechanical countdown from 10 seconds out, and then we were off.

Start of the 2019 Myrtle Beach Marathon
(from MBM Facebook page)

With just over 3,000 runners toeing the line (~1,000 runners in the full marathon, and ~2,000 in the half), the process was surprisingly smooth.  I tried hard to keep myself in check when scads of runners were passing me, and reminded myself to just run my own race.  Doing mental calculations, I figured consistent 6:40 splits for 21 miles would give me enough cushion to run as slow as 7 minute pace for the balance of the race and chalk up a 2:56++ time.  Since I can't run super consistently, I adjusted that to a goal of running between 6:35 and 6:40.  So that's what I did.  Mile after mile.  Mile 3 was my slowest mile in the first half at 6:41 and I was a little worried that it felt harder than it should.

Mile 2:
I remember passing this dude,
as he kind of stuck out.

Much of the first few miles were on a closed off highway.  While it was neat that you had the road closed and very well policed to not let any traffic on, staring down long stretches of straight highway ahead of you was mentally tough.  I was so glad to turn off the highway about 5 miles in and then run on a shaded road adjacent to a golf course up to this neat cobblestone market area and back.  The only downside was twice going by a DJ blasting out Michael Jackson.  I know, I know, to each his own.

8 miles in we turned onto Ocean Boulevard (the main road along the ocean) to begin 8 miles on that road.  As we turned onto Ocean Boulevard, one spectator yelled out, "You have the winds at your back now, so fly like the wind".   Oh yeah, the wind does seem easier now, although to be fair, I think it was only about 10mph and not really a factor in the race.  One downside of having the wind behind you is you feel warm, and seeing the temp on a local bank display of 64 degrees already, I didn't need it any warmer.

Miles 9-17:  The long middle miles, all northbound on Ocean Boulevard.  Now I can see the "2:48 guy" (I later learn his name is Stuart) ahead of me and I'm closing the gap.  Stuart is in a pack of about 4.  About this time, a very fit, very muscular woman of about age 30 goes by easily.  Should I go with her?  No, run your own race.

Although this section is really, really long, it doesn't seem to bother me, as there are so many different tourist attractions (ferris wheel, luxury hotels, waterslides, etc) that kept changing the view, as well as the ocean on my right, that it keeps it interesting enough.  At about 10 miles in, I see a wall of people exiting onto the street a ways in front of me.  What are these people doing?  Is this a casual running group?  As I get closer, a race official yells out to me that this is part of the 5K merging now, and I can switch to use the full left lane to bypass them.  Whew!  So the 5K'ers are not in my way at all, but as this is probably close to the back-of-the-packers, my fear is that they will slow me down just by seeing people around me running so much slower that it appears to me that I'm going fast.

Approaching Jana at Mile 12
(just behind Stuart at this point)

The 5K and half-marathon courses split off about a mile later at Mile 11, and then it gets pretty lonely.  I can see Stuart ahead of me even closer now, and I catch up to him just after Mile 12.  He asks me what I'm looking to run, and I said I would be really happy to break 3.  He said "me too", and I said I thought he was trying to run 2:48?  But he said that wasn't happening.  We ran together for a while and chatted occasionally, so this was great.  He was looking to break 3 because that would be a BQ for him under the new 2020 lowered times.  We both went through the half in about 1:26:16 (6:35 average pace).  Sometime after Mile 14, I suddenly noticed Stuart wasn't with me anymore.  That's too bad, but I have to run my own race.  I don't see anyone ahead of me except on long straightaways, and the spectators out here are pretty scarce.  I was happy to finally turn off Ocean Boulevard.

Miles 18-21:  Hanging on. Pace was starting to edge over 6:40 pace here.  A guy passed me saying "that wind is really something".  Although we were into the 10mph wind again, I didn't think much of it, but it was easier to agree.  Turn around at Mile 18 - ugh; I went as wide as possibly could and still stay within the cones.

Miles 22-Finish:  The suffering.  There is about one mile bike path that we run on here, and it's really neat as it goes through a pine forest, but alas that quickly ends.  Mile 22 is my last sub-7 mile (6:57) and from there I just keep getting slower and slower.  Can you believe there is a final cone turnaround at Mile 22.5?  Remembering that was my undoing at a cone turnaround at Mile 21 at Newport, I am fearful of a repeat slowing down into the 8:xx pace and again try to turn as wide as possible.  I figure that Stuart will pass me at any moment, but he never does as he slows down even more than I do (I looked him up later and see he got his sub-3 by about 30 seconds, and I reach out to congratulate him).

Mile 22:
I look better than I feel

The final four miles continue to tick up:  7:04, 7:04, 7:20, 7:42.  I don't remember much of them as I think I was getting into that delirious zone.  We rejoined the tail end of the half-marathoners for the last 0.3 miles only, and despite all my slowing, was thrilled to break sub-3 with a comfortable cushion of two and a half minutes.

Final strides in the finishing corral
(Pic by Jana)

Coming in to the finish just behind this guy.

So why do I look dead compared to him?
Oh yeah, we both ran the same time, but I ran
twice the distance.

Final results:  2:57:27.  15th overall out of 900+.  1st in age group.  Full results here.

Finishing the marathon, I'm feeling weak and light-headed and searing pain is coming into my legs.  Jana has cold water and a towel for me, and I'm thankful for her shepherding me around in my dazed and painful state.  Over the next hour, I downed three chocolate milks, three bottles of water, and a Starbucks' iced mocha latte.

In my friend Tommy's style, a look at the pros and cons of both the race and my performance:

Pros:

• Very well organized marathon.
• Saturday race (giving you Sunday to recover).
• Excellent course marking and policing.
• Pancake flat.
• Occasional views of the ocean.
• I ran consistent near-target splits for 21 miles (kind of like Newport 2017).

Cons:

• I fell apart in the last five miles (kind of like Newport 2017).
• I wish I had gotten in more focused speed and long runs training just before my taper, but prolonged cold and bronchial issues just knocked me down.
• Expo parking was atrocious (still high marks for the event overall, it can't all be perfect).

In pain, but happy to be done.

Left to right:
Biggest finisher medal I've ever seen or gotten,
Nice bib with my name on it,
age group winner medal.

Left to right:
finisher singlet given at end ("2019 Finisher" on reverse),
race shirt for entrants.