Miami Marathon
Before the Race
After the usual flight down to Miami (late departure, late arrival), I arrived about 11:15pm just in time to wait for the van to take me to the convenient off-site Hertz location. After a mere 50 minutes or so waiting for a car to be prep’d, I was on my way to my step-sister’s house. She was, of course, thrilled to see me (at about 1am) so we stayed up ‘til 2:30am or so talking…
The next day we mapped out my day-before strategy, and proceeded to blow it. Since the race was to start at 6am, my sister’s family (Doug/Donna, Jake (7), and Evan (2)) decided to drive their RV down to the friends’ house (Bob/Cathy, Christopher (5), Michael (3), and Katie (1)) where I was to spend the night, since they live right on the marathon course about a mile from the start. I finally went to pick up my race packet about 7:30pm, thinking that I’d just run in and out quickly (we’d had such a late lunch, I decided against the pre-race pasta dinner), but when they handed me my envelope there was a note written on it to see Kim Ottaviani. I’d forgotten that my nephew’s first-grade teacher was one of the race organizers and I was supposed to stop and say ‘Hi’. So, I hunted her down and enjoyed talking with her, and meeting her relay team members as well as Lisa Dorfman, who expects to qualify for the Olympic Marathon Trials (jumping ahead, she was the first woman finisher the next day). Well, I finally left around 9:00, worried about getting enough sleep. Back at Bob’s house, I stayed up long enough to visit a little with everyone and then headed off to bed around 10:30. I didn’t sleep very well or long, but I was still feeling pretty good when the alarm went off at 4:30am Sunday – yea, now I can finally get going…
After eating a PowerBar and the usual long-run preparation, I headed out for a slow jog (it was already around 70 degrees) to warm up and then came back to grab some coffee and complete the pre-race rituals. Bob had copied my race number and pace chart so that they could try to predict when I’d be where on the course and plan on seeing me as much as possible (within a couple block radius of their house, anyway). They figured to see me at mile 1.5, 12, 14, and the finish. I left for the start at around 5:35am, and found that, while walking through the park was more scenic, it also took longer – I arrived at the start line about 5:55. It turned out that I needn’t have worried, since the start was delayed until 6:10 to allow for some misdirected runners.
The Race
Since the field was small (about 350 marathoners registered, 250 finishers, plus around 450 half-marathoners and 20 relay teams), I was able to stand about 10 feet behind the start (without feeling guilty) and there was no crowding or other problems at the start. I set off at a comfortable pace, trying to use my heart-rate monitor to judge whether my pace was correct (I planned on finishing in 3:15 - 3:30). I had guessed that around 165 would be necessary, and was fortunate to quickly find some people running at the same pace who confirmed that they were shooting for 3:10-3:15. I felt great; just anxious to get further down the road. The course was approximately a two-loop half-marathon course, so I did look forward to seeing other runners throughout the race and also benefitting from knowing the course better on the second loop.
I passed by Bob and Doug at about the 1.5 mile mark (there was no way Donna and Cathy were going to get up that early) and saw Kim at mile 4, as she was helping with the aid station and waiting for her leg of the marathon relay. I saw Bob and Doug again at around mile 12, and then everyone (including all the children) at around mile 14, video cameras running. By this point, I was within two seconds of my low target pace. There’d been some slower miles and some faster miles, but I was always within about 25 seconds of target for all of the mile markers that I saw to that point. Unfortunately, it was now time for the long stretch where I wouldn’t have any family support, and I was starting to doubt whether I’d had enough water at the early stops. My pace slowed gradually, and I was feeling hot, light-headed, and my arms were a bit numb. As you might guess, this is where the mental games (and doubts) began. By mile 17-18, I was convinced that I would have to spend more time at the water stations and probably walk at some point in order to recover. Somewhere in mile 19-20, I broke down and walked for a while. I felt broken. I was disappointed that I would not achieve 3:15, but still had hope of breaking 3:30.
Then things got even worse. In addition to the mental battle, which resulted in numerous stops/starts as I tried to psyche myself into running more and walking less, the physical discomfort became worse by the walk/run transitions. I felt so fortunate to have no joint pain (on all of my long runs, I’d had a problem with my knee, and also worried about my ankle and feet since they’ve been prone to problems), but now I had to face just general pain in what felt like all of my legs’ muscle fibers. I “survived” from aid station to aid station (if I were designing a course, I’d pack them in at this point, since they offer both physical and mental relief). From mile 19 to 23, I intermittently walked and ran, with just one mile that I jogged completely. Finally, after an aid station around mile 23, I decided that I could jog/run the rest of the way.
By mile 24, I was actually feeling pretty good again and trying to estimate my new target (during the crisis period, I figured I’d be lucky to stay below 4 hours). I guessed around 3:40, but hoped to somehow get below 3:38. At mile 25, I had my heart rate back up and felt like I was actually back on pace. From this point on, the race was actually very easy – I could taste the end, and there were a lot of landmarks and turns. The finish was at the stadium in Tropical Park – what a great finish! I tried to press a little, but not too hard for fear of injury or unnecessary muscle damage when I knew it couldn’t make any appreciable difference in my finish time. During the last couple of miles, I’d already passed a few people and once I reached the track I was about 30 seconds ahead of the last person I passed and there was no one else in range. As I turned into the last straight-away, I saw that the clock was just approaching 3:38, and I just concentrated on the finish chute and ran. I didn’t notice the time on the clock as I ran under it, but I did stop my own watch as they were tearing the tag off my runner’s number.
After the Race
Only then did I notice Kim and this crowd of people wearing my number (66) just ahead. Everyone, all the way down to 1-year-old Katie was wearing my number, and the baby strollers were decorated with balloons, pinwheels, and more 66s! After Kim congratulated me, she warned me that she’d asked a Miami Herald reporter to interview me for a short blurb for the paper the next day. Meanwhile, Doug and Bob were running their video cameras, attempting to “interview” me, but I was only interested in food and drink. Donna was a great scout, helping me to gather food as fast as I could consume it. I think I had some of everything, and there was a lot! Kim was back on stage, and tried to call me up to meet the reporter, after explaining that I’d come down just to run this race, my first marathon. I ignored her, and kept eating…
Finally, Donna and I wandered over near the stage, hoping to make a quick exit (the families were anxious to get back to make breakfast and it was starting to look like rain) without running into the reporter. Unfortunately, Kim saw us and again made an announcement (this time including “and his sister, Donna”, which made her very happy) so I was compelled to talk to this reporter, who was obviously not very interested in talking to me. Anyway, after that we were finally on our way back to Bob’s house, and I was not mentioned in the paper, other than being in the list of finishers: 82 men’s finisher, in 3:38:14 (although my watch claimed 3:38:13 and the video tapes confirmed it, who’s going to quibble over a second?).
The rest of the day was spent eating and drinking, other than the two hour-long naps I took. By the end of the day, I was feeling like an invalid, and really dreading the next day. Anyway, I finally got back to my sister’s house and to bed at around midnight. Then my nephew, Jake, got sick (that made me feel better about just having sore muscles), which led to a less-than-peaceful night.
The next thing I remember was Donna asking me if I could walk the next morning. Jake’s teacher (Kim again) had called to say that Jake had missed the photographer taking pictures for some sort of class photo collage, so she wanted Donna to bring him in (Donna helps out with the class quite frequently anyway, so they’re used to her dropping in and out, with two-year-old Evan in tow – of course, he’s the darling of the class). This also gave Kim another opportunity to put me on the spot by asking me to talk to the class about my marathon experience. Fortunately, she didn’t make me suffer too long, so after a brief synopsis of my experience, we also described the relay race since the class had wanted to know if Kim had run the marathon with me, and then she had them all work on their daily journals. Since she gave them the opening couple of sentences, I have to face the fact that there are about three dozen first-graders out there with a journal entry that begins “Yesterday, Jake’s Uncle Tim ran a big race. It is called a marathon, which is 26 miles.”
Since I’m getting tired, and even the hardiest of you must be bored by now, I’ll fast-forward to the end… After staying up until 3am again, I awoke at 6am to find that Jake had come out to the family room to watch TV and wait for me to wake up. He, of course, wanted to know why I couldn’t stay longer (guilt, guilt). At least turning in the rental didn’t take nearly as long as getting it in the first place (although finding the off-site lot was a bit of an adventure – I wasn’t exactly paying attention when I finally got it, and counted on their being plenty of obvious signs near the airport). After standing around in the gate area for a half-hour (if you’ve never been to Miami airport, don’t go; if you have, you should understand why standing was the only option), we got on the plane and left (characteristically) late. After getting all the way up to seventh in line to take off, the pilot informed us that the plane behind us had radioed that we’d sucked some newsprint into our port engine, so we had to leave the line and wait for maintenance to come inspect the engine (I’ll have to suggest that trick to Bob the next time he’s here – it seems like a simple way to move up the line). Anyway, from there on out, everything was perfectly (and blissfully) uneventful, and I found myself home, once again worrying about work and back to normal.
So, if you’re still reading this – why aren’t you working?!
Tim
P.S. Yes, I’m still looking forward to the Pittsburgh Marathon, and another chance to break 3:15.