Wrapping up marathon pacing season?

My marathon schedule is kinda bizarre. I've got a few "self-interested" races in the spring race season (Little Rock and Boston, and *possibly* Flying Pig, depending on the result of Little Rock), but before I get to those, I still have two pacing gigs to be prepped for. And *such* different paces, both from each other, never mind what my "self-interested" paces are.

When I'm running "for time" for myself, it's to have a sufficient BQ, meaning 3:15:00 or better.

When I'm running as a pacer, the faster end of my range is approximately 3:50:00 or 3:55:00, and typically goes to about 4:30:00. However, for my upcoming races at the end of this month, I will be running the first one at 3:50:00, and then the following week for 4:50:00. This is going to be an interesting and fun challenge. The broader my range, the more opportunities I have for pacing and getting people across the line in their respective goal times.

I don't know if it will be possible to join the pacer team for Flying Pig in early March, only after I know if my Little Rock performance suffices for BQ, but for now I'm considering it a "self-interested" race. And in the next several weeks, I'll find out if I've been added to the team for the Historic Half that takes place a couple of weeks after Flying Pig. 

Might there be other pacing opportunities that crop up before summer? Sure; we'll see. Seems like most of my pacing gigs are more in the fall season, though. Just the way it all falls out.

Nice mileage!

As we all look forward to this new year that has just begun, and some people take up a "2025 challenge", it's time to take stock of the year that was:

January: 184 mi

February: 135 mi (including Mesa Marathon)

March: 202 mi

April: 155 mi (including Coast Guard and Boston Marathons)

May: 191 mi

June: 186 mi (including Jack & Jill Poconos Marathon)

July: 219 mi

August: 209 mi (including Marathon Pour Tous @ Paris Olympics)

September: 210 mi (including Erie & Air Force Marathons)

October: 227 mi (including Army 10-Miler, and Atlantic City and Marine Corps Marathons)

November: 209 mi (including Harrisburg Marathon)

December: 200 mi (including Space Force T-Minus 10-Miler and Palm Beaches Marathon)

Not too shabby: 2327 miles on the year, and seven pacing gigs (those in bold) within the various races run.

Off to a good start, having put in two different 6-mile sessions today. The first in the morning (amid some nasty wind) practicing a very-slow-for-me pace so that I can be successful at pacing the 4:50 group at the Miami Marathon in a month. The second simply doing the pre-set workout as part of my training plan for the Little Rock Marathon, where I'm shooting for a 3:15 or better, so I can improve my usable BQ for 2026.

And I am currently set to run approximately 11-12 marathons this year - most of them as a pacer. Looking forward to the challenges!

Bailed on record attempt, still had a really good time

Alas, I was never able to secure, in advance, the necessary documentation -- or commitment from others to serve as witnesses -- to go forward with a record attempt (fastest marathon run on a ship at speed) aboard the cruise I just took. Shame, too, because conditions were favorable on the main day that I would have attempted it -- there was minimal rocking of the ship for all of the runs I did, both for days we were pulling into port and those days that we were fully "at sea." Maybe I can manage to secure this at some other point in the future - now that I know what all the requirements are, at least.

Nevertheless, the cruise was a very good time, and I would highly recommend people to go on Virgin Voyages cruises. Why? In no particular order: 1) The food in their restaurants -- and even in their galley area -- is very good. (The two of us had most of the appetizers and most of the desserts at every dinner.) 2) It is all-inclusive, so there's no concern for providing additional tips. 3) There are no children present. 4) VV doesn't sell unlimited drink plans, so you don't have drunken fools who are trying to get the value of their 15 drinks per day to make such a package "worth it." (We only came across one drunken idiot. While he was annoyingly awkward, thankfully he wasn't belligerent.) 5) If you're good at different types of puzzles and/or trivia, you can actually end up not paying for (m)any of your special drinks.

Garden of Life Palm Beaches Marathon

 

Having left the Cocoa Beach area a little on the late side, I arrived down in Palm Beach to my shift at the expo about 25 minutes late.

Mercifully, the downpour didn't occur until after I made it under the tent where MarathonPacing.com had our table. Alas, during my shift, there were very few people who actually stopped by. But, those who did, I helped answer their questions about which pace group they should join (a few of them were even looking for mine) and how they should locate us on race morning. After a rather uneventful shift, I picked up my bib, t-shirt, and the goodies from the race sponsor (pictured up top), before heading to the hotel (Hawthorn by Wyndham) to check in. I was quite pleased with the accommodations.

The lobby had a little bit of Christmas cheer decorating the entry.

Meanwhile the suite that I and one other pacer would be sharing was quite spacious, with a nice view (not that we really bothered staring out the window).

The forecast for race day was not looking good at all. Approximately 75F for the entirety of the race, and near 20mph winds (plus whatever stronger gusts) the whole time? Ugh! Murphy, why did you follow me down from Cape Canaveral? Well, at least the chances of rain were low.

Well... looks like I should have played the lottery. Not only did we get a brief downpour about 90 minutes ahead of the race while I was walking to starting area (and took cover at a loading dock), but once everyone running both the half and full marathons were standing in the corral waiting for the races to start, the rain returned with a ferocity given the strong and gusty winds. We were dumped on for about 5-10 minutes and, despite the very warm temps, several of us were actually starting to get chilly and shiver. I commiserated with the people who identified as being in my pace group, trying to lighten the mood as much as possible. Finally, delayed by about 5 minutes, we were finally off!

Given it was about an hour before dawn, it was a little difficult being able to read my watch, as I had to press the button that would light it up to read the display and see how much I needed to adjust my pace one way or the other. Given my hands were full (pace sign, bottle of water, and sleeve of Shot Bloks), it was a little awkward, but manageable nonetheless.

My group was definitely engaged. Answering my standard questions about where people are from, how many first-timers, what races are on their bucket lists, etc., in addition to providing some commentary about other races I've run and continually raising exasperated voice to the perpetual wind that was blasting us along the entire course, and warning them about the King Tide that would be coming up at about Miles 7 and 20.

While there were numerous water stops along the course, they were VERY short. During the first half, where everyone was present, this made it very difficult to get the water, Gatorade, or Gu without stopping dead in your tracks. While I didn't need the water for drinking (since I carry my own), there were several times starting after about Mile 5 or so that I attempted to grab the water to throw over my head to keep cool. There was one spot, even, where I wound up inadvertently backing into one of the runners in my group and pushing her into a stack of boxes next to the table. Thankfully she was fine - no harm, no foul. But it was touch and go for a moment while I checked on her to verify she was ok.

                                            

The course was a half marathon loop. So, the half marathoners ran with the marathoners for approximately 13 miles, at which point the marathoners diverted briefly to avoid going through the finisher area. While I think I may have started with as many as two dozen people (between both half and full marathons), I was only able to discern 13 people from the race photos. All five of the half marathoners I could pick out from the photos finished under the 1:37:30 goal time. (Well done, everyone!) 

After we peeled away from the half marathoners, there was a group of seven marathoners with me. Two of them were akin to co-pacers through much of the race, staying right up front with me, several times helping to form a windbreak.

Along the way, around Miles 18-20, I wound up picking up a few other people who were dismayed when they saw my sign and wanted to make sure they didn't fall further behind.

The gentleman in blue on my right, below, was very vocal and was continually encouraging one of the other runners in my group who was a member of the same local running club. Despite his several comments that implied he wanted everyone to run even faster, I maintained the pace and told him and his fellow club runner that I wanted to see the two of them blast in front of me once we get to Mile 26 -- I wanted to see a sprint finish between them.

Alas, he wound up getting a cramp that had him pause for several minutes to stretch it out, and even walk through some of it. His fellow club runner also fell off pace in the late miles, too, unfortunately.

(Thanks, fellow pacer Bekah, for both of the videos.)

After Mile 25, we had a nasty headwind and I yelled out to the few who still remained with me to form single file behind me. A couple of minutes later, the wind subsided enough for one of the group to finally pass me and head on to the finish line as fast as possible -- finishing in 3:52:26. (!) One other person in the group also wound up finishing ahead of time -- in 3:54:05. Congrats!

Interestingly enough, despite the very strong wind, I wound up running a little too fast compared to the window (3:54:00 - 3:55:00) I was shooting for. I could try to blame it on the course measurements, but if I were actually running closer to the top end of the window (3:55), I would have readily finished precisely where I needed to be. 

Ugh - while it may sound strange to gripe about the fact that I came in too fast compared to my goal (at BOTH races I paced this weekend), the fact of the matter is that the time goal wasn't for me, personally, but for those running with me. The further outside that window I finish, the harder I made it on my "groupies" for them to finish in the desired time, as it is likely that this was a stretch goal to begin with.

There was surprisingly little in the form of post-race refreshments: bottles of water, beer (I never saw, but wouldn't have taken anyway), and the food that we could get was a single link of breakfast sausage plus two plain pancakes. Really? I was glad that I had taken all of the post-race food from the Space Force 10-Miler the prior day, as I wound up relying on some of that prior to getting lunch.

I decided to give my standard bacon cheeseburger lunch a shot again, this time cognizant of how much other food I had eaten and how close timing-wise to the end of the race I was eating. I was confident that there wouldn't be much, if any, of a reaction. And I was right.

The haul for the weekend was quite nice:

Next up, back-to-back FL marathons in about 6-7 weeks, somewhat disruptive of my training cycle for the Little Rock Marathon, where I intend to get a sufficient BQ to get me into 2026.

Completing the Armed Forces Series Challenge: Space Force T-Minus 10-Miler

This past weekend was a big one for challenges. Saturday was the Space Force T-Minus 10-Miler, which was the culmination of the inaugural Armed Forces Series Challenge. Sunday was the Garden of Life Palm Beaches Marathon (which I'll get to in the next entry). I was the pace group leader for approximately the same pace both days. 9:00 minutes/mile was the pace for Saturday, and Sunday was a smidge faster.

Friday, I flew out, and below was the main decoration (that wasn't a very basic tree above the entryways) that I noticed in the airport.

                                         

Annoyingly enough, my flight down to Florida had a layover... in Newark. Upon touching down on the tarmac there, the overhead bin a few rows up from me (and where my bag was) popped open. ("Murphy" decided to peak out, I think.) The people seated there didn't seem to notice, somehow. Mercifully, all of the bags stayed put -- no one was injured. But several of us were rather nervous that they would drop on peoples' heads, given how fast the plane was still moving and turning.

                                                            

While getting my rental car, when I mentioned that I had my EZ Pass with me for the tolls, I was told that it wouldn't matter, even if the transponder were turned off on the car since the toll booths use plate readers. So, if I agreed to using the transponder, it would cost $25 per day. If not, then any time I passed through a toll, I would be charged $50. Well, there was no way I would pay $25/day for four days for one single $1.92 toll that was en route to my initial destination, so I made sure to re-plot my route to take advantage of other roads. ("Murphy" was starting to get comfortable.)

I arrived at my fellow pacer Laura's home a little over an hour later. Once she arrived from picking up her kids, we all went to the race expo.

While Laura was dealing with one of the vendors pitching his resort, I was dealing with the race officials because my registration was messed up.

I registered immediately when registration opened up back in April/May. It was set to be my fifth of the five races in the Armed Forces Series Challenge. Then, several weeks ago, On Pace sent out a note to its pacers asking if anyone wanted to pace it. I quickly rose my hand and asked if I could get a refund on the registration fee (since pacers never pay for the race they are pacing).

Well, with the way everything worked, not only did they refund my entry fee, but they wound up de-activating my entire registration! So, when I arrived to pick up my bib, they couldn't find me in the system.

First, I had to deal with re-establishing my registration. The lady who handled that was quite efficient at doing so, once I showed her the various e-mails related to my being a pacer for the race. Then I went over to get a bib. While doing so, I asked about the challenge, since this would be my final race. That took a little more time to find the appropriate information demonstrating that I had registered that intent before Coast Guard Marathon and that I had run all four of the prior races in the challenge. But, satisfied, she affixed the requisite sticker on my bib to signify at the end of the race that I should get the challenge medal. ("Murphy" was sticking tight to me. What the heck?!)

Finally all settled, we made our way around to the On Pace table to get our pacer packets and chat with Rhonda and Mike for a little bit.

                     

After the expo, the four of us went to a new '50s themed ice cream parlor whose grand opening was that afternoon. The ice cream was quite good (yes, I had my dessert a few hours before dinner), and the place was packed.

Outside, there were several vintage cars present for the grand opening. Neat.

The forecast for the race on Saturday was definitely concerning, with such strong winds and high temps. But I was unconcerned about the rain, with such low odds.

In the days leading up to the race, I saw some of the reviews from the previous year -- all of which were horrible, lambasting the organizers for the required transportation to the start line. Well, apparently they learned from the mistakes of the prior two years. We arrived on base and proceeded to Skid Strip to park. We were there early enough, it was a maybe 2-minute walk to get to the buses waiting for us, including the amount of time it took for us to go through the medal detector and security wanding. We got on the bus just in time, because after a few minutes (and while we were waiting for more people to board and get a full bus) it started to pour outside.

By the time we were let off the bus, the rain stopped. It was about 1/2 mile to get to the starting area. It was crazy early compared to our 7:30am start time. So, we took advantage of some photos, chatted a bit with one of Laura's running friends, and Laura even went on a 3-mile warm-up run.

(Kennedy Space Center in the distance)

(Relatively small pace team, since we had 30-second increments being paced, starting with Laura's 8:30 and my 9:00.)

The wind just wasn't letting up. I had telescoped up my race pole so that it could be easily seen by people who wanted to join my pace group.

I had (foolishly, it turns out) decided to run with all of my prior AFSC medals in a fanny pack around my backside. It was bouncing so much that it was highly distracting, so I wound up taking it off and carrying it in a cradled position in my left arm -- somewhat tiring given that I wrapped it around my hand to make sure it wasn't loose, and it was at least 2 pounds, on top of the 1-pound bottle of water I was also carrying in that hand. ("Murphy" decided he was going to torture me for the entire weekend, it seems.) And despite the strong wind and my pacer sign being raised as high as it was - becoming a wind sail - I was incapable of lowering it, since I didn't have the free hands to do so and the mechanism was tightened too much with my available grip.

Along the route, we crossed paths not only with several of the monuments/memorials (such as the memorial to the Apollo 1 crew and the separate monument to the Mercury 7 crew), but also the rocket that was supposed to have been shot off the prior day, but that had been delayed twice by that point because of weather.

(Photo courtesy Michelle Armstrong)

My group was excited for the run (despite the intermittent downpours that would dump on us along with the driving wind) and engaged with the conversation I would intermittently engage in.

But "Murphy" wasn't done with me. In fact, he decided he would glom onto everyone. How? By virtue of poorly placed mile markers. Every single mile marker on the course was off. While I know that I can't rely on Garmin to determine accuracy of a course ("the course is always right"), by forcing laps at each mile marker, I determined that I needed to show approximately 8:40 on my watch for my pace of the course-marked miles to be the required 8:57 - 9:00. Fine. But then the final "mile" was only 0.8 miles. At my pace, that means I was missing 1:48 of additional running. Because of that, I was under the 90-minute goal time by over 2:30, when my goal was to be no more than 1 minute fast.

That said, though, of the six people in my group who were captured in the photos, 5 of them finished underneath the goal time of 90 minutes. (from 6 seconds to 2:34 below goal time) And the last one missed it by just 59 seconds. Great job, everyone!

Despite my years' worth of practicing the 6-medal display at Disney Marathon Weekend and the Dopey Challenge, my full spread was inadvertently missing one of the medals. (The Coast Guard Marathon medal, huge as it is, slipped off my left forearm and was consequently not visible above. Oh well.)

The finish line was essentially at the Lighthouse.

After we took a finish photo outside of Hangar C, got our post-race snacks/drinks, and wandered around trying to find the bag to return our pacer sticks, we went inside to take some photos of the various craft and missiles inside.

Who can pass up taking a photo with Snark. Especially two people who very much appreciate good snark and sarcasm?

It was really impressive seeing the damage to the exterior of this section of the Titan II, presumably from when it fell into the ocean after it finished its task of lifting off its payload.

Finally, after a 10-minute wait for the return bus, we got dropped off at the opposite end of the Skid Strip compared to where we parked. OK, another 3/4 mile to walk to get to the car.

Merritt Island Pancake House was directly en route to get back to Laura's house, and the food was scrumptious and a huge portion, well worth the price tag. The bacon waffles (bacon stuffed and topped) with eggs, hash browns, and more bacon were great.

But given how long it took post-race before we left, it was only a few minutes before noon when we arrived back. I showered and changed as quickly as I could, and packed up to get on the road. I was slated to start my shift at the expo for the Palm Beaches Marathon at 2pm -- I knew I would be late. Thankfully, my 25-minute delayed arrival wasn't too bad. But more about the rest of that separately...