THIS is the weather we're looking for

Just as Chicago had glorious weather for its marathon a few weeks ago, dare I say so far the weather is looking just as great for the NYC marathon on Sunday.

Staten Island, where we start out, should have a morning low in the mid 40s with moderate wind.

And then the forecast for New York City as a whole (likely centered on Manhattan, where both the middle and end of the race are located) is nearly identical.

These are the conditions that everyone who ran MCM yesterday would have LOVED to have had.

And as difficult a course as NYC is (and one where I don't ever expect to BQ), I wouldn't be surprised if there is an above average number of people who BQ tomorrow. Granted, it won't be anywhere near the nearly 10k people who got a BQ in Chicago, but still...

MCM 50k in the books!

What a day! 

Out the door before 5am, I made my way to Rosslyn, expecting a minor hassle getting to the hotel. Last year, I had reserved a parking space in the Hyatt Centric (where I had parked previously), only to discover that the perimeter made it inaccessible. And the police wouldn't let me in, despite having proof of the reservation. So, this year, on my way to the expo on Saturday, I stopped by the hotel to ask them if I could get some semblance of a parking pass that I would be able to use with the police assuming they would set up the same perimeter. They did me one better -- they gave me a non-activated keycard. (I'll be able to hold onto this to use in the future. Sweet!) Turns out, it was all for nothing. While some of the rest of the perimeter had shifted yet again, the back portion at Key St. and Nash St. was open. So I was able to turn up to the hotel without having to use the keycard. Sweet! Definitely a good start to the morning.

After getting myself together to get out the door and make the 30-minute walk to the runner's village (through a couple of security checkpoints that took no time given no bags), I had some time to just sit down and relax, waiting for the other 50k pacers to arrive for our group photo. Ultimately, only two others showed up for our photo; I think the others were concerned about the amount of time they had to get into the corrals so passed up the photo.

We then made our way up to the "corrals" to prepare our respective groups with some advice for the race and let them know our strategies for how we were going to be pacing the race. For us, we were going to be going even effort and walking the water stops. I couldn't stress enough the need to not just drink, but to also douse themselves with water at EVERY stop.

And before you know it, we were off! It was about 65F at the start. Wonderful to stand around in, but already hotter than desirable for running, especially with the high humidity we had. We had a very engaged group, many of whom were willing to chat it up, asking questions and answering others. Sam (the guy in green) was like a drill sergeant with some of the questions he was asking - it was really very amusing, and did get some extra participation. Amusing since a different runner in the group was the ACTUAL Marine drill sergeant stationed at Paris Island. (And who had never run longer than 5k before -- and he was taking on the 50k with less than 1 week's notice!)

Within the first two miles, Otto (my co-pacer) and I drifted apart, he further up than me. I was doing my damnedest not to go out "too hot" with my pace -- and there were a few times (looking at my splits afterward) where I was definitely far faster than I should have been (sorry!). Walking the water stops very much helped get that under control.

As we were approaching our left turn away from Georgetown at about Mile 4.5, we saw the lead hand cyclists zipping down on the right hand side of the street on the marathon course. Along the out-and-back, we had many hand cyclists zooming along, nd thankfully every time they were on the left, so it made things much more predictable than previous years.

Finally approaching the Georgetown merge, and it worked beautifully (unlike in 2019). We merged in with marathoners that were going at about the same pace as we were, and there's plenty of space in Georgetown for that fullness of the field to be present.

However, once we made our way down and around and past the Watergate, we made our way to Rock Creek Parkway (I think that's the road), and it was an ENORMOUS cluster. It is EXTREMELY crowded here for the entire time because there's only two lanes of road. And the water stop on the outbound stretch was an even bigger cluster, given that TONS of people crammed over to the first table making it hard to get around them to get to later more empty tables. The same thing happened on the return stretch.

By the time we make our way to the Kennedy Center, things open up a bit and there's a reasonable amount of space to run. A couple of miles further down, we get to the quietest part of the course: the Blue Mile. Thankfully, everyone was just taking it in, not talking. As we got to the end of the stretch of signs honoring the fallen and we could hear the cheers from the people lining both sides of the course holding American flags, I give a shout to my group, "For all of the fallen we just passed, give me an 'Oorah'!" which got a resounding "Oorah!" response.

We make our way around the end of Haines Point and up into the District ("welcome to the seat of dysfunction!"). Within about a mile or so, one of my group members slowly breaks away from the group (well done, Rita!). And at the next water stop, where I'm expecting tables on both sides (and I'm on the left side of the road at this point), there is no water stop on the left. In fact, I barely notice the water stop on the right, with several tables folded up even. With was a really bad sign that they were already running out of water on the course, despite the fact that we had another couple of hours to go, and that there were still another hour's worth of people behind us, even. (Little did I know at the time that actually wasn't true.)

Slowly but surely, I see another pacer ahead of me, and I think I caught back up with Otto. Nope, it was actually the 4:45 marathon pacers. For about a mile or so, our groups merged up, but they had a bit of a faster pace, so wound up drifting further ahead. But not before imparting some good advice to my group for The Bridge that we were going to get to soon enough: don't look straight out, rather, look down at the line on the pavement. It's just such a LONG stretch where there is nothing to look at, no landmarks, and totally exposed that it is VERY draining, both physically and emotionally.

By this point, another one of my group had broken away, and it seemed like I only had one person from my original group left with me. He was definitely breathing heavily, but he was keeping up. We would intermittently talk a little bit, mostly my imparting what the next thing to expect on the course was, including the fact that I would walk the water stop on the bridge, even though it was merely a filling station (no cups - there never are at that one stop). 

Into Crystal City, we only had a few miles left. Alas, they didn't have the one fire hydrant going that they frequently do (dang it!). Down and back, and I long since wasn't able to read the tiny print on my pace band, but kept on doing the math of what the pace needed to be. Each mile marker I'd do the math again, and we were spot-on for hitting time -- tighter than I like being. Each time, I would make sure to tell him, so he could make his decision at any time to break, and I could give him advance warning if we were falling off pace. But, thankfully, I managed to push through.

The last two miles apporaching and passing the Pentagon to get to the Iwo Jima Memorial finish line is DREADFULLY dull and difficult. All the moreso on hot, humid days. We both kept pushing, hurting. We had 1.2 miles left, and 12.5 minutes to cross the finish. At my 10:30 pace, we were barely going to make it if I picked it up a touch. When I finally saw the 26 Mile sign (a few hundred yards in advance), I yell out to him and anyone around me "If you've got another gear, use it on the hill!"

We finally make the turn onto the hill, and I scream at everyone in front of me, "Move. Take the Iwo! Run, run, run! You got this." I then look to the right side an make a scooping motion with my sign to everyone else, "Come on! Take the hill you got this!" I then make sure that I'm pushing it as hard as possible. I look at my watch and see how close I'm getting to my goal time and just how much further I have to run. Will I make it? I started to doubt it, but pushed myself "Go! Go! Get it!" and stop my watch (without looking at it) as I cross the finish line. "Keep moving! Don't stop! Out of my way! I can't stop so fast! Watch out!"

Finally, after getting some dirty looks from my fellow exhausted runners, I managed to get down to a slower pace and look at my watch: 5:30.00 -- you're shitting me! I don't believe that it was exactly on the button, but didn't know if I spilled over or went under time by the fraction of a second. Turns out, I barely made it under the wire: 5:29:59. Phew!

I met up with my running buddy briefly, and with my co-pacer (who said he had finished only about 30 seconds earlier -- which really was my goal time). 

After getting the medal and passing up a photo at the memorial, I made my way to the post-race drink, food, and "paper" jacket, but the fence set-up was so cramped there were multiple bottlenecks. "Move people! I need to keep moving, or I'm going to collapse." Mercifully, I managed to get out of there without getting light-headed (I did a good enough job hydrating today as opposed to Atlantic City last week), eventually stopping by the med tent for some Tylenol (to belay some of the expected pain). Not too much later after dropping some stuff in my car and taking advantage of a real bathroom in the hotel, I got back into the car to head on home. 

 

It wasn't until my return drive that I heard on the radio that the race had shortened the time limits by 30 minutes because of the humidity. Apparently there were LOTS of people in distress on the course and they were overwhelming ERs, and ran out of medics/ambulances on the course. When you get down to it, the negative effects were eminently obvious before the race started when they made an announcement that 23k people were running, and they had 30k gallons of water. There is no way that 1.33 gallons per person across the entirety of the course was going to be sufficient when most people would not only be dousing themselves with multiple cups of water at each stop (like me), but also drinking the water (thankfully, I carry my own for drinkning). They knew far enough in advance just how warm and humid it was expected to be, they should have arranged for more water and cups. That they didn't was a MAJOR fail on their part, and certainly one of the causes that led to how many people were in distress during the race.

Glad to have survived well and brought some of the group across the line under time. Now it's a week of recovery leading up to my (currently) last race of the season: New York City. I figure I will wait until Wednesday or Thursday to decide what I want to do for a goal on Sunday. Though I may just wind up going solely by feel, not looking at the watch at all at what my pace is and having it be whatever it turns into. After all, I'm not pacing for anyone, and there is zero change that I will get a BQ on NYC's course (let alone one that would be useable to actually get in for 2025), so is there a particular reason to try to hit a time? Not really.

Looking forward to getting another MCM in the books next year. I need to decide if I want to bother continuing with the 50k or bring it back to the marathon. The medal for the marathon is generally better than for the 50k. This year, the "extra" that they were supposed to have in the hidden compartment was a set of MCM dogtags. No such thing (or any other extra) accompanied the 50k medal Heck, anyone who might have wanted to engrave it couldn't, since there was insufficient space on the back of it to do so, given what was already there.

Cluster at the Expo

Once again, Marine Corps Marathon's expo returned the the Gaylord Convention Center. And, boy howdy, was it a cluster!

To start with, I took the blue line to Van Dorn to take the shuttle. (Previous years at the convention center, I parked at Eisenhower and took that shuttle.) After coming down from the platform and going outside, there were no apparent signs anywhere. So, where the heck are we supposed to go. Well, I chose to go right, figuring that the bus would stop around the end of the platform away from the normal buses that drop off there (which is what was done at Eisenhower). And given that I was wearing my red Marathon Maniacs pacer jersey and walking with purpose, about 30 people who got off the train to also go to the expo fell in right behind me. After all, I knew where I was going. Nope! Someone else was able to quickly get online and find something that indicated we should have gone to the other set of shuttle shelters. Sure enough, when we got to those, there were 8.5 x 11" signs on the shelters pointing out where to be, and one person on a camping chair who was able to call up one of the nearby shuttles to pick us up. Really? You couldn't have a sign pointing the correct direction at the exit -- a simple sandwich board saying "Expo This Way"? sigh

Fine. Get the snafu out of the way today, have a flawless day tomorrow. So, the directions that this volunteer in the camping chair gave the driver (and the driver double-checked we was understanding correctly) wound up with the driver taking us to the wrong place -- the employee entrance around the back side of the hotel. A couple of minutes later, she was pointed to the correct location around the front of the hotel. "We're getting Murphy out of the way today" I yelled in the bus. Try to get the others a little more relaxed.

We finally make it to the front of the hotel, and there's a huge line. At first I wondered if it was merely a line of people done with the expo waiting to board buses. But, no, NONE of them had the bags from the expo. Clearly, this was for entering. Really? WTF? It took about 30-45 minutes to make our way down to the expo. To make it worse, we noticed that there was SEPARATE expo being held at the same time, with its entrance further down the same hallway as we needed to go. And they didn't have a good system for getting the flow of people exiting -- both lines crossed each other, where they totally had no need to. Come on, these logistics are EASY, and you had tons of time to figure it out in advance. And given the fact that this took so long, I had no opportunity to get lunch. (I figured I'd be able to get a relatively quick bite before going inside, but no. And there wasn't anything in sight anyway -- no food vendors.)

Inside, it was speedy to get the bib and the shirt -- no lines at all. Why it took so long to get in when it didn't look like the security was bothering to look at any of the bags being brought inside is beyond me. It was very tight inside a relatively small ballroom (given the number of people that were crammed inside). Some booths had long lines (especially the ones with samples), others were relatively empty. (Pretty standard, actually.)

Relatively quickly, I made my way to the Marathon Maniac table and joined in for my shift (and a little longer) answering questions from plenty of people about what pacers are and how we do it, whether they need to sign up, how to find us, what our strategy for the race is, etc. Lots of people. Hopefully they wind up finding the pacer they want to start with tomorrow given our instructions. I also hope that the colored bibs/"corrals" don't wind up messing anyone up, assuming they actually do enforce the corrals (which most of the time they don't).

While it was very quick getting back to the bus after I decided to leave, traffic was at a crawl getting to and onto the highway. What should have been about a 15-20 minute drive was definitely longer. (I didn't look at my watch, though, to know just how much. Likely an extra 10 minutes.) Fine. Back on Metro, I had a fair bit to go, since I had to go the ~10 stops up to Rosslyn to transfer to Silver for Reston/Wiehle, where I parked. Finally at my car at 4:15pm, having last eaten at about 8:30am. and barely had anything to drink since I got out of my car, I went directly to the Italian restaurant in Herndon that has become my traditional pre-MCM dinner. Quite good, and definitely had me feeling human again. Glad to have gotten some food and a decent bit of water in my system. (More water upon getting home.)

I've been back home for a while, and everything is ready for tomorrow. (And hopefully my "insurance" for getting to my parking garage works. More on that with my race day post.) 

Let's get 'er done!

HOT!

Oy vey! The forecast for Marine Corps Marathon & 50k on Sunday is HOT! While we will start the race at approximately 60F, by 11am (<4 hrs into the 50k), it will be 72F. And the forecast high for the day (likely hitting by 1pm) is about 78F. This is going to be a brutal day. I'm glad that I've shifted down to the 5:30 pace group. Even though the pace, itself, is certainly on the difficultly slow side for me, going the slower pace will make things MUCH more manageable. Yes, I'll be drinking plenty of water. And I'll be dousing myself with at least 1 cup of water at every water stop. Most likely 2 cups. Definitely the best way to keep core temp as low as possible. Hopefully there will even be a makeshift ice stop somewhere on the course where I can put some ice cubes into my cap.

Anyone who is running either race and trained for a specific time, if you can, shift your goal back by at least 10-20 minutes for the marathon. For those running with a 50k pace group, we only have groups at 30-minute intervals. Be willing to do that from the get-go. You can always speed up later in the race when you recognize you have an extra gear or two. Going out too strong and then once the heat hits is a recipe for ropping your later paces MUCH more and finishing even worse than starting out and staying "slow" for the whole time.

Hoping to not have many people getting heat stroke, hypernatremia, or excessive dehydration on the course. I saw lots of people in Sydney on the ground being tended to by the medical staff, since the temps were comparable to what we'll be having on Sunday. It's always disconcerting and worrying. Take care of yourself. If you don't feel good, put the ego aside and get assistance. You may be able to get back on the course. But even if it winds up resulting in a DNF, much better that than ending up in the hospital (or worse).

Looking forward to having an excited group to carry through all 50k. And hoping them stay with me and I get to cheer them up the Iwo to the finish in front of me, rather than have them fall behind.

Pacing AC

So, in the last post, I critiqued the marathon, but didn't actually talk too much about the experience I had while pacing. It really is a whole different experience running a race 1) by yourself, 2) with one or more friends, or 3) as a pacer responsible for getting the group across the finish line by a certain time.  Most of the time, my experiences are in the first category. And if you want to read some of my experiences in the second category, go back to this year's Dopey experience -- especially for the marathon on Disney Marathon weekend in January.

I started out the weekend at the Marathon Pacing table at the expo, for the last few hours it was open on Saturday. As people came up asking all manner of questions (What pace should I run? Will the pacer do run-walk? What are these strips (the pace bands) for and how do they work? Do I need to sign up? How should we find you in the corral?), several of the pacers and I would answer them, give appropriate guidance and advice for certain aspects of the race yet to be run, and provide as much encouragement as we could. It's always nice when you get a decent number of people that have identified their goal time as being the group that you are leading.

On race morning, the pacers (almost all of whom were staying at the Showboat Resort, about 1 mile up the  boardwalk from the start line at Bally's) met up in the Showboat lobby for a pre-race photo before making our way down to the start line to have an official pre-race photo taken.

The weather was positively gorgeous, albeit a touch chilly when the wind decided to gust a bit. That would surely end quickly enough after we set out. After doing our last prep work (restroom, gear check, etc.), we all lined up in the starting chute in increasing order of finish time. At that point, the race opened up the back of the pen and the 2,200 runners filed in among us. It was far too crowded to be able to take a group photo of my pace group before the race. Or, frankly, even the ability to realistically chat with any of them. (Hopefully they asked and we answered most of their questions the day before at the expo.) Soon enough, we were off!

Inside of the first mile, after the crowd thinned out enough where it was pretty clear that the people right around me were aiming for my 4:20 time, I called out and asked them to self-identify. I definitely had a good-sized group of more than a dozen. At least 4 of them had also self-identified as 1st time marathoners. It was interesting hearing how one of them had chosen to run this marathon, having started off the prior year doing a 5k and making the decision to lose weight (ultimately dropping 50 pounds), stop smoking, and stop drinking alcohol. He gradually increased his mileage to a half marathon and then decided to take the leap with his buddy on doing the marathon. He was certainly holding back in reserve a decision as to whether he'd run any more in the future until after finishing Atlantic City. I advised him to wait multiple days or longer after finishing before he makes the decision -- after all, he won't really be sore until two days afterwards.

Twisting around a few miles of Atlantic City streets, we eventually made our way to the Boardwalk, still having a pretty easy time of it all. Every now and again I would ask a question, or bring up an anecdote. Invariably, someone asks how many marathons I've run (AC was 67) and which was my favorite (I'll be able to settle down on NYC or London after one more chance for NYC in 2 weeks). Recounting my time in London leads to my talking about my abortive GWR attempt dressed as a chef, and then my successful attempt dressed as a super villain. 

We "dropped off" the half marathoners in the group past mile 11, where they did a U-turn on the boardwalk to get back to the finish line, while we continued onward to the end of the boardwalk before turning onto more city streets. Within a mile or so, I had come to the conclusion that I needed a quick pit stop. When I run considerably slower than my normal pace, too much water goes to my kidneys. So, I teed things up by asking who would be willing to take the sign and keep the pace for me. After all, it's the sign that people need to keep sight of, especially if they are not directly next to me or able to see me as opposed to the sign. It took a couple of times asking and looking around before that same 1st timer said that he was willing to give it a shot. I handed off the sign and darted into the portapotty as the group charged on. Mercifully, it was a brief break (maybe 20-30 seconds), and I quickly got back onto the course and sprinted at a much faster pace than we had been running, but well within my capability, so that I could minimize the time away from the group. They were rather surprised when I announced myself and reclaimed the sign. But my stand-in did marvelously, as I was able to confirm at the next mile marker that we were still exactly on pace.

As we got to some of the additional water views (was it still the ocean, or an inlet?), the wind picked up something fierce, often as a headwind. That certainly sapped some strength from all of us. While I "checked in" a couple of times to see how everyone was doing, conversation was more difficult for everyone, myself included, so it got a fair bit quieter save for the occasional cheer I would give to our group or to an oncoming leader or other pace group or fellow Marathon Maniac ("Go Maniac!"). This is definitely an area for pacing where I need to improve my game. While I can't expect much to be said by my remaining group, I can still try to engage them with some more meaningful encouragement. That will be easier on courses that I know really well (such as MCM 50k this coming Sunday).

We finally finished the extra stretch of city streets, painfully made our way up the ramp from street level onto the boardwalk (that 6 feet elevation gain across, what 20 feet) felt horrible, but was over as quickly as it began, and made our last turn for the home stretch -- that being about 3 miles.

Despite the difficulty of the city street headwinds that we encountered, I still had a good core group remaining with me. I actually didn't appreciate just how many there were until I saw this photo. I don't think I have ever had this many people remaining with me this late in the race.

Now, as one of the spectators aptly put it, it was all mental. My legs were tired and it would have been easy to drop pace to make that go away, but I had a job to do, and I was going to do my best to accomplish it. I called out some of my typical late-race mantras at the appropriate spots: "Only 5k to go!", "Just over 2 miles left!", "*NOW* you can legitimately say that!" (to the person at Mile 25 who yelled out "you're almost there"), and some variant of "Bring it!" when the finish line was tantalizingly close in the last .2 miles. (I think I actually said "If you've got another gear, use it!")

I looked at my watch, and I saw the "pin" pass. (The pin is this group's ideal finish time -- 30 seconds underneath the published goal time.) But I knew that I would be able to make it underneath the published goal time, now it was just a matter of how close to the pin would I get. In the end, I got 4:19:53. During the last mile or two, two of the people from my group slowly pulled away (to finish in 4:19:17 and 4:19:22). And the remaining people (whose bibs I could make out from the photos) finished anywhere from 4:23:12 to 4:46:52. My temporary pacing stand-in ultimately finished in 4:30:41 -- great job! And the one half marathoner who I could see in the photos actually finished in a great time of 2:08:38, which means they picked up a big head of steam after breaking off from us, since if they continued at our pace, they would have been closer to 2:09:45.

Unfortunately, given the logistics of getting back to the room for check-out, I couldn't stick around to try to see my other group members finish and give them one last cheer. (Just like I won't be able to do that at MCM, given how the finish area is structured. Hopefully I'll be able to shepherd everyone in in front of me.) But it was a really great day, and I look forward to pacing an increasing amount, as I adjust my personal goals so that there is only 1 "A" race per year that has a goal of a sufficiently good time to not only qualify me for Boston, but also enable me to be accepted in. The other races, I can be more leisurely on, pace (hopefully some of the Majors, even), and maybe even run with Achilles International (once I go through some of their vetting).

(Postscript: While I generally dislike MarathonFoto, I must acknowledge the fact that all of the photos in this post were from the official photos that MarathonFoto took. Atlantic City Marathon's registration actually included all of the photos for free, so I can't complain about the cost this time around. My biggest gripe is with how relatively few photos there were. While there were 49 photos in my profile, a LARGE percentage of them were exact or near-exact repeats. There were maybe a dozen truly unique photos in total. Still, they definitely break up a blog post nicely and do a good job of memorializing this event.)

Atlantic City Marathon

Helluva race today. Mostly gorgeous conditions (50s for most of the race, hitting the low 60s by the time I finished), save for some really nasty headwinds at a few key points that sapped a fair bit of energy from all of us. Glad I was able to keep on top of it late on to hit in the sweet zone to finish in 4:19:53. A few of my group pulled out near the end and finished faster (yes!), but despite having a fair bit of my group still intact at about Mile 23, most of them fell off pace. I'd love to know how they all fared, but I didn't have an opportunity to take a start line photo -- it was way too crowded, I'd never see any of the bibs.

There were several key factors for any marathon that really were quite disappointing today. Hoping it was just a fluke as opposed to how this is regularly run. (I've only run it once before, in 2018, and didn't have THAT many under my belt at that point, so wouldn't have necessarily noticed some of these things then.)

Water Stations

--These were sparsely attended by volunteers (though they were quite energetic and eager to help) and VERY short. I don't expect them to be a city block long for each of Gatorade and water like in Chicago, but still more than two 6-foot tables (if they even had tables -- several didn't).

--There was no predictable order to whether Gatorade or water would be first. And they were often mixed back and forth within one station. Sure, they were shouting what they had, but it's really confusing when it's intermixed and unpredictable. Glad I always carry my own and merely slow down a little for my group to grab and go. And mercifully, it wasn't hot enough that anyone was likely tempted to douse themselves.

--All of the cups were the same green Gatorade cups, even if there was water in them. They really should have two different color cups, and be consistent among all of the stations as to which will have Gatorade and which water. That makes it much easier to identify, even if the above two points remain an issue.

Course marking

--The cones on the street were horrible, IMO. It was immensely unclear at most points (at least on the back part of the course) where we were supposed to run. This certainly led to some amount of the mileage overage that I had. (Hopefully not too much; no way to really tell, though. But being .3 mi over (if my Garmin is to be believed) makes it that much more difficult to hit the goal time.)

--Placement of the Mile 18 marker was immensely confusing. Most of the mile markers where we would be passing the marker in both directions were on the left side of the road in the direction of travel. (Nice.) But Mile 18 was on the right side of the road, and confused me for a bit as to whether I had actually fallen off pace (despite my Garmin showing a consistent pace). Once it was clear that we had a fair bit to go in that direction of travel, I recognized that we were spot-on for our split at Mile 18, not late for a short out-and-back. Now that I think about it more, maybe we were just on the wrong side of the cones? Impossible to tell.

Police

--The cops along the course, especially on those parts where traffic was allowed to cross the path of the runners, were wonderful. They did a great job of making sure that the cars waited until there were long gaps between runners.

Expo

--As mentioned in my prior blog entry, for a race with the size field that AC has, it was a decent expo. (Hell, there was more available there than there was for Sydney -- which had 17k people running it,) The ballroom was a little on the small side, but not too bad, at least for the timeframe I was there on Saturday.

Photos

--I'm quite happy that AC still provides free race photos. I have long since stopped purchasing any from the MarathonFoto monopoly, given how overpriced and underwhelming they typically are, IMO. (You'd think they could scope out the course well enough to have some lined up with nice backdrops. Typically MF doesn't do that well, in my experience.)

Post-Race

--It would be very helpful if they had a longer post-finish stretch for the finishers to continue moving before getting their water, electrolyte drink, and medal. I need to keep on moving after the start, and too many people were stopping short way too quickly. I'm always "that guy" who screams something "don't stop! Coming through!" because if I stop, I'm dropping to the ground. And today, I didn't hydrate well enough in the back half of the course (my fault), so even though I drank as much water as I usually do, at lot of it was delyed, so not fully in my system. I was definitely dehydrated at the finish, and coming to a quick stop, I got quite lightheaded. I had to keep on moving and drinking. It took about 10 minutes before that passed. (Longer than typical, but I really think it was the dehydration.)

--Nice little area that they have the after party. Definitely love having a great bagel (though I had a hard time eating it -- that's a "me" problem) after. It would be ideal if they could have a high-protein drink (Core Power, Muscle Milk, or even simply chocolate milk) as part of the provided food. Certainly easier said than done, I imagine, based on sponsorships.

Atlantic City Marathon expo

The expo, being held at Bally's, re-opens now! 

The race field is relatively small and the number of vendors is pretty much commensurate with that:

Dick's Sporting Goods National Running Center Orozco Orthopaedics Strive Physical Therapy Homegrown AC Integrated Foot & Ankle Specialists  Hydrowave Hydration  Too Cool T-Shirt Quilts The Boston Brewing Co.  Marathon Pacing -- swing on by our table during my shift, 5-6pm Renewal By Anderson AtlantiCare Sneaker Drive Rather interesting. Despite it being this small (and it's a decent-sized ballroom that is used for this number of vendors), it's approximately on par with how many vendors were present at the expo for the Sydney Marathon. (!) And, unlike Sydney, there are actually several speakers presenting during the expo: Prevention of Running Injuries: 4pm  Speaker: Lauren Houck, PT, MPT, Strive Physical Therapy RUNNING WITH THE PACE TEAM: 5pm Speaker: Craig DeSantis, Pace Team Member COURSE TOUR: 6pm  Speaker: Marathon Committee Members

Let's fly!

Sunday's weather is looking largely great for Atlantic City.

Temperature-wise, I couldn't really ask for better. Rain should be non-existent. Wind? Well, that might be a bit tricky. Somewhat strong. Starting out briefly as a tailwind, but then a mix headwind/crosswind as we get to the Boardwalk, then tailwind/crosswind after we leave and return to the Boardwalk. Certainly should be no problem with people overheating, but the wind might pose some problems for people who are running in a group close to their best marathon pace.

Looking forward to the run!

Preparing for pacing

It's been one week since running Chicago, and in one more week I will be pacing for Marathon Pacing at the Atlantic City Marathon. So far, the weather looks nearly ideal (though a bit windy), and the course is pretty darn flat (considering more than half of it is on the Boardwalk). I think there might be one or two "hills" by way of ramps, but that should be it. (I can't visualize the course, having run it in 2018. I think I'm confusing some of it with a couple of other courses that were boardwalk-oriented: Rehoboth Beach and Shamrock.)

Today I decided to run 13.1 miles at my pace for next weekend: 9:55/mi. It's going to be rather tricky to slow down enough to do that. (When I first started running, I never thought I would say something like that!) Today's run (on the hilly streets by my gym, and amid some pretty strong wind gusts) had me finish nearly 4 minutes faster than I should have. 

Usually I take my pace down a little during the aid stations (yet still running) -- depending on how well I can modulate my running pace compared to today, I might actually be able to take it down to a walk during the aid stations and for a drop after in order to average out the pace, and give everyone's legs brief respites, too. The goal for the 4:20 group is to finish within 30 seconds of 4:19:30.

Chicago Marathon - race day!

Mere days ahead of leaving for Chicago, I found out that my hotel reservation had been shifted from a hostel that was 1 mile from Grant Park (the start/finish) to a hotel near O'Hare. Instead of a 15 minute walk, I now had to be on the Blue Line for about 45 minutes to get to approximately the same spot in downtown to walk to the start area. While it did wind up turning out well, in order to maximize the amount of time I could spend at the Abbott Age Championship tent, I amde sure to get the hotel shuttle to the train station at 4:30am so that, by the time I got on the train, arrived in town, and made my way down to the entrance specifically for us, it would be approximately 5:30am -- when the gates were supposed to open. I wound up arriving at about 5:40am.

To say that the entry into Grant Park for us was a clusterf*ck would be an understatement. There were 2500 Age Championship spots and, naturally, given the timeframe we were given, a huge number of us showed up during the first 10-15 minutes. (From what we had been told, there was no other way we would be permitted to access the tent. This turned out to be false.)

1) Apparently, they didn't open up the gate until closer to 5:40am. And that gate was maybe 20 feet wide, at best.

2) Only about four people were standing at the gate looking (barely cursorily) at the contents of our check bags and looking for both the blue dot on our bib and the blue wristband. Beyond them were the AI-powered "metal detectors". This was one helluva chokepoint.

3) Non-runner friends and family joined the age champs on the bridge leading up to the gate, thereby making the line longer and slowing things down as they were told to leave (once they got to the front).

4) The line was going so slowly that after about 15 minutes after I arrived, about 100-200 people (at least) who were behind me on line bumrushed around the open sides of the line and cut in front of a large chunk of us. (What the f*ck!)

5) It took about 40 minutes to get through the checkpoint and start making my way to the tent. So, it was about 6:15am.

Requested drop-off time for all of the gear check? 6:15am. Great, so, instead of having the opportunity to relax a little bit, contemplate enjoying some of the light breakfast that was available (I barely noticed some of what food was there), and take my time to go to the porta-potty, remove most of my throwaway clothing, check my bag and trek to the starting corral, instead I jumped onto a portapotty line (not so horrible, but should have been shorter) and rushed to deal with my throwaways and bag check. During that timeframe, I missed the first group of people (6:30am) being escorted to the start corrals. The next group was set to leave at 6:45am and take 15 minutes to walk to the corrals. I wound up grabbing a bagel to eat and tried to find where the meet-up would be for the next group. There was no indicator of where to go. Several of us simply followed the one sign pointing towards the corrals and made our own way, unclear for several minutes that we were actually going to be able to make our way without being accompanied. Mercifully, we were able to get to the corrals without being hassled.

I positioned myself at the front of Corral B (yay!) near where the 3-hour pacer eventually set up. Confusingly enough, even though Corral A had people with 2:55 and lower, there was a 3-hour pacer in there too. Huh? Slowly but surely, the corral filled up, and as time got closer to the starting horn, more and more people threw their throwaway clothing to the side -- or at least tried to. There were a surprising number of people, even in the center where I was, who were getting hit in the head/face with the flying clothing. 

Finally, we were off! My first few miles were really good. I was pretty much keeping pace for 3 hours, but that clearly fell off by Mile 5. So, I shifted to my B goal -- 3:15, which would be BQ-10 (a.k.a., 10 minutes under my Boston Qualifying time). While my HR stayed in a manageable range throughout, my legs just didn't have enough in them (given insufficient successful training in the latter several weeks of this cycle) to keep to that goal. Ever so gradually in the last several miles, that time slipped by, at which point I shifted to my C goal -- 3:19:31, which would be a BQ-5:29, matching the cut-off that was in effect for the 2024 Boston Marathon (which I registered for with better than BQ-9:00). Alas, that also didn't manifest. My final time was 3:21:31. While an inherently good time, at BQ-3:29, given the glorious conditions that we had for the day (stayed under 50F the entire time) fostering about 10k BQs (where fewer than 30k get into any given Boston), there's no chance this will wind up being a time that will get me into Boston 2025; I definitely need to run a better race before September.

Upon finishing and proceeding through the long, spacious finisher area, I made my way up and around to the Abbott tent. It is here where we received our Abbott World Championship medal. The communication was so poor here, though, you couldn't tell what the huge line was for. Thankfully after walking around the line to see where it was going, it was clear it was for photos and bag pickup. While I did want my bag to put on warm, dry clothing, I knew that it was not needed because the tent was heated. What I really needed was to use the portapotty (no lines!) and then get some more food, beyond some of the food I got from the finisher area. Mmm... Bacon, egg, and cheese muffin. Tasty and some more protein and salt that I needed. And, given how I eschew MarathonFoto (I think their photos are generally horrible, and they are definitely overpriced given the monopoly they have, at least on the larger races), I was able to get a fellow marathoner to take a photo of me with my medals inside the tent.

After a little while, I made my way outside to get on line for my gear check bag. There were minimal people in front of me, but it was clear that the people volunteering had absolutely no clue what was going on. They were shifting bags from a totally different bib number range (25,000+, though they kept calling it 2500) in front of all of the other bags of other ranges, including mine. WTF - was it so difficult to take the 3 hours you had with no runners seeking their bags to get everything into a logical order to make it easy to pick up? I was very lucky -- I only had to wait about 10 minutes to be handed my bag (and I didn't even know that someone was actually looking for it). There are plenty of stories about people waiting over an hour to get their bag, and some where their bag was lost. No wonder, given there were dozens or hundreds of bags that were moved out from the penned off area we dropped them off to the unguarded grassy area outside the low fencing. This is not rocket science, and they thoroughly screwed this up. (It sounds like it may have been even worse for the rest of the runners in the Red Wave dealing with their bags in the main area in Grant Park.)

Having put on some of my warm clothing, I then decided to get in line for the massage. There were lots of tables where people were being worked, and it only took about 5 minutes for me to get to the front of the line. While a brief 10 minute massage only, it was still helpful to get my calves and my back worked over a bit. Back inside the main tent to have a little more to nosh on (a bagel plus some of the peanut butter that I had brought from the hotel, and a double chocolate cookie), I was finally feeling up to making my way back to the L to go back to the hotel to have a cold soak, shower, dress, Normatec, and eventually make my way to dinner.

Despite the logistics problems getting into the Age Champs tent in the morning, and with the gear bag retrieval post-race, the actual race was great. The crowds throughout were very loud and cheerful. The aid stations were enormous: an entire city block with cups of Gatorade followed by another full block with cups of water -- plenty of volunteers handing them out. The blue line was visible throughout and while I stayed pretty close to it, I wasn't nearly as myopic looking at it as I was in 2016, though maybe I was moreso than I thought, because there were very few signs being held along the course that I really took any note of. The one that most caught my attention -- somewhere around Mile 11 -- was one that was "You're Almost There" written on a large piece of oaktag, but there was a smaller sign place on top of the center part of that sign saying "Message Not Available in Your Area". Brilliant, given the fact that I always talk back to anyone cheering "almost there" anywhere on the course that is earlier than Mile 25. Another that several other people say they saw in several different spots (including early on, within the first 5k): "You lasted longer than my ex!" 

Final stats:

Finish time: 3:21:31

Place overall: 7833

Place Male: 6363

Place M50-54: 609

Abbott Age Championship stats:

Place overall: 1212

Place Male: 949

Place M50-54: 228

Oh, and I guess I would be remiss without mentioning that the World Record was set by Kelvin Kiptum. 2:00:35. He crossed the tape when I was hitting Mile 16, and I heard the announcement by the time I hit Mile 19. It definitely spread lots of excitement and buzz throughout the field at the time. Not unlike the buzz at the finish line in Berline 2018 when we heard the announcement about Eliud Kipchoge's then-world record-breaking performance.

Next up? Pacing for Marathon Pacing at the Atlantic City Marathon -- 2 weeks after Chicago. The recovery has been going fine so far, and I have no doubt I'll be able to nail the 4:20 finish time. I'm just hoping that I have several people sticking with me through to the finish.

Chicago Marathon weekend - volunteering

This year, I volunteered for a shift at the marathon expo on Friday and at the 5k finish line on Saturday. I highly recommend doing either (or both) of these -- whether you're running the marathon or not.

My flight out on Friday from Dulles was supposed to leave at 6:30am, getting me into Chicago several hours ahead of my shift. I was figuring on dropping off my bags at the hotel, getting something to eat, arriving at and taking in the expo for a decent amount of time before checking in at 11am for my shift. Murphy decided otherwise. After multiple delays (and infuriating changes of the story from United about what was happening with our plane), I finally landed in Chicago at about 11:30, and got to my hotel at about noon. By the time I got down to Cermak Road, not only had I not had any real meal yet, I was hours late for my shift. (I had e-mailed them and called in advance of my check-in time to alert them to the delay.) I remembered rom my prior jaunts to the expo (in 2016 and 2021) that White Castle was en route. Mmmm... the smell and taste of those sliders. So good, and something I get a hankering for once every several years. I quickly ducked in to get a few cheeseburger sliders and scarf them down while walking towards the expo. I actually arrived at the expo at about 1:30pm. It wasn't all that busy at the entrance, but was chaotic inside the main area (as expected).

Dutifully following the signs directing me through security and the runner check-in (even though I wasn't planning on getting my packet first off), it was obvious that I should just pick up my bib, etc. immediately -- get it out of the way. I was one of likely thousands of people who were astonished with the simplicity of the check-in process. Chicago Marathon has instituted a system whereby you do the initial ID check right past security, and they tell you which of about 35 stations to go to to get your bib. By the time I walked over to the correct counter, they had my bib in hand and were addressing me by name immediately. What the...? It took a split second to recognize what happened, and I was highly impressed. They need to flag this system at least to the other majors. This was brilliant, and helped speed things along. It would be even faster if there were more volunteers, where each station had not only one person to do the actual check-in with the runner, but at least one other person to pull the bibs. There were a few times where my line got backed up with 2 or 3 people who arrived right at the same time. (Line being no more than 3 deep? Great!)

After picking up my t-shirt and bag, and checking in for the Abbott Age Group Championships (and getting another wristband for my collection), I meandered around the expo for about 20 minutes before I was able to check in for the last shift of the expo: 2:15 - 6+ pm.

Chicago definitely had a good system in place for checking in and training the volunteers. We all checked in via our QR codes in the e-mail we got a few days in advance, and specialty by specialty, we were separated into groups to have our individual training, leaving all of us who were dealing with the ID check and bib pick-up as the last (and largest) group. Shortly enough afterwards, we went out and relieved the prior shift. The traffic flow was fairly steady, but it was never overwhelming. (The same is likely not true for the people who were checking people in on Saturday.) Nearly everyone who I greeted, typically bib in hand, was flabbergasted and asked how I knew who they were without seeing their ID or check-in e-mail. Everyone was impressed by the system. The main reason why I ever had a line of multiple people was because the vast majority of people who I checked in were also Abbott Age Championship competitors, so I had to give them the spiel of where to check in, in addition to pointing them to the shirts and bags. It worked out well that I had flown through the expo earlier, as I could better describe where they needed to go.

After the expo (and getting an unobstructed photo of the 6-Star Finishers Wall (above)), I met up with a group of people for dinner for a little while before heading back to the hotel to crash so that I could wake up at oh-dark-thirty to check in at 6am for my 5k volunteer shift at the finish line. (My hotel was at O'Hare -- a 45-minute L ride in.) First thing: join the ever growing group of people who were taking the medals out of the boxes they were in and put them on one of several racks that will enable a much easier time of awarding them to finishers as they cross. 12,000 medals takes quite a lot of man-hours to properly stage.

Next up, I joined in with helping set out some of the Haribo gummies, and then putting out bottles of water. Soon enough, everything was properly staged, and it was a few minutes until the start of the 5k. We braced ourselves for the runners arriving starting a little over 15 minutes hence. One of the people in charge of the area had advised those of us manning the table with water to stand behind the table and merely restock - that the runners would take the bottles themselves. After maybe 4 or 5 people finished and were clearly not in a state of mind to pick up their own bottles, I moved out from behind the table and picked up a bundle of one dozen bottles at a time to hand out. This was definitely the right move, especially as the trickle turned into a flood of finishers. Being able to quickly hand over the bottle and keep them moving along (in a very tight finisher's chute) got them cleared much faster than if they had to get to the table and pull the bottles out of the plastic that bound the bundles of 24 together. Everyone was very appreciative, from the speed demons to the back-of-the-packers. And it was great seeing several little kids who clearly completed the 5k with their parents and were bewildered by just how many people were surrounding them.

And, seemingly just like that, the last finisher crossed and I was able to leave shortly thereafter. I made my way down to Chinatown to position myself for lunch, but took advantage of the library at the L station to stay warm, check my e-mail, and even take a brief nap. The highlight of the day was heading a few blocks away to MingHin Cuisine for some great dim sum. (I really need to go with additional people to have a wider variety of items to eat.)

Oh, scrumptious! And finished way too quickly. The only thing left for me to do was get back to my room and get off my feet for the rest of the day to set myself up as best possible for Sunday (despite having been on my feet as long as I was with both my volunteer shifts). Dinner a few hours later at the restaurant on the other side of the small parking lot from my hotel, and an early bedtime, and the big day was upon me!

New Zealand, Day 9 (Farewell)

Today was merely a matter of killing some time before heading to the airport to fly off to Australia in advance of the marathon on Sunday. (See my review of the marathon posted last week.) Really not much to do in Christchurch, but they did have a botanical gardens for me to meander around for a little while, and some interesting artwork and other pieces that I noticed on my walk to and from the gardens. (They're all jumbled in how things uploaded.)