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.
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