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.