Air Force Marathon (part 2 of 2)

Morning finally arrived, after a somewhat restless night. Somehow, I managed to wake up exactly at 4:45am. And it was not because of the alarm that I had set for that exact time. Confused by the fact that the phone had NOT gone off, I checked my alarm. And, wouldn't you know it, even though I was wide awake when I set it the prior evening, I left it at PM. D'oh!

Given how many people were staying downstairs, part of the time that I was getting ready I chose to come upstairs. And, already laid out (presumably from the night before) was the spread of breakfast snacks at our disposal:

When recounting my alarm situation a little later to pacer Paul (who had been there last year, too), and to Charles and Diane, I noted that the spot that Alex had slept in last year -- which is the spot that I was sleeping in this year -- was officially "cursed." Last year, Alex fully overslept (being on the wrong time zone and having just arrived a day earlier from a trip to Mt. Kilimanjaro) and wasn't awakened until the time we were all set to get out the door, only to be the navigator in the lead car. Hopefully that didn't bode poorly for our trip to the parking area.

We left only a few minutes later than originally planned and actually made it down to the parking area we intended. But the inefficiency of the coordination between the race and the Air Force was evident at this point with a huge back-up of cars both arriving from the highway we were on and on a separate feeder street. Very slowly, each car had a separate conversation with an officer who would either shuttle them along (like us) because of having the appropriate parking pass or, quite frequently, have them take a U-turn to go to the parking area for the majority of the runners and spectators. There had to be a better way of doing this, but even though this was the 29th running of the marathon, they haven't figured it out yet.

We arrived close to 6:30, as planned, to make our way over to the pacer tent, gather up with the other pacers, hand out the signs, have a quick meeting and photo, and get going.

OnPace Race video

As happens at many of the military races, there were some service members parachuting down with the flag. Always a neat sight to see.

(Photo by Tom Gilliam)

(Photo by Tom Gilliam)

I barely managed to get my phone out in time to catch the second one landing just a few yards away (there was no time to set it to capture video), so it's a drop blurry:

Just before the start of the race, we had a flyover from the Stratotanker, and there were a couple of additional flyovers during the initial miles of the race.

(Photo by Tom Gilliam)

(Photo by Tom Gilliam)

And we were off! While it was comfortable to stand around at the start, we were in for a hard day with the forecast.

While I didn't get a terribly loud reply from the people who were running for 4:20 with me and my co-pacer Edward when I tried to engage them early on -- so I didn't really know how many there were who were looking to stay with us -- after the race spread out a bit and we had a clearly defined core group, it was approximately a dozen who were with us.

A few people would engage in conversation (bucket list races, who were the first-timers in the bunch, etc.), but most of my interaction was reminding everyone at each water station to not only drink but to throw water over their heads to try to keep cool. And given how tiny the cups were, to do so with many cups.

This brings me to my biggest pet peeve with most races, and certainly for this one. The size and organization of the water stations was horrible! 

1) There were maybe two tables' worth at each station. It's a VERY SHORT zone to have to hit on the run. Mercifully, Edward and I had planned from the get-go to be walking the water stops to help us bleed off some excess time that we know would be continually baked into running a slightly over-fast pace. While it didn't affect us TOO much, there were still bottlenecks and near collisions on multiple occasions.

2) The cups were CRAZY SMALL. You know the size cup of water you get at the dentist's office to swish and spit? Yeah -- THAT small. I'm sorry, but you have a notoriously hot race with a forecast that jibes with your typical high temps, and you have cups that can hold MAYBE 2 ounces in them when filled to the brim? And you expect people to be properly hydrated? Come on! (Boy, am I glad I carry my own water for drinking on-course.)

3) There was ZERO consistency in terms of the order of water and Hoist (which is similar to Gatorade). Sometimes one came first, sometimes the other. Sometimes they were intermixed. And not all of the stations had signage making it clear on approach -- but those that did I appreciated very much. But still, every time I was looking to grab a cup of water to douse over my head, I looked into the cup before taking. On a good number of occasions I withdrew my hand ("No!") because it was Hoist. While I'm fine drinking Hoist after a race, my eye was on water for dousing and keeping cool.

4) All of the tiny cups were the same -- plain white. There was no way to distinguish on approach which had water and which had Hoist.

While the Air Force Marathon weekend (between its 5k, 10k, half marathon, and full marathon) gets 8500 participants, the full marathon is a small field (fewer than 700 finishers this year) and the half marathon doesn't overlap much. And much of the time is spent on a portion of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, so it is not possible to have spectators along much of the course. That makes it all the more difficult -- at least for people like me who thrive on the energy of the cheering crowds.

At a couple of different points on the course, I noticed some in the group struggling -- huffing and puffing rather quickly. Each time I engaged, asking whether they ever paid attention to their breathing; both said they never did. I advised them to try to slow down their breathing -- that such fast breathing was a clear signal of over-exertion, and that they should typically try to keep a slow steady rhythm to their breathing (noting my breathing in 3/4 time to any songs that I think about). While the advice temporarily helped (and will hopefully be something they keep in mind in the future), they each were not able to stick with the pace, unfortunately.

That makes the Fly Zone in Fairborn a really fun relief just after Mile 14. Not only do they have a couple of unique aid stations (popsicles -- which I avoid, but co-pacer Edward took advantage of) and bacon (which I gleefully took advantage of, but Edward totally avoided), but by this time, there were multiple houses and stores that already had some great Halloween decorations up. Alas, given my pacing duties and not already having my phone out primed to take photos, I didn't get any photos.

Then, a few miles away, we departed from Fairborn, and just before one of the many sprinklers that homeowners set up to spray runners on the course, there was a tray marked "Bacon Candy!" Naturally, I had to investigate. Sure enough, it wasn't candy, but it was candied bacon -- in this case, bacon that was coated in honey. Scrumptious! While, sure, bacon is technically something "new" on race day (as it is not part of my normal training regimen), I always feel it's worth the risk. It's a short enough time that I'll be running afterward that the grease (typically not a runner's friend shortly before or during a run) could possibly hit my system poorly, the extra salt, change of flavor profile, and boosted endorphins are a great benefit.

The other main logistical problem was three missing mile markers. While missing the marker at Mile 8 and somewhere shortly after half-way weren't really big deals, not having a Mile 25 marker is a huge issue for pacers. It is our last opportunity to "course correct" our pace -- something we should be doing at every single mile marker. 

It is at this point that we know just how much time we need to either make up (because it looks like we will be finishing over our time goal) or bleed off (because it looks like we will be finishing more than one minute under our posted time goal). As I clicked a "manual lap" at each marker, I had a reasonably good idea of approximately where the marker should have been, and that we were a little on the fast side, but still within our good range. Take it steady, don't get caught up by the energy of the finish line, and we'll be fine.

Air Force Marathon video

Sure enough, we finished just inside our target zone.

We were waiting until the last of the OnPace pacers finished before departing, since Bekah needed to have all of the pacer sticks to ship back to the company for subsequent races -- I took as much advantage of that time as possible for my near-term recovery, eating and drinking what I could. Silly me, though, I didn't wind up switching out of my sneakers and socks and into my flip-flops before departing, as I should have. Hello beginning of blisters!

On the way back to the car, I managed to get a photo with Tailwind, which I didn't get at the expo.

Finally back at the Shininger household for another shindig. After showering and changing, it was time to have a good post-race cookout lunch: hamburgers (I had two), cheese-stuffed brats (others had several), potato salad, baked beans, cookies, various chips, etc. Definitely hit the spot. 

While originally I wasn't planning on going in the hot tub, I ultimately decided to join in. It was just three of us, as by that point most of the other pacers had departed (given other plans for the day/weeekend -- including a couple of them pacing another marathon on Sunday). But, boy, the hot water overall, and the water jets both on my back and the balls of my feet were really helpful for the recovery (having already used my Normatec boots earlier, post-lunch).

Sunday morning arrived, and after a simple breakfast and sitting around chatting for a while, Charles and I headed over to a nearby park (Charleston Falls Preserve) for a short hike -- get out of the house and aid my recovery my continuing to move a bit. Pretty scenery and a decent chat, both about our respective backgrounds and details I could provide about the various Marathon Majors (Bekah has several more majors to run before she completes her six-star journey).

After a final reprise of the pasta dinner for lunch, Charles generously drove me over to the airport rather than my taking an Uber.  Short flight later, and I was finally back home, after rather a whirlwind of a weekend.

The biggest "pro" for being on the pacing team for this particular marathon is the overly gracious and generous hosts -- the Shiningers. They very much help foster a sense of camaraderie among the portion of the pacers that join the shindig. The biggest "con" is the race itself -- it is just so HOT and difficult. I don't know about repeating again at least for next year -- especially as there are SO many other races in and around this same time which I would also have the opportunity to run as a pacer. We'll see. I need a little temporal distance from the difficulty of this race so I can come to a more rational decision.