As anyone who has run the Erie Marathon before (especially multiple times) knows, the weather conditions can be highly variable year-to-year. (OK, who am I kidding? That's basically ALL marathons, amiright?) This year, all of us were burdened with temperatures that started about 70F and gradually increased (about 75F by the time I finished), and high humidity throughout (starting somewhere around 90%). These conditions are a recipe for sapping runners' energy very quickly, and even suddenly -- especially if one isn't paying enough attention to the combination of water intake, electrolyte consumption, and additional external cooling.
While this is the fourth time I've run the Erie Marathon, it is the first time that I've done so as part of the Pace Team. Originally I was slated for a bit of a slower time, but given needed lineup shuffling due to injury, I was placed in the coveted 4-hour slot. (I've paced many times over the years on either side of that, but this is the first time I was the 4-hour pacer.)
I arrived on Saturday a little later than I might have otherwise given a nice visit I had with my godson who is in his final semester at Pitt. By the time I got to the pavilion in Presque Isle Park that served as the expo, there was only about one hour left. Despite that, there were a decent number of people stopping by our booth asking questions, looking for some advice. As is standard, given we didn't have a pace group for EVERY five-minute increment for this race, invariably there was some grumbling from runners who fell in that "uncovered" middle area, and strategizing as to how best to take advantage of the pace groups and when/how to adjust to hit the desired time. The group dinner we had later that evening was a good time, with several engaging conversations at the different parts of the table; no one appeared to be left out of any conversations.
On race morning, given that the few of us in the car I was in left about 5-10 minutes later than we originally planned, I was very happy that we had parking passes that allowed us to park right *at* the pavilion (which also serves as the start/finish area). The line of cars trying to get to and park in Waldameer Amusement Park was very long and slow-moving. We would have had minimal time available to make one last pit stop and check a bag before needing to be in position for the pacer photo and then line up in the corrals. That extra time is so nice to help settle in.
Finally, we take our pacer photo at the start banner and then move to the staging area. Given how relatively small the actual starting area is, Erie has everyone line up on the gravelly area just on the other side of a small patch of trees, in pace order, from which they load the start area. While the method works just fine, the staging area could do with being larger, so that the pace group leaders aren't so tight together -- which makes it tricky for the runners to properly align themselves. As we were waiting around, I tried to identify my group, figure out who the first-timers were, answered some questions.
Being as far back as I was from the sound system, by the time we were being loaded into the start area, I heard the last few bars of the national anthem. It's the first time I can remember that I didn't take off my hat for it. (Kinda hard to do when you don't know it's being played.) Oh well.
Finally, we were off, to the iconic melody of "Chariots of Fire." Given how tightly packed we are in the start, I made it more of a point than normal to announce to my group, while I was walking (not jogging) towards the start, that we don't need to start running until we get to the line. Walking right there allows us to get a little empty space between us and the people in front of us, making life a lot easier on us.
It wasn't long before the conditions were being felt by everyone. While there weren't any apparent negative effects, several people were commenting about just how much earlier than typically they were sweating. Yep - it was going to be one of those days.
To the runners' benefit on a day such as what we had, Erie has water stations approximately every mile of the course. Despite them being very short (one table each for Gatorade and water), often their volunteers spread out, which helped prevent bottlenecks or people simply having to stop to pick up a cup. And having them that frequent meant my group had to endure hearing me exhort them even more frequently than normal to "drink and douse!" There was one person in my group who ran by my side for as long as she remained with us that early on passed up trying, and a couple of times was unsuccessful in grabbing a cup. After seeing that a couple of times, I was more pointed for the group about making sure they douse at every single table. Even if they needed to stop to get the cup and then take a little time catching back up.
By the time we hit halfway, for at least a couple of miles afterwards, we were seeing people walking back towards the start line. No clue what had happened that they wound up being a DNF, but there were LOTS of DNFs this time around. Where there were over 1600 people who were registered, fewer than 1000 finished. (Unknown how many didn't start - so they likely weren't all DNFs.) Alas, it seemed like I had lost about half of my group by that point; I don't know if they merely slowed but finished, or if they chose to stop by the halfway point, or even had an injury of some sort. (No, there wasn't a separate, simultaneous half marathon event that they decided to "downgrade" to on the fly.) What's worse, but not at all unexpected, I lost the rest of my group by the time I hit about Mile 18 or so. That's always depressing.
During the remaining miles, though, there were multiple times that I saw people who were walking that would perk up and start running as I approached. Seeing the 4-hour sign was motivation to pick it back up. I welcomed them, and brought them along as far as they could go before they slowed down again -- some because of cramps, others because their energy stores were just too sapped to keep the pace.
There was one runner who did everything you weren't supposed to do, and did spectacularly well. From what he told me during our conversation between when he joined me around Mile 22, and when he moved forward after Mile 23, his original goal for the day was to break 5 hours. Then, he wound up lining up with his friend in the 4:20 group to run with her. At some point (I don't remember when he said), he realized that he had a lot left "in the tank" and decided to leave her in his dust, and pulled ahead. Not long after he finished telling me that, and my remarking that none of that really made sense to do, that it was highly risky to have done that on a day with those conditions, but that he was doing remarkably well for it, he declared uber-confidently, "I've got more in the tank!" and started pulling away from me. "Good luck!"
He got a decent bit ahead of me, but by the time we had gotten to Mile 25, I was close enough that I could see him look over his should (as if to figure out if I was gaining on him) and I made sure to raise my sign up high so he could figure what the distance was. I wound up getting close enough (maybe 50 feet behind him) that I called out his name and told him "Don't let me pass you!" He answered with a cocky "Never!" and pulled up ever so slightly further ahead.
Then, we got to the turn around point at about 25.9. I was even closer on his heels at the point, and he did a risky spinning move while going around the cones for the turnaround, and I yelled again "You better stay in front of me!" at which point he definitely put it in overdrive. While I finished in 3:59:31.5 (click for finish video), almost exactly at the time I wanted as the 4-hour pacer, he wound up finishing in 3:58:43. Wonderful time! Based on our conversation, it sounds like he may have one more marathon that he's planning on doing -- in his ex-fiance's hometown in Italy. Just to rub it in. (They were originally supposed to run their first one together, but broke up sometime in advance of Erie. He pushed it as much as he could because of that. And it totally worked out for him.)
After getting back to the hotel to shower and change, having been disappointed at previous attempts for a good local burger in Erie, we went for some BBQ instead. Very tasty brisket. And a large enough portion that I actually couldn't finish everything on my plate, let alone have the additional baked beans that my friend handed my way.
On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped at a place that supposedly had ice cream (based on their very prominent sign). Alas, they did not. However, I glimpsed part of a cute display outside, so made my way around some merchandise to discover Sesame Street:
This then led to the discovery of a whole host of other similar displays that Mason Farms had in their outdoor area:
Finally, we got back to the hotel and chose to drive to the ice cream shop. Cute logo for the Freezerie, and good homemade ice cream.
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