Myrtle Beach Marathon Recap

I ran the Myrtle Beach Marathon last Saturday. The bottom line is that my goal was to run a 3:40 BQ but only managed a 3:44:03. I'm not really disappointed, however, as I'm about 10 lbs over my best running weight and struggled with a headwind on the mid point of the course.

We arrived in Myrtle Beach on Friday morning at 7:30, had breakfast, then drove around checking out the area and running errands (like getting my saltines and peanut butter for my pre-race meal).  We also experienced our first "attraction" -  a house burning down! It turned out it was a controlled burn as part of a firefighter training exercise.

At 11:00 the Expo opened so we headed to the Myrtle Beach Sports Complex to pick up my bib. It's a nice little expo and, along with the bib and tech shirt, you get MB marathon logo'd socks as well. Here I am outside the Expo:

We were staying at Breakers Resort right on the beach, and as a "host resort" for the marathon, it provides a shuttle bus to the start line (about a mile from the hotel). It's also at mile 12 on the marathon route. The plan was for me to go to the start line on my own, then see Tricia at mile 12, after which she would walk the mile to see me at at the finish line.

Dawn view from the hotel room balcony

MB is a mid-sized marathon, with 1239 finishers this year. There is a half-marathon that runs concurrently, starting at the same time and on the same course, peeling off at about the 11 mile mark. The half had 2510 finishers. The race also features a marathon relay, so all told, there are something like 4000 starters. The race is big enough that it has a lot of infrastructure and support but not so big that it feels like a cattle drive.

Race morning was cold, sub 40 degrees with a steady breeze. I was wearing throwaway lounge pants, hat, gloves and two sweatshirts and was still cold. There were other runners wearing nothing but shorts and a running shirt and did not seem bothered at all. I ditched the lounge pants shortly before the start, then the gloves at mile 2, one of the sweatshirts at mile 4, the hat at mile 8 and the other sweatshirt at mile 10. It was a beautiful morning if cold.

Pre-race the runners were friendly and I met several, including a man of about 60 - John from Harvard, MA. He had already BQ'd and would have no problem running the 3:45 that is the BQ time for 60 year olds.

Drone View of 2017 Marathon Start

I decided not to look at my watch for some unspecified period from the start of the race and just run in to a pace I was comfortable with. That worked for about the first 5 miles until a runner next to me announced his pace, which effectively let the cat out of the bag. I checked my watch and saw that I was running pretty fast, about an 8:20 pace. Here are my splits from my watch with some notes:

I happened to catch up to John from Harvard around mile 6, who conceded that he took the first miles out too fast, around 8:00 per mile. That's almost never a problem for me, as even if I try to start fast I start slow. John and I ran together for a few miles, running past the warbirds park at the airport and through the Market Common.

Taken the day before the race -Warbirds Park

I lost John at a water stop somewhere around mile 7 shortly before we turned on to Ocean Blvd. The one drawback people mention concerning the MB course is the headwind that one typically runs into up Ocean Blvd from miles 7 to 18, right next to the beach. And as we made the turn on to the road at mile 7, I could feel the wind in my face. At that point, though, it wasn't all that bad.

As we ran up Ocean Blvd, however, the wind grew stronger and was pretty stiff by the time I saw Tricia at mile 12. The half split had me under 1:50, but I was skeptical of that as my watch had me almost 2 minutes slower when it finally showed a 13.1 distance.  Everyone's watches were going off later than the mile markers in the first few miles so I wasn't convinced the half marker was correct. In any case, to ameliorate the wind, I was doing my best to draft behind whatever runners I could. How effective that was I don't know.

The wind got worse as we ran up Ocean Blvd, to the point that there were heavy gusts in your face around mile 16 and beyond. I tried not to fight the wind but I could still feel my glutes and quads as they powered through it. Finally at the turnaround at mile 18.3, the headwind was gone and I could evaluate the situation.

Since we were now heading back in the opposite direction, I had hoped we would have a tailwind instead of a headwind. Unfortunately, we were now several blocks inland and the wind was essentially gone, so no tailwind - but at least no headwind. I came across John from Harvard again just before mile 19 and we talked about our situations. With the headwind gone I felt I still had something left in the tank, and doing some quick math I thought the 3:40 was not yet out of the question. We agreed to take it up a notch together, and he and I paced each other for the next 3 miles. I needed something close to 8:00 miles for the 3:40, however, and I only managed 8:26, 8:15 and 8:22 for miles 20,21 and 22. At that point the 3:40 became a mathematical impossibility, and I lost a little heart. I'm not sure I could have sustained that pace in any case, but I had no desire to destroy myself trying to run a 3:42 instead of a 3:44. So I let John go and just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other until the end of the race. I did manage a sprint the last tenth of a mile after turning the final corner in to the finish line chute.

There is a video of the finish line at youtube here. Fast forward to 3:44:36 and you can see me cross the finish line in the yellow shirt.

I had my usual post-race experience. Considerable pain for about half an hour, lying down for 20 minutes made it feel much better.

The race features a very nice medal and I really like the race shirts this year:

After a rest and a long hot shower, Tricia and I had a nice lunch and later that day went to the Medieval Times dinner/show, which was excellent.

I'm not that disappointed with the result. Of course I was thinking 3:40 when my half split was on target, but really that would have been quite a stretch when I am at least 10 lbs over what I was when I ran the 3:41 at Clarence DeMar.  3:44 is very respectable given that and the headwind. I'm also encouraged by the fact that I was able to put in my fastest mile at mile 21.

Looking forward, I am entered in the Maine Coast Marathon in May from a deferral last year. I'll probably run it, especially if I can knock off the weight and get back to 180 for race day.