Rob S.
2009 Rehoboth Beach Marathon
Nov 21, 2009
Well my second marathon of 2009 is now complete! It was a great event and I finished, but it wasn't easy. I drove down to Rehoboth Beach on Friday afternoon and checked in the hotel about 3pm. Once my running partner, Susan, and her husband (Scott) got there, we headed over to the Rehoboth Running Company to pick up our packets and get our pasta dinner tickets.The three of us had dinner at Catcher's Seafood, right next to the Running Company. It was a big bowl of pasta and salad. Even though we had prepaid, the waitress actually ended up returning money to us, since I didn't have anything to drink with my meal. I just left it as extra tip money. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and I was asleep by 8:30p.
Since the race started at 7am, and the start was only 5 minutes from the hotel we wanted to wait till closer to the start time before heading over. I woke up early, got myself set, dressed, put on my toe sleeves and compression socks went outside to check the weather, and decided to go with long-sleeves and tights. The toe sleeves are the recommendation of my podiatrist to try and protect my second toes from losing the toenail during the race. Well this year the toe was in pretty poor condition prior to starting the race, so I didn't want to take any chances. More on the toes later.
We got to the start about 30 minutes prior to the start, used the facilities (no waiting in line). This is a small race by the way. So standing at the start I said hi to two people who turned out to be these crazy "Maniac" marathoners. These people are in there 60s and run marathons all the time. Both of the guys were running today, and then one of them was going to run the Philadelphia marathon on Sunday. Larry Macon was going to run some "monkey" marathon on Sunday. Larry ran 105 marathons last year, at the age of 64. If your interested, here is a video link describing one of his three marathon runs in one weekend.
http://www.runnersworld.com/video/1,8052,s6-21-0-7,00.html?b cpid=2888992001&bclid=1508311825&bctid=26423738001
I must throw in at this point that I beat Larry by about five minutes.
So it was cold standing there at the start. The temperature was about 37 degrees at the start. Even though this is only the second year for this event, they had to change the route since the boardwalk got swept away by the storms last weekend. The weather after the first hours hovered in the low 50s. It was a great day to race.
Luckily they started right at 7am. The half-marathoners and full marathon runners all started at the same time. I was under strict instructions to not get carried away at the start, and to keep my pace at a good level. Susan and I headed down Rehoboth Ave. for about a half-mile before turning onto some smaller streets. We ran along the beach roads for about 2 ½ miles before being hitting the turnaround and running back through several beach neighborhoods. It was great scenery, and there are some amazing houses down in this are. It was easy to run and enjoy the scenery. At five miles we passed the Visitor’s Center and had one more mile of regular road. At mile six we were routed onto a trail. The scenery was great, but the trail was covered with leaves and twigs from the storm the prior weekend. A few people took spills. I was lucky and stayed on my feet, but it took a lot of concentration. At mile 7, we had our first incident. Susan told me she was experiencing double vision, so we stopped and let her recover. Her vision snapped back, but it was pretty scary, because she has never had any kind of physical ailment. I decided to fuel up with a couple of Sport Beans and water, which I was carrying with me. At least she recovered and started running again at a good pace. I was not so lucky. I got a stomach cramp, and started experiencing a lot of pain. Then I started getting pangs of pain in lower back. I started to slow my pace, and finally told Susan to go at her own pace and I would just try to get through it. At 8 ½ miles, the half-marathon did a turn-around, and I was very tempted. But figured I would keep plugging away. When we got off the trail at mile 9, I was getting very worried. I was running alone for the next three miles, with just my Ipod blaring in my ear, and the occasional race helpers riding by on their bikes and shouting encouragement. At mile 11, I crossed over the canal, and could see Susan was really putting some distance on me. At 12 ½ miles right after passing the Cape May Ferry, my back spasms got so bad I got down on the ground and decided that this was going to be my “DNF” race. I stayed on the ground for about 15 minutes. I was pretty upset. A spectator (they were rare), came over and asked me if I needed help, and as I got to my feet, I told him that I was going to just walk and let someone pick me up. So I started walking, grabbed some Tylenol and water, and just kept walking. No one came by to get me, so I just plodded along. At 13 ½ miles, the clock read 2:45. So despite my time on the ground I had run a decent half. I entered Cape Henlopen State Park, and was greeted by a bunch of enthusiastic race helpers. One man ran with me a short way explaining the course through the park, and warned me about the hills (including Heartbreak Hill). He was waiting for his wife, so he asked if it would be ok to accompany me through the park. He really helped. The park is awesome, passing bunkers, lighthouses, and spectacular ocean views. I was definitely moving along at a slow jog, but I was moving, and I actually enjoy going uphill for some reason, so I made up some time. The route in the park was crazy. I would run up a trail for about a half-mile and then hit a turn around and come back. One particular hill the volunteer sent me up was real hard but the scenery at the turnaround was awesome. I did let the volunteer know that it just mean to send me up that hill and then have me turn around and come back. Coming out of the park at 17 ½ miles I knew I would finish the race even if I had to walk it. Here’s a gripe. I really don’t like run-walk racers. When you are trying to keep a pace and these people keep passing you and then stopping right in front of you, it really gets aggravating. That’s it. Off my gripe box. As I jogged passed the Cape May Ferry on the return at the 18 mile I switched to PowerAde at the water stations. No more beans for me on this run. I saw a runner (walker) in the distance and decided that I would keep him as my reference point. I passed him at the 19 mile mark, and headed across the canal. At this point, my toes starting hurting and I figured they were goners. The next two miles were just a constant jog. I didn’t see a single runner during this stretch. A couple of the bicycle guys checked in on me, but I brushed them off. I was moving pretty slow and wasn’t even sure when I would finish. At 21, Scott pulled alongside me in his car and gave me a motivational speech. I would have preferred a lift, since I thought I was finished,, but he really helped me. I picked up my pace and decided to start ticking off ½ mile marks. The longest part of the race started at mile 22 when I reentered that trail. This time I was all alone, and it was 3 miles without any liquids or fuel. Since I hit the wall at mile 8, I didn’t have any of those problems, but I really needed to focus to avoid taking a major spill. I actually got a pebble in my shoe. Certainly never had that happen before. When I exited the trail just before the 25 mile mark, I knew I was going to finish. One woman passed me and just took off. As I got back to Rehoboth Avenue, another runner passed me and headed down the street. I maintained my slow pace, determined to save enough energy to look really good running that last quarter mile. So at the lighthouse I knew it was finally time to kick it into gear, I could see the finish line and the clock and a few spectators. I ran as fast as I could and when I crossed that line I really felt a sense of accomplishment. When they gave me my lighthouse medal and my foil jacket, I just started shivering and realized I had actually beaten my Disney time, despite the back and feet problems. I headed into the tent and found Scott and Susan. They figured I wouldn’t be crossing the line for at least another half-hour so they didn’t bother waiting at the finish line. Thanks for listening in. This is a great race, because I can actually say that I finished among the top 200 racers. Now I need to get back to training this weekend to figure out why my body broke down so early, and figure out some new goals for 2010. Sorry for the long account, but I figure if I have to run 26.2, you need read about it.
DE Running Rob
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About Me
DE
Location
27.0
BMI
Surgery
10/06/2003
Surgery Date
May 01, 2003
Member Since
Before & After
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October 5, 2003 Pre-op
325lbs
April 2004, 6-months post
215lbs
