On October 23, I ran the Atlantic
City Marathon. This was the first time I’ve
done this race. In fact, it was the
first time I’ve been to Atlantic City. I’m
working on a fourth circuit of marathons in all 50 states, and this was my
fourth New Jersey marathon.
I associate Atlantic City
with the board game, Monopoly. The names
of the properties in that game were taken from streets found in Atlantic City,
as well as the railroad lines that existed at the time. A good portion of the marathon is run on the boardwalk. I couldn’t resist staying at a hotel on Park Place.
I flew to Philadelphia on
Saturday, rented a car, and drove the rest of the way. The drive took about an hour. I stayed at The Claridge Hotel, which was
only a short walk from where the race starts.
Technically, it has an Indiana Avenue address, but you enter the parking
ramp from Park Place.
Monopoly has a Free Parking
space, but that space is a long way from Boardwalk. That’s also how it is in Atlantic City. If you want to find free parking, it won’t be
close to the boardwalk. I had to pay $10
a day to park in the hotel ramp. I didn’t
see any other ramps that were less expensive.
Packet pickup was held at
Bally’s Atlantic City Hotel & Casino.
Often, when a race is held on a Sunday, the expo closes at early as
5:00. This expo was open until 8:00, so
I didn’t have to stress too much about getting there on time. After checking in at The Claridge, I walked
over to Bally’s to pick up my race packet.
Like most casinos, Bally’s
is huge. I knew which ballroom the expo
was in, but I had to ask an employee for directions. When I got my race packet, I was surprised to
see that the T-shirt said, “Finisher,” even though we got it before finishing
the race.
After getting my race
packet, I stopped at The Claridge to drop off my race packet. Then I walked over to the boardwalk to see
how it would be as a running surface. It’s
mostly a runnable surface, but I could see spots where I could potentially
trip.
I was hoping to go to a
beer tasting event at The Yard, which is an atrium outside of Bally’s. Their website said they would be having them
every Saturday in October, but they’re right next to the starting line for the
marathon, and setup for the race got in the way of setting up for their beer
tasting event. I saw their menu included
pizza, so I still ate dinner there.
The remnants of a tropical storm moving up the coast brought rain and strong winds on the morning of the race. It wasn’t raining yet when the race started, but I knew it would probably start raining before we finished. I brought a plastic rain poncho with me, but I kept it folded up in my fanny pack until I needed it.
I was planning to wear
shorts, but I made a last-minute decision to wear tights instead. The temperature was in the 50s, but I was
expecting wind speeds of 15-20 MPH. I
thought the wind would feel much colder that it did. In retrospect, wearing tights was a mistake.
There were several
members of 50sub4 doing the race. We met
for a group photo half an hour before the race started.
The race started on the
boardwalk. I didn’t pay any attention to
other runners or to my pace. I looked
down the whole time, to make sure I didn’t catch my foot on any cracks or
uneven spots. We only ran on the
boardwalk for about two minutes before turning onto a paved street. Once I was on smooth pavement, I could
finally look around more.
I was right behind they 4:10
pace group. That’s similar to the pace of
my last two marathons, so I thought it would be reasonable to run that pace
until we got back to the boardwalk.
The first eight miles had
a lot of turns, going back and forth through the northeast corner of the city. There were a few bridges, which were the only
hills on the course. There was also a
tunnel.
Going through the tunnel,
I was sheltered from the wind. Without
any wind resistance, the pace suddenly felt easier. For the first time, I found myself getting
ahead of the 4:10 group. It was also in
the tunnel that I first started to feel hot.
Tights felt OK when I was out on the open, but without the wind, I felt
overdressed.
When I got out of the
tunnel, I noticed the pavement was wet.
I didn’t feel any drops yet, but it was raining lightly.
The early miles had lots
of turns, so I felt the wind from different directions. When I was going into the wind, I felt like I
was dressed about right, but it took more effort to stay with the 4:10
group. When the wind was at my back, the
pace felt easy, but I started to get hot.
Running back and forth
through the northern part of the city, we were almost always within sight of
two or three of the large casinos. I’ve
never been to Atlantic City before, but it reminded me of Las Vegas.
After eight miles, we reached
the northern end of the boardwalk. Next,
we ran the entire length of the boardwalk, which is about five miles long. I had every intention of slowing down on this
section. My only goal at this point was
to get through the next five miles without tripping. Most of the boardwalk has good footing, but
every now and then, I would see a board that wasn’t flush with the
others. There were large bolts holding
the boards in place. Most of them were
flush with the wood, but a few stuck out a little. They only stuck out by a millimeter or two,
but that’s enough that I could catch my shoe on one.
All the way along the
boardwalk, I looked down. I didn’t dare
take my eyes off my footing, even for a second.
As a result, I couldn’t see where I was.
That made this section seem much longer than it was.
Surprisingly, I didn’t
slow down on the boardwalk. The wind was
at our backs, so I found I could pay close attention to my footing, yet still
easily keep up with the 4:10 group.
The 4:10 pace group was
led by Keith Straw. I’ve seen Keith at
other races before. He’s an accomplished
ultrarunner. Because I was looking down,
I didn’t see any of the mile markers. I
had to ask Keith what mile we were at.
I never really noticed when
the rain picked up, but I noticed the boards were completely wet. Wherever the runners ahead of me had stepped,
I saw footprints with small bubbles. I
never felt like my clothes were that wet, so I never felt the need to put on my
rain poncho.
The boardwalk goes through
Atlantic City and Ventnor City. Just
before the halfway mark, we reached the southern end of the boardwalk and moved
onto Atlantic Avenue. I never noticed
the banner for the halfway mark, so I didn’t look at my watch. Keith said we were right on pace for 4:10, so
our halfway split was about 2:05.
We continued southwest on
Atlantic Avenue through Margate City and Longport until we reached The Point. At one of the aid stations, I slowed down to
drink some Gatorade, and I briefly fell behind the group. It took an effort to catch up again. We still had the wind at our backs, but soon
we would turn around and face a headwind.
I knew maintaining this pace would be much more difficult when we were
going into the wind.
About a mile before the turnaround,
I started to see runners coming back from The Point. I saw the 3:30 pace group. A couple minutes later, I saw the 3:35 pace
group. Then the 3:40 pace group. I commented to Keith that there were a lot of
pace groups. He said they had them in
five-minute increments, starting with 3:15.
I’ve never seen a race with this many pace groups.
The turnaround was just before
16 miles. As soon as I turned around, I
felt the headwind. I had mixed feelings
about that. On one hand, I knew it would
be tiring running into the wind. On the
other hand, I had been feeling overdressed for several miles. I really needed the cooling effect of the
headwind.
Going around two quick
turns, I briefly fell behind the pace group.
When I was right behind them, the other runners blocked some of the
wind. As I started to fall behind, I had
to fight the headwind by myself. Then
catching up became much more difficult.
I had to give up on that pace and run the rest of the race by myself.
Between 17 and 21 miles,
we left Atlantic Avenue to run an out-and-back section through Margate City. On this section, I felt the wind from
different directions, but I was still falling farther behind the 4:10 group. Interestingly enough, I was started to pass
other runners. It seems like everyone
around me was also struggling. I was
slowing down, but many of the other runners were slowing down more.
Somewhere between 18 and
19 miles, I started to notice a scraping sound.
With every stride, I could hear my left shoe scraping against the
pavement. If it wasn’t for the sound, I
might not have noticed. It was never the
right shoe, only the left. I obviously
had some kind of imbalance in my stride.
If I worked at picking up
my feet, I could prevent the scraping, but it took more effort, and I was
already getting tired. I knew this would
be a problem when I got back to the boardwalk, but I resigned myself to having
an inefficient stride until then.
The last time I saw the
4:10 group was near the end of the 20th mile.
I could see them in the distance, about two blocks ahead of me. They were just passing the 20 mile banner. I was still pretty close to them at 17
miles. In the three miles since then, I
had already fallen behind by two blocks.
Just past 21 miles, I
finished the out-and-back section and turned onto Atlantic Avenue again. I immediate felt the headwind, which seemed
to be stronger now. I knew I would be
running into that wind for the rest of the race.
When I’m getting
fatigued, I usually find it helpful to segment the remaining miles, so I can
focus on one segment at a time. For almost
two miles, my goal was to get back to the boardwalk. When I was almost there, I wondered why I was
looking forward to it. I was already
struggling, but soon I would also have the mental fatigue of paying close
attention to my footing on every stride.
As I got back onto the
boardwalk, I made some adjustments to my stride. I starting taking shorter steps. I was too tired to increase my cadence, so
shorter strides meant slowing down. I
also started picking up my feet more. I
never once heard or felt my shoe scraping on any of the boards.
Just before the 23 mile
banner, I was passed by the 4:15 pace group.
I expected them to pass me sooner or later. I was actually surprised it took this long.
The last three miles
seemed to take forever. Fighting the
wind was physically tiring, and paying such close attention to my footing was
mentally draining. If there a bright
side, it’s that I didn’t feel hot any more.
When I first got onto the
boardwalk, the boards were dry, but it wasn’t long before I started to notice
small drops. It was drizzling. Earlier, I never felt wet. That’s probably because the wind was mostly
at my back, and I was overdressed. Now my
clothes started to feel wet, and the wind made me feel cold for the first time
in the race.
Because I didn’t dare
look up, I rarely knew where I was. I
didn’t feel like I was making any progress.
I only saw the boards right in front of me. I had no larger perspective. That made those last few miles seem to take
forever.
With about a mile to go,
I started to hear what sounded like a group of runners behind me. Eventually, one pulled alongside of me. He was holding a 4:20 sign. I didn’t want to be passed by another pace
group, so I picked up my pace to stay ahead of them.
The last mile was a
balancing act. I did everything I could
to pick up my pace, but I didn’t want to get careless. My number one goal was still to finish the
race without tripping on anything.
I stayed ahead of them
the rest of the way. I passed two
runners on the approach to the finish line, and I finished in 4:19:44. It’s always disappointing to run positive
splits by almost 10 minutes, but I had to remind myself that I was actually
planning to go much slower than that. If
you had asked me before the race to predict my time, I probably would’ve said
4:30.
After the race, I ate a
banana. Then I headed to The Yard to get
my free post-race beer. They were
temporarily out of beer, so I had to settle for a hard seltzer instead. I brought it to the food court, where I knew
I could get a slice of Sicilian-style pizza.
When I got back to my
hotel room, my fingers were turning white.
For most of the race, I felt like I was too hot, but now I was
cold. I spent a long time in the shower
before the color returned to my hands.
Tomorrow morning, I’ll have to drive back to Philadelphia and fly home. Until then, I have one more night in Atlantic City. It’s time to find a good place to eat dinner.
Great recap! I was a bit behind you at 4:23:37 and really struggled after mile 18. The wind and boards got me at the end!
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