On February 17, I ran the Run Oak Island Marathon. Oak Island is a coastal island in North Carolina. It’s about 30 miles southwest of Wilmington.
I could’ve flown into
Wilmington, but I was able to get better flight times by flying into Myrtle
Beach, SC. From there, I had to drive
about 60 miles to get to Oak Island.
Packet pickup was at the
St. James Community Center. When I got
there, the parking lot was full, and there was a line outside the
building. After finding a parking spot,
I got in line. When I got into the
building, I saw that the line inside was longer. In all, it took about 30 minutes to pick up my
race packet.
After packet pickup, I continuing
to my hotel, which was in Southport. After
checking in, I did a strength training workout.
Then I drove to Oak Island to see where the race starts and figure out
where I could park.
I had dinner with my
friends, Julie and Miles, who drove down from Raleigh. We went to an Italian restaurant, and I ordered
a pizza, which is my usual pre-race meal.
The smallest pizza they had was 12 inches, which is a lot for one
person. I probably should’ve saved a
couple of slices for the next day, but I ate the whole thing. That wasn’t my biggest mistake. I ordered garlic as one of my toppings, and
boy was this pizza loaded with garlic. I
like garlic, but apparently my stomach doesn’t.
I was able to get to
sleep within an hour of getting back from dinner. I slept solidly for five hours, but then I
woke up with indigestion. I had a mild
case of heartburn that was enough to keep me from getting back to sleep.
When I eventually got up,
I wasn’t too worried about not getting a full night’s sleep. I got enough sleep to get by. What concerned me was that I still had
indigestion when I started getting ready for the race.
I don’t usually eat much
for breakfast before a race. I questioned
whether I should be putting anything in my stomach, but I went ahead and had a
cup of tea and a cookie. That didn’t
seem to make things any worse.
The race started at 6:45,
but I arrived an hour earlier to make sure I could find a close parking spot. When I drove to the start area the day
before, it wasn’t clear where we were supposed to park. On race morning, there were volunteers
directing us to parking areas that were mostly improvised. I was directed to an unpaved vacant lot. They somehow found enough parking for
hundreds of cars within a few blocks of the start area.
The temperature was in
the low 50s. For most of the week, rain
was in the forecast, but we didn’t get any rain on race day. I did, however, have to contend with a certain
amount of wind. I’ve come to expect that
in coastal races.
I wore a Tyvek jacket to
keep warm in the start area. Ordinarily,
I would’ve taken it off just before the race started, but the wind felt cold
enough that I kept it on. I unzipped it
in front, so it wouldn’t obstruct my race bib.
Ideally, I wanted to break
3:50, but I didn’t know how much the wind would slow me down. They had pace groups, but there wasn’t a 3:50
group. I saw a 3:45 group, so I lined up
behind them. I wasn’t sure how long I
would stay with them.
The starting line was near
the coast, which is where the wind was strongest. Shortly after we started running, we turned
and ran away from the coast. Almost
immediately, I stopped noticing the wind.
I regretted the decision
to start the race with my jacket on. I
knew I would get too hot if I wore it for more than a mile or two. I didn’t have any trouble keeping up with the
3:45 group, but I didn’t know if I could take my jacket off while running at that
pace.
When we finished the
first mile, I saw that we were a little bit fast. I eased up a bit and allowed myself to drift
back a bit from the 3:45 group. That
made it easier to take off my jacket and tie it around my waist.
For the next mile, I was
keeping pace with the group, but I was always a little bit behind them. They ran the second mile at the right pace,
so I felt comfortable continuing to follow them.
The first time I reached
an aid station, I slowed to a walk briefly while drinking a cup of
Gatorade. The pace group didn’t slow
down, so I fell farther behind them. I
started running with two other runners who were also trailing the group. They were talking, and I joined the
conversation.
One of the runners was Dexter. Dexter is a few years older than me and
started running at about the same time I did.
We had run a few of the same races.
Dexter was hoping to qualify for Boston, and he wanted to beat the
qualifying time by a wide enough margin that he would be sure of getting in.
The other runner was
Olivia. This was Olivia’s first
marathon. Her primary goal was to
finish, but she was hoping to break four hours.
Like me, she would’ve started with the 3:50 if they had one.
We all felt the 3:45
group was a little too fast. Dexter said
he wasn’t going to try to catch up to them, but he wanted to keep them in
sight. That’s how I felt too. I decided to keep running with Dexter and
Olivia.
At the second aid
station, they didn’t have enough cups ready.
I paused for a few seconds to wait for a volunteer to turn around and
get two more cups from the table. By the
time she turned around, there were more runners there, and she handed the cups
to them. I reached around her and
grabbed a cup from the table, not knowing if it had water or Gatorade. It had neither. If was empty.
I lost several seconds at that aid station and came away with nothing.
It was just past this aid
station that the marathon and half marathon separated. The half marathon went straight, while the
marathon route turned. We would
eventually merge together again, but our route was at least a mile longer.
With effort, I managed to
catch up to Dexter and Olivia. The next
time we reached an aid station, I slowed down to drink, but Dexter kept
going. After that, I was still running
with Olivia, but we never caught up to Dexter again.
By now, we had turned
onto a long out and back section that would take us to the Oak Island
Lighthouse. The half marathon runners
had rejoined us, but they were now trailing us by more than a mile. There were mile markers for both races, which
was a bit confusing. I saw a “6” banner,
but I knew we had run farther than that.
From my watch, I could see that we were somewhere between seven and
eight miles. It was six for the half
marathon.
Running toward the
lighthouse, we had a tailwind, but as soon as we passed the lighthouse, we
turned around. Now we had to run into
the wind.
Up until now, all our
mile times had been in the 8:20s or 8:30s.
Running the same pace going into the wind was much more tiring. I would’ve been content to slow down a little
and just pace for 3:50, but Olivia wasn’t slowing down. I had to work to keep up with her, but I put
in as much effort as necessary. Off in
the distance, I could still see Dexter.
Farther ahead, I could see the 3:45 group, but just barely.
In the first mile after
the turnaround, I saw a sign for the ultramarathon detour. Runners doing the ultramarathon left the road
to take a short detour to Caswell Beach and then came back to the road. This short detour increased their race
distance from 26.2 to 26.25 miles. They
call it the world’s shortest ultra.
Our first two miles
running into the wind were close to our earlier pace, but then we slowed to the
8:40s. That didn’t concern me. We were still going at a fast enough pace to
break 3:50. What did concern me was that
I still had to work hard to keep up this pace going into the wind.
A lot of the runners
around us were doing the half marathon, but they had not run as far to get
here, so they had a slower average pace.
Running in the street, it was easier to get around them. Eventually, we turned onto a busier street,
and we had to run on the sidewalk. Then
it took more effort to pass people.
Olivia was systematically
working her way around the slower runners to keep up her pace. I followed, with effort.
We were somewhere around 12
miles when I passed a slower runner, and he said, “Good job. Finish strong.” He was doing the half marathon and evidently
thought I was too. I was a long way from
finishing.
By now I recognized where
we were. We were starting to pass
buildings that I remembered seeing while driving to the start area.
We were at roughly 13
miles when a runner doing the half marathon asked us how much farther it
was. Olivia said, “halfway.” I paused for a moment to tell him that we
were doing the full marathon. I didn’t
actually know how far it was for him, but I guessed it was a little more than a
mile.
At the halfway point, we
were on pace to finish in 3:46. Olivia
said her halfway split was a new half marathon PR. I didn’t want to say anything negative, but I
reluctantly commented, “That isn’t generally a good thing in a marathon.”
I didn’t know if I should
be concerned about Olivia taking the first half too fast. I didn’t really know what she’s capable of
doing. I just kept up with her and hoped
for the best.
It was somewhere around
the 14 mile mark of the marathon that the half marathon runners turned and
headed for the finish line, while we kept going straight.
We had been fighting a
headwind since the lighthouse. By now, I
realized we would be going into that same wind until we reached the western tip
of the island. That was five more
miles. The good news is that we would
have a tailwind in the late miles, so I saw the next five miles as the “make or
break” stretch.
In mile 15, we slowed to 8:58. For the first time in the race, we weren’t
keeping up a fast enough pace to breaks 3:50.
We had enough fast miles earlier in the race that we could afford to
have a few slower miles, but I didn’t know if we would continue to slow down.
Our next three mile splits
were 9:03, 9:06, and 9:10. We were still
keeping up a fast enough pace to break four hours, but 3:50 was slipping away.
By now, I had already
made the decision to stay with Olivia for the rest of the race. I knew from our earlier conversation that her
longest training run was 20 miles.
Things can get really difficult in the late miles if you’ve never run
that far before. I was willing to give
up on my own time goals, but I was determined to get Olivia to the finish. Running with someone is always easier than
running alone – especially in the late miles of a marathon.
Julie had told me where
she and Miles were staying. I saw the
sign for their hotel and started looking for them. I saw them watching at the next corner, and I
waved to them. I didn’t know if I would
see them again along the course, but I knew they would be waiting at the finish
line.
The 19 mile mark came
just before we turned to get out of the wind.
We slowed to 9:19 in that mile, but we were finally done fighting that
wind. After two quick turns, we had the
wind at our backs. We would have a
tailwind most of the way now.
Mile 20 was a little bit
faster than mile 19. In the next mile,
Olivia needed to take a walking break while eating a gel and drinking some
water. I was starting to compute what average
pace we needed in the remaining miles to be on pace to break four hours. Even with a walking break, that mile was
easily fast enough.
Shortly after mile 22, we
turned to start an out-and-back section that would take us across the Swains
Cut Bridge. From talking to other
runners, I knew that this was the one big hill on the course. Actually, it’s two big hills, since we had to
run over the bridge twice.
After turning, I saw a
bridge, but it didn’t look as big as I expected. Olivia told me this wasn’t the bridge. After crossing this smaller bridge, I saw the
Swains Cut Bridge. Yeah, it’s a big
hill.
From 15 to 22, I was
finding the pace easier. I sometimes got
a few steps ahead of Olivia, but I was careful not to accelerate. As we started climbing the bridge, I told her
I was going to stay behind her and let her decide how she wanted to take the
bridge.
We ran the first part of
the bridge. Then we took a walking break. Then, as the bridge was leveling off, we
started running again. The downhill side
of the bridge was easy.
No sooner were we done
with the downhill than we reached the turnaround. We needed to immediately climb the bridge
again. This time, we started walking
earlier in the climb. We resumed running
just before the top.
The 23 mile mark was right
after the bridge. Our time in that mile
was much slower, but it included the only two hills in the race. We could break four hours just by running 10-minute
miles the rest of the way.
About a block after the
bridge, Olivia suddenly started walking.
She had a cramp in one of her quads.
I knew she could break four hours if she could run the rest of the way,
but not if she walked. I asked her if
breaking four hours was important to her.
At first, she said she just wanted to finish.
Right on cue, the 4:00
pace leader caught up to us. I told Olivia,
“You can still break four hours, you just need to stay with her,” and I pointed
at the 4:00 pacer. Olivia responded by
starting to run again.
The 4:00 pacer helped to
encourage Olivia. She also pointed out
that she was two minutes ahead of schedule, so we had room to slow down. The three of us ran together for about a
mile. Then the pacer told us to go
ahead, because she needed to slow down to get back to the right pace, and we were
able to go faster.
While we were still running
with the 4:00 pacer, I gave Olivia a challenge.
I told her I ran my first marathon in 3:59:39 and she could run her
first marathon faster. She took the
challenge.
In mile 25, we sped up to
9:28. In mile 26, we took a short
walking break, but there was no question we would easily break four hours.
When we reached the “26”
sign, I could see the finish line arch a couple blocks away. As we got closer, I started looking for Julie
and Miles. I spotted Julie and waved
just in time for her to take this picture.
I finished the race in
3:57:25. Olivia was right next to me.
I was surprised by the
size of the finisher medal. It’s at
least six inches in diameter. In the
upper left corner, there’s a spinner.
As we left the finish
line chute, Olivia spotted Dexter. He
qualified for Boston with more than 13 minutes to spare. There’s no question that’ll get him into next
year’s Boston Marathon.
I met Julie and Miles,
and we walked over to the BBQ tent. Every
runner’s race bib had two tear-off coupons.
One was for BBQ. The other was
for beer.
Julie and Miles joined me
in the beer garden, where we met Dexter.
Later, I spotted Olivia in the beer garden and went over to talk to her
and Dexter.
At some point, they
looked up our results. That’s when I
discovered I took second place in my age group, even though I wasn’t going all
out. The winner of my age group was so
fast, that I couldn’t have won my age group, even with an all-out effort.
The age group awards are
patches, but they also have pins on the back, so you can wear it as a pin or sew
it on as a patch.
This was my fifth
marathon or ultra in North Carolina, bringing me one step closer to completing
my fifth round of marathons or ultras in every state. I just have seven states to go.
Despite my indigestion
the night before, I still had pizza for my post-race dinner. This time I had a smaller pizza, and I didn’t
have any toppings that would upset my stomach.
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