Race Report
Sun, Nov 10/13
Fort Myers Beach Marathon
Fort Myers, FL
Marathon # 366
5:44:39 – 6 AG
This will be another short report. After running a 5:05
marathon 3 weeks earlier I had high hopes that I could break 5 hours in this
race. Alas, it was not to be.
I could come up with a few excuses such as the temps
being hotter than expected and a terrible course but the bottom line is my
mental toughness was sadly lacking this day and I paid dearly for it.
I drove down to Fort Myers the afternoon before the race
to pick up my race packet and meet with a fb friend, Sandy McCallum and her
husband Jim. Sandy holds the WR for running the most Ultras in desert/sand races and is training for another
Ultra in Oman in Jan where she will pass 4,000K of racing on sand. Jim is also
running the Ultra in Oman. As part of their training they both planned to wake
at 1 am on Sun and run 4 hours on Fort Myers Beach. Then Sandy would change to
run the marathon while Jim continued to run another 4 hours on the beach. And
you thought Maddog was crazy?
Later I joined my sister Mary Lou and husband Tim for a
pasta dinner. They are vacationing for one month in Fort Myers.
Sun was ‘M’ day. The race started at 7am with 1500
runners in the inaugural marathon and Half. Unfortunately the weather had
warmed up above norms in the past week so temps were in the low 70s at the
start. The race started and finished at ‘Nervous Nellies’, a bar on Fort Myers
Beach. After a few hundred meters we were running up a short steep bridge over
the ICW (Inter Coastal Waterway) to the mainland. I passed Mile 3 in 30:14. The
skies were overcast for the first 2 hours which helped keep the temps from
soaring. As I reached mile 5 in 52:36
and a split of 10:55 I could feel both legs starting to tighten. When I passed
mile 9 in 1:39:03 and a split of 11:52 to the cheers of Mary Lou & Tim both
legs and hips were so tight and sore that I felt like I was running on 2X4s? I
stopped to stretch my hamstrings & quads which provided short-term relief
but for the next 4 miles I had to stop almost every mile to stretch. Just
before I reached the Half my legs were so tight and sore that I had to stop and
do a thorough series of stretches. That took over 5 minutes and I passed the Half
in 2:38:23 and a split of 17:47 but my legs and hips had finally relaxed and
loosened up. At that point the course got really confusing and I thought I had
missed a turn? That messed up my mind and the sun broke through the clouds and
the temps started to soar and my mental toughness and willpower to ignore pain
vanished. When I passed Mile 16 in 3:18:46 and a split of 15:59 the race was
essentially over for me. I didn’t care anymore! I knew there was no hope for a
sub -5 hr finish and I wasn’t willing to ignore or accept a lot of pain to push
my old bod beyond its limit so I started to walk and run. Believe me it is a
lonnnnggggggggg way to run/walk/struggle when you have 10 miles to go – and you
are hurting like HELL! I did play a few mind games telling myself that if I
could make it to 20 miles then I could walk the final 10K. I knew once I
reached 20 miles – in 4:14:43 and a split of 14:20 – that I would not quit and
I would continue to run and walk as much as possible to get to the finish line.
That final 10K was HOT, ugly and painful but there were a few other runners
suffering the same fate and we kept each other going. I tried to run back up
the bridge at 25 ½ miles but just didn’t have the energy or mental toughness to
keep the old legs churning. I did manage to run down the bridge and cross the
finish line in 5:44:39.
I was very disappointed in my time and performance and am
now very worried about my next race in 3 weeks. The weather will be much hotter
and more humid! If that race is as bad (or worse) than this one I will have a
difficult decision to make about my running career/life. Actually I have
already made the decision but I am not ready to announce it yet.
Stay tuned!
