Coupon Ruck

TRAINING LEAD-UP

On Sunday, the day after Rugged Maniac, I was feeling like my foot was 30% better than it had been immediately after Star Course ATL 26.2.  It was showing signs of improving, but I still wanted to be patient and be careful.

Monday, Mar 18:
Body weight strength session

• Pullups: 7 with a slight kip for the last 2
• Crunches: 400/side
• Plank: 3 with sloppy form, then 2.5
• Adductor/Abductor Leg Lifts: 85/145
• Pushups: 30 + 20
• Shallow Single Leg Squats: 75 + 85
• Lower Leg Extensions: 100
• 6 in: 60s
• Squats: 50 
• Russian Twists: 35 with 20#
• Weighted Dead Bug w/ 20#: 100
• Various 10# dumbell arm exercises

Wednesday, Mar 20:

Up until this day, I had stayed away from rucking.  I decided that I felt good enough to try it again today.  I went out to South End with my parents.  I had explored the Rail Trail once before while geocaching, and I loved it, so I wanted to share it with them.  That trail is awesome, with statues, brew pubs and other eateries with lots of activity, and nice views of uptown.  There are lots of fun things to discover while you're walking.

Sunset is a great time to go, because it's cooler, there's a different kind of energy to the place as people go out for evening exercise or going out for the evening.  The sunset and then the skyline at night are great, too.

Friday, Mar 22:

I hit the gym after work.  From the previous weekend, I knew I could run ok.  I hadn't been running any other time during the week, so it would be fine to try again without the risk of overdoing anything.  I had been feeling really tired in the past couple of days, but I was feeling good and happy that day.

5.0 in 41:30, 8:18 ave, treadmill at 2 degrees of incline.  I ran until my lower right back started tightening up a bit.  Normally, with injuries and compensations, whatever leg has an issue, the opposite side's back tightens up.  I used new shoes.  The ones that have been in my rotation have all had many miles on them.  It doesn't hurt to bring in some new ones with fresh cushioning.  I wonder if that was some of the cause of my issues.  

Splits> 8:37, 8:33, 8:21, 8:11, 7:47.

Sunday, Mar 24:

I had a lazy Saturday in bed all day.  I think I even ate some of my meals in bed.  By Sunday, I was itching to get my blood flowing again.

5.0 in 43:03, 8:36 ave, treadmill at 2 degrees of incline.  I wore heavier shoes than usual, to rotate in a different pair, so the run felt a bit harder than normal.  It was still good to get out, though.  I'm glad that my foot's improving.  I rucked 1.4 mi to/from the gym, on top of that.

Monday, Mar 25:

The ruckingchallenges.com March challenge was called the "1,000 lb Ruck".  Of course you're not rucking a 1,000 lb ruck, but the idea is that you transport 1,000 lbs for 1 mile, cumulatively.  After the issues after Star Course ATL 26.2, I didn't think about the challenge much, since I had kind of given up on it, and was pretty consumed by getting better.  

My rucking friend was organizing a Pathfinder Coupon Ruck event, though, and it's hard to pass up a chance to ruck with some cool people.  Ironically, the Coupon Ruck was the Pathfinder challenge that I had most wanted to avoid.... well, that and Triple Miles both sounded pretty awful.  In Pathfinder, you get to pick 5 challenges out of a list of about 11.

The Coupon ruck consists of sharing about 80# between 2 people, for 10 miles.  Sounds terrible, doesn't it?  That's a lot.  I guess it's pretty normal as part of a Tough, so it shouldn't be as intimidating to me as it is.  You mix it up with different kinds of weights, and split the weight up in different ways throughout the challenge, to simulate different coupons and swapping schemes during a Tough.

Anyways, since I was planning to do the Coupon Ruck, I'd be getting in a decent number of pounds moved, so I did the math.  I had 262 points from the 26.2 with 10#, and then another 78 points from the shorter rucks during the week.  If I ended up doing about 50# for 10 miles during the Coupon Ruck, I'd have a manageable gap to fill to make up the difference.

So, I went for a ruck on Monday.  I needed to see how a more substantial ruck felt, anyways.  If I had any troubles doing 5 miles with 20#, for example, then it wasn't a good sign for the coupon ruck.  Last-minute, I decided to try 30# instead of 20#.  I almost never train with 30#, but I guess I wanted to try to be more efficient with my time that night.  It ended up being great.  It didn't feel that much harder, and it was nicer to do an extra 10# than to have to walk an extra 50%.  I didn't bring any water, so just a 30# plate wasn't much different than what I might have during a normal ruck with 20# during a GORUCK event, anyways.  

I also used the opportunity to try out a new pair of Salomon XR Missions.  I love my original ones, but they're old, with worn treads and heel counters that are starting to crumble where I normally slide/force my feet in.  I'm going to avoid the MAC-V1s for a while, until I'm well past feeling 100% again.

I was happy after finishing 3 miles and was tempted to stop it there, but I kept going.  During the ruck around my neighborhood, it hit me that this was actually supposed to be prime Star Course DC training time, so I should be doing good training right now.   I ended up with 6.4 miles.  I could've pushed for even more, but there's no need to risk it at this point. A gradual buildup is the wise thing to do.  

It went well.  I was happy to have completed a good normal ruck again.  I had to take the downhills gingerly, but the rest felt pretty good.

6.4 in 130 minutes, about a 20:00 pace.  

COUPON RUCK

There were 5 of us who signed up for the Coupon Ruck.  It was my first ruck in North Charlotte.  On the event page, we were all indicating what kinds of coupons we could bring to the suckfest.  It was kind of crazy... we were all excitedly sharing what kinds of heavy, awful things we had in our arsenal to make a normal ruck harder.  I offered a few options.  I have more stuff, too, but I had no desire to haul around a bucket or anything too unwieldy or with sharp edges like that.

We met up in the park, and decided which coupons to take with us.  We had a nice assortment, and went with 3 sandbags (30#, 45#, 45#), an extra ruck (30#), and a kettlebell (15#).  We had two Pathfinder Course Advisors in the group, so they knew what they were doing, and we had a good system going.  Every 1/2 mile, we'd swap coupons.  We went on a looped 2-ish mile course, which gave us chances to stop by the cars again, if needed, too.  We took a 5-ish min break at the 5-mile mark.

It was a nice day for a ruck.  It was one of the first warm days of the year... so it was actually a little sweaty, and we had all that coupon sharing going on, haha.  Team building.  The park was nice.  The gravel was nice to our feet.  It was scenic, with some trail areas and a section by a pond with a fountain.  There was also a 5K going on that day, which added a little bit of excitement.

I was starting to feel the weight in the last couple of miles, but my foot was fine.  I was breathing harder sometimes, and had to focus, but I was happy to find that none of the coupons were that bad.  It was challenging, but you only had to worry about taking it half a mile at a time.  It was a good group.  Everyone was good about sharing the load, and we had a nice morning of rucking and hanging out.

10.0 in 210 minutes, about a 21 min pace including the break and the swapping time.

RACE REPORT: Rugged Maniac - Charleston 2019

I totally laid off of training in the work week following the ATL Star Course 26.2, so there's no "training lead-up" section to report on this time.  I let my body recover, and I was more intentional about getting in calcium, bone broth, vitamin D, vitamin C, and tart cherry juice.

On Friday, the night before Rugged Maniac, when I left work and started the drive down to Charleston, I started calling my mom, to tell her that I was tired, and to ask if I should still go.  I was thinking about just skipping the race.  I was tired.  If I drove down, first of all, I didn't know whether I'd be physically able to run based on how my recovery ended up going.  And even if I did run, it seemed much less likely that I'd be able to run well enough to put on a good performance. 

Fortunately, my mom didn't answer the phone.  If she had, and had heard that I was feeling tired, she would've told me to skip the weekend.  I got home at 10pm, maybe.  Fortunately, the race is literally a mile and a half from my parent's house.  It's soooo nice, for a change.  I'm used to driving 1-3 hours, sometimes even 7 hours, for events.  I still got there an hour early.  My mom came to watch this year, for the first time, for this particular event.

I showed her around the festival area.  It's my third year at this venue, so it's all familiar to me.  During the week, I had found that walking barefoot was uncomfortable for my left foot, where it felt like a particular bone or something might be out-of-place.  All shoes that I tried (I didn't re-try the MAC-V1's) felt mostly OK for walking in, though.  The cushion in those shoes felt good.  I was happy to find that my OCR shoes felt good, too.  I had tried jogging for like 15 feet a couple of times, to make sure that that motion felt ok, and it did.

I didn't do anything more extensive than those two 15 feet spurts, all week since ATL, until 15 minutes before the race start during my warmup.  Fortunately, I felt pretty good.  My conditioning felt pretty normal, and my feet felt mostly normal.  Nothing too concerning.

The field of competitors looked a little stronger than usual.  I was so glad just to be there, though.  I just wanted to put in a decent effort, and I had few expectations.  I'd be happy with finishing without any issues. 

We started off, and from the start, there were many people, and quite a few women, ahead.  That's somewhat normal.  Many people go out fast, and I tend to reel them in during the race.  I just had to run my own race.  I noticed pretty quickly that the course was sort of in the opposite direction this year.  It was nice to have it be a little bit different.  There weren't too many obstacles in the beginning, which is good.  Having backups in the competitive heat would've been super frustrating.  It's mostly like mud pit and crawling obstacles early on.... obstacles that don't get congested. 

After maybe a mile, the main obstacles came.  Rugged was devious this time.  They had quite a few monkey bar / ring / rig obstacles that followed shortly after water obstacles.  Our hands would be wet, and then we'd have some tricky grip stuff to deal with. 

Fortunately, despite the bit of rain the previous day, the air was dry enough to help a little bit.  I also took the time to try to dry my hands more... lots of time.  I'd rather take the time to dry my hands a bit better, than to try an obstacle and fail and fall into the water and get completely wet.  The patience paid off.

I might not have been as fast (conditioned) as I could be, but I feel like I was pretty efficient and smart during the race.  Positions were fairly set by the end of the race... the girl ahead of me was pretty far ahead, and I had a good lead on whoever was behind me. 

I don't think it was until I crossed the finish line that I found out that I came in third, though.  It was a wonderful surprise, after this past week. 

3.1 in 35:28, 11:26 ave.

It was great to enjoy the experience with my mom.  We played cornhole, bought local honey, rode the mechanical bull, watched the beer stein holding contest, etc.

GORUCK Star Course 26.2 - ATL

PLANNING

GORUCK rolled out its 50 mile Star Course challenge last year, and it sounded amazing.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it out to any of them.  My schedule was already pretty full.  In 2019, they rolled out it out to even more cities, and they added two new distance options - the 26.2 and the 12.  I thought it would be so cool to rack up 50's in a bunch of different cities.  Each city has its own event patch with the city's skyline, so it would be fun to collect.

I had signed up for the DC 50 and the CLT 50, after working with my event schedule to keep them spaced out from some of the more challenging events, so that there would be sufficient time to taper beforehand and recover afterwards.  After a special promotion, I still had another event that I could sign up for, and I decided to go with the ATL 26.2.  Since it was the week after the Myrtle Beach Marathon, I wouldn't be able to do the 50, but I felt confident that I could at least finish the 26.2.  It would be a good opportunity to practice and figure out how the event goes, in preparation for the 50's, too.

Participants are supposed to form teams of 2-5.  My friends were all doing the 50, so I posted in the event page, looking for potential teammates.  There was a guy who was also looking for a team, so our team was born.  This was about 5 weeks before the event.  Both of us were just aiming to finish, and I was planning to be the one to navigate.  We both downloaded Road Warrior to start getting familiar with the route optimization tool.

Two weeks later, another guy posted, asking if he could join.  He was new to GORUCK events but had a good endurance background and happened to ruck a lot.  We became the@3Ruckateers.  He happened to be from ATL, too, while I was from CLT and the first guy was from Alabama.  It was awesome that we had a local on our team, too, and when I gave him a choice between navigating or doing Instagram, he was game for navigating.  The first guy was going to be our official team leader.

I got us some team patches, for a nice little treat and team unity.  A fourth guy almost joined the team but decided to go to a different city for his... so we almost became the 3 Ruckateers plus D'Artagnon.

Our goals were to

• Finish (not concerned about pace)
• Learn and gain experience
• Have fun

PRE-EVENT

I left CLT on Friday night at around 10pm, and arrived at Piedmont Park at 2:30am.  There was parking available on the street, which was nice.  I was glad that I didn't have to find a spot a mile away and ruck in to the start.  I mostly went with the packing list for gear.

Gear

• Extra socks 
• Blister kit
• Pen, paper, printout of the participant packet
• 2L H2O and a Recovery Drink
• Food & electrolytes
• Cash, credit card, ID
• Tissue
• 3 Power Banks and cords (because my phone runs out of batteries quickly)
• Tac Hat
• Headlamp
• Buff
• 10#
• Carabiner and reflective bands

For clothing, I had shorts, compression socks, MAC-V1s, a t-shirt, and light hoodie.  

I took a nap for about an hour, and then got dressed.  D arrived, and we met A at the start point.  

It's fun to encounter new Cadre.  I had never met Flash or JC before.  It would be interesting to do challenge events with them.  

JC ran through the rules.  We got our gear checked, to verify weights.  We got a start point picture with the starting tent.  The Team Leads got the waypoint lists.  Our plan was for both A and I to stick them into our own Road Warrior apps, and check whether we got the same results.  I had read that recommendation in an AAR, and that was a good tip.  I had some trouble with a coordinate-based point at first, but A knew where that point should be and helped me fix it.  One of his addresses needed to be updated, too.  Sometimes, you could tell whether your pinpoint made sense, if it was at a landmark that you could see on a map.  Other times, it wasn't as easy to tell.

We took our time, going past the official start time when we could depart, to make sure that this was right.  I had heard that "you live or die by your route", and that issues  have caused teams trouble in the past.  When we got the same points, it was interesting to note that the sequence of stops between our two optimizations were different, but it was the same route, either way, and a very similar distance, so we were satisfied.  The Cadre verified that we were good to go, and we were on our way.

The cold and our desire to find a restroom soon made us walk fast at the start.  That and adrenaline.   knew where to find our first waypoint, which was an Einstein statue at the Georgia Tech campus.  Many teams had been headed in that direction in the brisk rush at the start, so we and and another team helped each other take pictures.

Our next priority was a restroom, which A helped us find.  We weren't going for time, so we took our time there before heading out to the Olympic Fountain.  On the way there, I asked A whether he had gone to the '96 games when they came around.  It turned out that he wasn't even born yet!  It made me feel old, haha.  

We went to the state capitol, next.  We were glad to get city waypoints out of the way first, when there was less traffic around.  The waypoints sometimes have special instructions, where you have to take the picture of a certain thing, or from a certain place.  

It started to get warm, so we took off some layers after this picture.  For our next waypoint, we were doing a straight eastern shot.  We had another restroom break.  During that break, we found out that it wasn't a good idea to re-optimize after the route had already been optimized, particularly if the round-trip setting was applied.  That probably added about 0.75 miles on to the trip, but not much, and it was good to figure that out early on.  I also ate a granola bar during that long break.  It did get chilly outside, since we weren't moving anymore, and it was windy along that wide road.

We continued on to the start point of the Battle of Atlanta.  

We ran into some other teams.  It's interesting how despite going to the same places, teams take different routes.  We know why we took a different route, but there are always different ways to get to the same place.  We did separate again shortly after.  We had another long leg to our next point, the Bradley Observatory at the Agnes Scott campus.  We took a quick break there to eat and drink a little.  

Our team got along well.  Everyone was easy-going, and it never got boring.  The topic of places to eat came up often, and the houses in ATL are varied and interesting.  The HOAs in the area must not be too strict, since there are all kinds of architectural styles and building colors in the neighborhoods we went through.  We came across one house that was full of elaborate birdhouse structures decorated with all kinds of themes.  And to think... not every team would've come across this, based on the route that you went on.

We went up through Decatur to go to Emory University, next.  My sister went there, so it brought back some nice memory of my visits with her.  Decatur was a nice little city to walk through.  They had restaurants and stuff in their downtown area.  And Pokestops.  I did do a little bit of Pokemon during the event.

We had some fun with our pictures, to amuse ourselves, and to give a little treat to whichever GORUCK employees were on scoring duty.  For each waypoint picture, you had to tag @goruckstarcourse and enter a certain hashtag.  Once HQ "liked" your photo, you knew that they approved your post.  It took between 5 seconds and 55 minutes for some likes, so I'm glad that we never tried waiting for the "like" before proceeding.  You could check other peoples' posts for the hashtags, so you could get confidence from seeing that similar posts were previously approved for other teams.  You knew you were at the right place, and you just had to follow the rules on being as close to the stated waypoint as physically possible, in the spirit of the game.  

We had started seeing more teams.  Some of them were the 50 milers, who had started the previous night at 9pm.  They were still moving really well, and some people were hauling it.  

We took another restroom break at a porta-potty.  One good thing about the amount of construction/re-construction in ATL is that there are portapotties to be found in the neighborhoods.  

We went to the Fairburn museum to visit the dinosaurs, next.  

We were on a good pace, and we had made good progress.  There were stretches of road through residential areas, and then we started going through more commercialized areas with heavy traffic.  

We took another break at a park, to change socks.  I normally don't bother, but it was a good call from D.  It was nice to get some dry socks on.  A hot spot was starting to form, but just on the outer back edge of my heel.  Better to be safe.  

Onwards we went.  I was starting to feel it a bit more now.  After stops, my feet would feel it more, and I'd walk slower than before.  The sun finally came out from behind the clouds at times, too.

We went to a park in the Fourth Ward, and ran across more teams.  We were all headed to the belt line.  From there, we only had one more point to visit, before it would be time to head back to the finish.  Our target was Sweetwater Brewery.  We went along that gravel road for as long as we could, so that we could enjoy softer ground beneath our feet, with less traffic to worry about. 

While we walked, D and I told A about our experiences at GORUCK events.  I mentioned how even though I've done so many, I learn something new at each one. He asked what I learned from this event, and that opened up a good discussion about how the day went.  It was kind of like doing an AAR after an evolution, and it was really awesome to get to talk through it as a group.  

The beltline only went so far, so we had to move back onto Monroe to go under I-85.  

I was really hoping for a beer there, but there was no beer.  There were 50 miler teams working with their support crews.  That was the first time we came across support teams.  We didn't have any for our 26.2 team.  It wasn't really necessary.  Looking back, though, it would've been nice to have to carry less extra supplies around for "just in case" purposes.  I'll keep that in mind for the 50.  I didn't need to bring as much water or as many power banks as I did, since weather cooperated, and the electronics did fine.  Though if anything had gone wrong in those areas, it is good that I would've been prepared, so I don't know that I would change that for the next time, despite the extra weight.  We did dump at least a liter of water each, at Sweetwater, since we only had 4 miles to go from there.

Before we got to I-85, I was walking really slowly after the long break.  D offered to take my ruck for a while.  I could've kept it and continued on slowly, and it would've been fine, but since he and A were still full of energy, I let them take D take it for about half a mile while my feet recovered.  It did hurt my ego when other teams came by and saw him carrying my ruck.  But, for the sake of the team, I'll take a hit on my ego for a while, and for the sake of the team, D could take some extra weight for a while, so that we could make it to the end faster.  We weren't pressed for time.  We were still well under the limit, but why not by efficient?  I did take it back after half a mile, since I wanted to finish with it.

We made our way back to the park along the same route that taken earlier, and went to our last waypoint in the park.

At the end, we got our ruck weights re-checked.  We might've come in as the 5th out of 18 or so teams?  Not sure.  But I think we did great.  A was amazing at navigation, and it was super smooth sailing because of it.  

At some point during the day, someone had mentioned "all for one and one for all".  Somehow, that phrase and how well-suited it is for the event didn't occur to me until then.  When D picked the team name, I was just thinking that we were a team of 3, and "rucka" sounds like "muska", but it really is a good name for a star course team.  The goal is to get everyone to the finish line, working as a team "all for one".  Fortunately, we didn't have to deal with this scenario, but sometimes, if a person is injured or something, they may decide to withdraw, to not hold back their team and prevent them from finishing, too, in a "one for all".  We got it done, though, as a team.  

It ended up being a tough day for the 50 milers.  They had some long routes and plentiful hills, apart from the rain at night.  I was delighted to see my Pathfinder CA there, and we got to catch up a bit.  

After changing shoes and a bit of stretching, the 3 ruckateers celebrated with some drinks and food at Nook.  It was a great experience, and the team was awesome.

Following the event, a 4-hr drive back home.  Somehow, I wasn't sleepy at all, even though it was a full 24 hrs since I had left home.  Too much fun, I guess.  

It turns out that I did have a massive blister on the back of my heel.  Fortunately, it wasn't in a spot where it bugged me too much, despite its size and volume.  I think I'm going to try a new pair of Speedcross shoes for my next distance ruck... something with more cushioning and arch support.  

For now, it's time to pound bone broth, vitamin C, green tea, milk, and tart cherry juice.  I have some recovering and healing up to do.

Myrtle Beach Marathon 2019

WHY I CHOSE THE MBM

Last year, I was in Myrtle Beach for the Terrain Race, and I discovered while I was there that the marathon was the same weekend.  Man!  I'd rather have been doing the marathon.  Especially because the weather was perfect for a PR... chilly and cloudy.  I signed up for the following year's race immediately. 

The MBM was actually my first hands-on exposure to the world of marathoning.  I was in 6th grade when I joined my middle school's Running Club, which went for a 5K run after school on Fridays.  We signed up for the Myrtle Beach Marathon relay, sending 3 teams of 5 runners.  I was on the B-team, running the second? leg.  It was exciting.  We heard about what it would be like to participate.  I was excited about my leg, since it would go by an amusement park.  The best leg was the last leg, since the course went through Broadway on the Beach, which is a tourist attraction with restaurants, fun stores, and other amusements.  Our coach, who was also our history teacher, said that it was the closest thing to running in the Olympics, to be cheered on by spectators at the end. 

I remember going to a small expo at a hotel to pick up our packets.  I remember running my leg with the dad of one of my classmates.  We were going by the airport, so with the big field with no natural wind blockers, the wind was really strong, and I was literally being blown from one side of the road to the other in the cross-wind.  The dad ran next to me to try to shield me from the wind. 

I was excited to go back to the MBM as an adult.  All year, I was planning to use it as a BQ attempt.  BQ standards had been raised by 5 minutes, so I would need to set a PR by a couple of minutes to get in.  It was time for Boston to raise its standards, since for several years, more people were qualifying than they had spots available, and it was kind of messed up to have people qualify but not actually get in after acceptances were granted based on how much you beat the qualifying time by. 


[LACK OF] TRAINING OVERVIEW

Unfortunately, I didn't get in the training that I should.  In past years, I kind of always used the same plan.  It was one that I adapted from Runner's World Smart Coach for my very first marathon in Houston.  I like it because it's low-mileage, and I haven't been able to build up to being a high-mileage runner, since me listening to my body ends up keeping the mileage low.  It's also a good mix of speedwork and long runs, with a though-out progression on the LR distances.  It also contains cycles of 3 consecutive weeks of buildups, followed by a backoff week, so that you can absorb the training and recover, in stronger form.

I had that plan in mind, and but I didn't try to follow it strictly.  Instead, I'd loosely know that this week, I should be hitting a long run of this distance.  But I wouldn't even necessarily do that, either.  I traveled for 3 weeks in Taiwan and Thailand, and it isn't as easy to 1) do long runs while traveling, and 2) find appropriate places in cities you don't know well.  So, I didn't take training seriously enough.  I happened to get one or two speed sessions in, but not the weekly ones that I should've been doing.  I only got to a couple of 13-15 mile runs.  It was enough so that I knew I could finish the marathon, and I wasn't going in completely cold, but I didn't expect to PR. 

Based on how things had gone, I planned on it just being a run for fun.  I even toyed with the idea of just skipping it, a couple of times.  But I had already paid for it, and there was some swag waiting for me, so why not. 

In the two weeks right before the race, my feet started feeling stress fractury too, though.  I've never knowingly had a stress fracture, but once a year, maybe, my feet sometimes feel like what I'd imagine the beginnings of a stress fracture might feel like, not that I've done any extensive research on what it feels like.  The mile-a-day rucking challenge with weight increasing each week, despite me keeping the increases very moderate, might've been contributing.  The MAC-V1 boots might've been a factor, too, doing that daily rucking in those.  I felt like they might've been stressing my arches a bit more than the Salomon XR Missions that I used to ruck in.

I laid off of running in the week leading up. . My last run was on Sunday a week before, where I did 7.6 miles at a 9:43 pace.  I wanted to let that potential stress fracture have every opportunity to heal itself and to not turn into anything worse.


PRE-RACE

On Friday after work, I drove out to Myrtle Beach.  Their expo ended at 8pm, but fortunately, my mom decided that she'd join me for the weekend, so she went earlier in the day to pick up my packet for me.  We got a hotel by the beach (granted, our room was facing inland), so I was looking forward to having a nice weekend with her. 

Myrtle Beach is pretty easy to get around.  The race started at 7am on Saturday morning, so I drove out to Boardwalk on the Beach, where there was plentiful parking.  I went to the porta-potties and checked in my gear.  It was going to be in the upper 50's, lower 60's.  It was decent in a sports bra... chilly at the start, but it would be warm once you get going if you're going for a fast time. 

Even walking around before the race, I noticed that my feet were getting numb in my shoes.  Typically, I'd attribute that to the cold weather, but it wasn't even cold.  I figured that my laces were too tight, so I tried loosening them some, but it didn't help a whole lot.  Not a good sign.

Fortunately, the field of competitors is small compared to most races.  I got the urge to use the restroom again with like 15 minutes before the start.  I had time to go to the porta-potties again, and make it back to my spot in line, with plenty of time.  I wouldn't recommend it, because I was nervous the whole time that something might happen, and I might get trapped way in the back like what happened to me at Houston.  It was OK at this race, though, fortunately.

THE RACE

It was strangely quiet as we set off.  There weren't a ton of spectators at the start, and past the start, there was pretty much nobody.  It was like we were in a church, as we all ran in a giant crowd down streets that would've been packed with cars during tourist season.  This was a quiet early morning in the off-season, though. 

It was so quiet that when I was coming up to my mom, who was waiting for me on the race course 2 blocks from our hotel at the 3 mile mark, I didn't think to shout out to her to get her attention.  I waved until she saw me, which was pretty much when I was already directly in front of her.

At this point in time, I was still optimistic.  Even though I hadn't gotten in a full training cycle, maybe my years of cumulative endurance and marathon magic (which comes from a good taper and adrenaline) would kick in and somehow give me a PR or at least a good time.  

We went along highway 17 business, which has restaurants and souvenir shops for the tourists.  The race course goes south for about 7 miles, then loops back up to be in-line with where the start was, and then goes north for like 6-7 miles and then goes south again back to the finish.  

At mile 6, we went through a nice community with houses that remind me of Daniel Island in Charleston.  It's a new development where they have buildings with shops and restaurants on the first floor, and housing on the floors above it.  It's pretty and seems like a nice place to live.  

At one water stop, there was a girl volunteering who was wearing a Pikachu beanie that looked like a Pikachu head.  I said "I choose you" to her as I grabbed the water cup.  I chuckled at myself for the next quarter mile for the clever remark ;)  

The pace, which wasn't even that fast... it was about my BQ speed, was starting to get to me, though.  By mile 7, I knew that this was way harder than it was supposed to feel, and my expectations for what I could do that day started going down.  

Through mile 10, where I'd loop back around to see my mom close to the hotel again, I just focused on letting the miles pass, not worrying so much about maintaining a good pace anymore.  She saw me more in advance this time, and I didn't even need to shout out.  

This stretch is fun, since we go by the beachfront resorts.  There are 1-2 amusement parks and stuff, too. Soon, we got to where the half marathoners turned off.  By then, I was struggling.  I couldn't even hold marathon pace for the half marathon distance.  I wouldn't have even been able to run a good half marathon that day.  

By then, I knew that this was merely going to be about finishing.  I made it my new goal to simply not stop running.  I've never stopped in a race before (apart from the Disney Marathon that I ran with my dad and sister, since they were using a run/walk strategy, and apart from OCRs or trail runs, where it's natural and smart to walk for parts of it like uphills).  

I was grimacing just to keep running.  I wished that my shoes (the Adidas Boston Boost) had more cushioning.  My feet were not ready for this mileage with those shoes on pavement.  I'd sometimes close my eyes, too, because it felt like I was resting or somehow saving energy just a little bit. 

I was doing fine in terms of nutrition.  The course only offered 2 stops with Clif gels, and water and gatorade every 2 miles.  I therefore brought 3 gels of my own, and was taking them every 5-6 miles.  I didn't even notice the gels at mile 14, so I'm glad that I brought my own.  I even skipped a few of the water stops, because I felt like I didn't need it.  As it was, my stomach was sounding like a slosh pipe.  It wasn't uncomfortable, but it wasn't normal for it to be sloshing.  I think my nutritional plan and execution was fine, though, and wasn't the reason for my poor performance.  There was nothing abnormal in my meals leading up, and taking pre-workouts is relatively new to me, but it hasn't seemed to have any adverse affects yet.

The northern half of the course goes through residential areas, so it feels even quieter.  At one point, closer to the northern turnaround, we went along a sidewalk by the beach, for a while.  It was nice and would've been nice, had I been running better.  Instead, I was getting passed by the 3:45 pace group.

Eventually, we were nearing the point of the northern turnaround.  We went through a large subdivision.  For a little while, I felt like I was getting a second wind, where there was a DJ playing some inspirational Disney-branded music (Star Wars and stuff).  It reminded me of the fun times at the Disney Marathon.  The DJ was calling people "Superman" and "Superwoman", too, which felt good.

Finally, we were going south again.  I could start to count down the 7 miles that we still had to go.  Let me tell you, those were the slowest going 7 miles ever.  Normally, on a long run, I'd be chuckling to myself that I "only have 7 miles left", that it's only a normal training run left.   Those miles ticked on forever, though.  I was shuffling, it felt like, just trying to keep forward motion.  My legs were not having it, and even if I could mentally push myself to go harder, I knew that it wouldn't be good for my potentially stress fractury feet, and it wouldn't be worth it.  There was no BQ on the line or anything anymore.

I kept asking myself how it could be physically possible for the finish line to still be 4 miles away.  We had been running south for so long.  Just kept going.  We started turning in different directions, adding on more miles.  I kept hoping that I'd see signs of Broadway at the Beach again soon, which would signal the coming of the finish line. 

The volunteers and spectators were encouraging.  I think they saw that I was on the struggle bus.  I had started taking 2 cups of water... one to cool myself off with, and the other to drink a little from.  It was warmer then. 

Finally, we were in the Broadway area.  Just a little bit of running left.  I'd normally sprint and stuff, but my race had blown up already, so I just wanted to finish.  When I crossed the finish line, I was so glad to not be running anymore.  I hobbled over to get a space blanket and the large medal.  They had a second runner's area with a finisher's tank top and free food. During the race, I had actually been craving pepperoni pizza, which is odd, because I haven't had pepperoni pizza in like 15 years.  I ate two slices, though, and they were delicious.  It was cold now that I had stopped running.  I also got beer.  Sam Adams was a sponsor, and early on, they had cans of 26.2 Brew, which would've been so cool, but they ran out by the time I got there.  I drank a bottle of Cold Snap, instead. 

I picked up my drop bag and went back to the car.  I drove to the hotel, where I met up with my mom.  We went down to the pool and the beach, since it was our one day in MB, and the checkout the next morning was at 10am, which wouldn't leave time for much on Sunday.

Then, we went to Broadway at the Beach, to browse the shops and attractions.

After that, we went to Original Benjamin's Calabash, where we used to go with family friends on annual New Years trips to Myrtle Beach when we were kids.  Their food is really good.  It's a buffet, but quality food.

On Sunday, one more short trip down to the beach, before we started towards home.

So... the race... it is a good race for a PR.  Good weather, flat course.  But I didn't take training seriously enough this time.  I learned that marathon magic won't make up for not training.  That was tough.  I finished in 3:59:50, just under the 4 hour mark.  I normally run consistently in the 3:32-3:38 range, when I do train, and am not doing something like the Goofy or Dopey challenge.  Gotta train next time.