Left on my road trip to Myrtle Beach out of Toronto early Wednesday morning. Road conditions were good as all the highways were bare of snow till all signs of snow disappeared just south of Pittsburgh. Put 750 miles behind me to Winston-Salem NC the first day with 200 miles to go the next day. Arrived Thursday into Myrtle Beach with nice 70F degree temps. Race kit pickup was pretty quick as the expo wasn’t all that big. Friday was spent relaxing, seeing some of the sites, doing a little shopping and caught the Jupiter Ascending movie at a Broadway on the Beach, a shopping and amusement area which was also the site of the evening kids and Neon Night 5K that was taking place as a prelude to marathon day on Sunday. Decided not to run the 5K as the start time of the marathon on Saturday was an early 6:30am.
Got to the start area early as is my habit at 5:30am and snagged a prime parking spot 150 yards from the start line. Temperature at the start was a chilly 28F so I elected to stay warm in my car till about just after 6:10am. Chose to wear a long sleeved ¼ zip top, light tights, gardening type gloves, race cap and head band (jettisoned the head band after 14 miles. Temps were predicted to rise quickly to 50F by my predicted finishing time 4 hours later, but strong winds were also forecast to arrive with the warmer temps.
Training for this race was fairly minimal with time being eaten up taking care of a sick parent, tough winter conditions in late January with a bit of cold hanging around too. Got one slow 34K training run three weeks out, but no hill work, though the Myrtle Beach course is dead flat. Mile 8 to 17 were on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach which is mostly a canyon of hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions and condos. Not of open views of the Atlantic Ocean. Never seen so many mini golf courses in my life.
The 3400 Half Marathoner started with us 1800 Full Marathoners, so things were a little crowded till the halfers peeled off. Of course you thought that everyone who pasted you early one was in the Half. They was a relay in the marathon, so occasionally a fresh relay runner would blow by you. We headed northward till about the 18 mile mark where will would make the turn south back to the finish line outside the Triple AAA baseball stadium. Unfortunately it would almost all be into the wind blowing about 15-20 mph with some gusts.
Some interesting observations during the race.
• The “clopper” at the 3 mile mark who was one of the loudest foot planters I have ever heard. Big guy at about 6’3”.
• The guy at the 9 mile mark with one of those big assed smartphones on his arm playing out loud some cutesy tech pop music. Must have stolen the sound track from Hello Kitty.
• One gal with a heart on her back and a hearts on an antenna head band. Other than that just one tutu runner spotted. Heard on the news there was one marriage proposal at the finish line.
• Lots of Marine Corp Marathon shirts around with the heavy Naval presence in this area.
• The overly friendly marathoner at Mile 14, saying hello and thank you to almost every spectator and getting kids to high five her whether they wanted to or not, and directing cars in and out of the driveways in front of her.
• The gal at Mile 19 with the wedgie in her running shorts thanks to her short being caught up in her nutrition belt and the short’s panty was fairly thin. Was debating whether to tell her, but decided to leave it to perhaps a female runner to point out her wardrobe malfunction.
Not a fast finishing time and really started to slow down when we made the turn into the wind. Still my 4:12.56 chip time was almost nine minutes faster than my marathon in Vegas last December.
Chip Time 04:12:56
Gun Time 04:13:43
Overall Finish 665 / 1448
Gender Finish 479 / 845
Age Group Finish 65 / 118
Average Pace 9:39/mile
NIKE GPS KILOMETER SPLITS
Kilometer Time Change Avg Pace
1 5:52 -- 5'52"/km
2 11:36 - 0:08 (2%) 5'44"/km
3 17:17 - 0:03 (0%) 5'41"/km
4 22:57 - 0:01 (0%) 5'40"/km
5 28:41 + 0:04 (-2%) 5'44"/km
6 34:31 + 0:06 (-2%) 5'50"/km
7 40:25 + 0:04 (-2%) 5'54"/km
8 46:11 - 0:08 (2%) 5'46"/km
9 52:03 + 0:06 (-2%) 5'52"/km
10 57:39 - 0:16 (4%) 5'36"/km
11 1:03:22 + 0:07 (-3%) 5'43"/km
12 1:09:11 + 0:06 (-2%) 5'49"/km
13 1:15:14 + 0:14 (-5%) 6'03"/km
14 1:21:01 - 0:16 (4%) 5'47"/km
15 1:26:52 + 0:04 (-2%) 5'51"/km
16 1:32:39 - 0:04 (1%) 5'47"/km
17 1:38:21 - 0:05 (1%) 5'42"/km
18 1:44:14 + 0:11 (-4%) 5'53"/km
19 1:50:10 + 0:03 (-1%) 5'56"/km
20 1:56:07 + 0:01 (-1%) 5'57"/km
21 2:03:19 + 1:15 (-22%) 7'12"/km
22 2:09:04 - 1:27 (20%) 5'45"/km
23 2:14:57 + 0:08 (-3%) 5'53"/km
24 2:20:50 + 0:00 (0%) 5'53"/km
25 2:26:49 + 0:06 (-2%) 5'59"/km
26 2:32:59 + 0:11 (-4%) 6'10"/km
27 2:39:03 - 0:06 (1%) 6'04"/km
28 2:45:01 - 0:06 (1%) 5'58"/km
29 2:51:06 + 0:07 (-2%) 6'05"/km
30 2:57:15 + 0:04 (-2%) 6'09"/km
31 3:03:17 - 0:07 (1%) 6'02"/km
32 3:09:28 + 0:09 (-3%) 6'11"/km
33 3:15:49 + 0:10 (-3%) 6'21"/km
34 3:22:01 - 0:09 (2%) 6'12"/km
35 3:28:20 + 0:07 (-2%) 6'19"/km
36 3:34:35 - 0:04 (1%) 6'15"/km
37 3:41:13 + 0:23 (-7%) 6'38"/km
38 3:47:26 - 0:25 (6%) 6'13"/km
39 3:53:44 + 0:05 (-2%) 6'18"/km
40 4:00:04 + 0:02 (-1%) 6'20"/km
41 4:06:20 - 0:04 (1%) 6'16"/km
42 4:12:07 - 0:29 (7%) 5'47"/km
Pic at the beach after the run.
