Race Report - NJ Shore Marathon

NJ is awesome. The weather is hot, the girls are hot, and anyone with a true Jersey accent will make you chuckle when you listen to them talk. On Sunday, May 2nd was my running of the NJ Shore Marathon in Long Branch, NJ. It's only a 15 minute drive from my house so it's uber convenient as well. Michael (the dude I did the Knickerbocker 60K with in Central Park) came out Saturday evening and we hit packet pickup and had dinner. Turns out, I forgot to register, probably the result of one of the 1000 interruptions in my day. I pleaded my case and the gave me a registration on the spot. Try that at any other marathon.

Race morning we ate breakfast and were at the venue by 7am, the race starts at 9am. With plenty of time to kill we chilled. The start/finish is on the Atlantic ocean, in Long Branch. You only run along waterfront for about 1.5 miles and the rest is through neighboring towns. The course is 13.1 miles long and full marathoners do it twice. The day was hot, real hot. You had a cool breeze off the water at the start but 15 minutes later you were on black pavement with no shelter from the sun and no breeze. On the plus side, the course was dead flat, even flatter than Disney if that is possible.

I started pacing 10 min miles. Then 10:30's because I knew 10 was too fast for the heat. The heat was just brutal and there was just no escaping it. Believe me, I tried. At about mile 12 you turn back onto the ocean front for a 1 mile haul back to the start/finish. The cool ocean breeze was easily 15 degrees colder AND a tail wind to push you along. Imagine the most amazing, awesome feeling you've ever had and that breeze was 10x better. I felt like I could run endlessly along the water. But, then the course turned off at mile 14 and reentered the 9th ring of Dante's Inferno. I've run through a lot of brutal races before but never while being in such poor physical condition. Soon after the 14th mile I started to get a little dizzy, and my vision got bleached. It was so bright from the sun and I was having trouble seeing. Clearly the onset of heat exhaustion. I walked a mile to cool down, drenching myself at every garden hose I passed. I managed to get back into run/walk cycle ranging from 13 to 17 minute miles. It's one thing to ask your body to fake a marathon, and another to ask it to fake it in this weather. All I wanted was to reach that turn back onto the water for the breeze from heaven. When I finally did, the breeze had shifted a bit to an offshore breeze which was warm. What the hell.

5:19 was my time. I thought breaking 5 would have been feasible but not under these conditions. I have to say, it was so hot and I am so out of shape that the race wasn't all that fun. I mean, the race itself is awesome and I'll probably do it next year. But I can't do any more races half assed prepared...it gets me down. Jersey rules! Out!