When I was looking for a winter marathon I chose one based
on a few criteria. A pretty walk-able city/town, short flight from the NYC area, good weather
and most importantly great places to indulge in food and wine pre and post
race. We ended up with 3 out of 4.
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| Happy to be warm inside before the start |
Overall experience with the
Charleston Marathon was excellent. It is
a smaller marathon, 5,000 runners between 3 events (5k, half marathon and full marathon).
The race had an 8am start which was an
awesome treat not having to pull yourself out of bed in the wee hours of the
morning; unfortunately a cold front came through during the night resulting in
unseasonably cold and windy conditions.
As an endurance athlete living with asthma I try to avoid at all cost cold
blistering windy conditions, cold air and asthmatic lungs just do not get
along. Before I left for Charleston I
had thrown in a few extra warm gear items which came in handy on race day. The race started promptly at 8am. The first 8 miles you are running with the half
marathoners which was awesome, as fellow NJ Tri Devil, Karen Whitaker, was running
the half marathon distance. It was fun
to have a running buddy the first few miles together, but I did get slightly
emotional while running and I thought about how awesome sport is in general
that after 28 years of friendship we were running together and still chasing
down dreams. As we ran side by side we both tried to ignore the fact that the
wind was so strong. We felt like it was blowing us backwards and could not
believe how cold it was. We were both
trying to be positive for the other person and confident in our heads that
there is no way this wind can maintain for the whole race.
I have heard before, from more then one
person including coaches and friends (Melanie Fink and Brian Shea), DO NOT rely on
your GPS while racing, but even armed with this information I choose to ignore
it, apparently the GPS had the miles a little short (or the course was a little
long, I like this alternative) as right away my mile time was buzzing on the
watch before I hit the mile marker on course.
The miles were clicking off right at the pace I wanted, but as I learned
later on the miles were clicking off at less then a mile therefore I was slower
then where I thought I would be. Due to
some illness and a bout with my breathing a month out I knew my original goal
had to be re-set, but when I saw the positive numbers on the watch I decided to
try and go for it and get a little closer to the original number I had
set. With the conditions along the
course I was hurting pretty bad, and the there were some very lonely parts when
you are out there on your own. Over the
years in previous races when ever I knew I was going to see Brian (“The Other
Cullen”) I would always have in my head what I was going to say to him, but I
kept my mouth closed this time and actually listened, until he said to me I was on pace for a 3:22
marathon. I almost stopped in my
tracks. Could it be the Garmin was wrong?
I thought for sure I would be under 3:20 or just knocking at the door. So this was disappointing as I was really
hurting at this point and was not sure where I could dig from to keep it
going. So I decided to take another of
my favorite new gels GU Salted Carmel and see what I could do the last 6 miles
or so. The wheels really started to come
off and I had to dig down and find every positive self-talk in my head. In the end I ended up running a 3:22:59, but I
can honestly say I left nothing out there and that is what I had on that day. Both myself and my coach Melanie Fink are happy with the results given the fact it was a less them perfect training block, as it is most times for us busy age group athletes.
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| Wheels starting to fall off |
Nutrition: Pre Race meal I had full fat Greek yogurt
berry smoothie, plus coconut water and GU electrolyte tablets. On course I carried a 10oz bottle of the GU
electrolyte and took 4 GU gels over the course of the race. I have been experimenting with a less sugar
higher fat diet I think this still needs to be tweaked a little further, as
Brian Shea (PBN) and I discussed a few other options that might be helpful next
endurance event.
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| Done! |
This was a great race and super fun
time with friends that joined us for the weekend (including fellow Tri Devils
Dave Howard, Karen and Mark Whitaker and of course my hubby, the other Cullen). I truly enjoyed
the journey to Charleston and all the fabulous laughs with my hubby and good
friends over great meals and incredible wine.
