Is a marathon in late June a good idea?

            When I first heard that the Challenge Triathlon series was coming to the US, I knew I wanted to be part of their first ever US event, and being in my home state of NJ it was a no brainer.   I quickly signed my husband (The other Cullen) and I up for a 2 person relay.  Often with these races you sign up months in advance and then suddenly 8 weeks out you are shaking your head wondering why you signed up to swim 2.4 miles , bike 112 (Brian) and run a marathon in the middle of the day in NJ summer heat.

            I was able to get in some long runs a few weeks out from the race, but in the end ask fellow teammate Jillian to do the swim portion.  As it turn out the swim was much harder then people expected with a strong current, Jillian came in to the Relay transition area and handed off the chip to Brian for the 112 bike leg (Swim: 1:18.31).  We had no idea what to expect from Brian’s ride as his longest training ride going into the race was 54 miles, I knew he could suffer but was not sure the extent he would go for a 112 ride.  During most of the bike ride I was out on the course with Brian Shea of PBN helping with updating the pro race via the Challenge Twitter feed.  This was a great distraction from sitting around in transition for hours waiting for Brian to return.  It was exciting out on the course following the pros and getting the splits between the packs, which at times I had to remind myself I still need to get back to transition and actually go and run a marathon.  The guys dropped me back off and went out on the run course to continue with the pro updates for Challenge. 

            As I sat under a tent waiting with the other marathon runners, it really starting setting in that I needed to make sure I was drinking and fueling to get ready.  I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible, the sun was hot!  The pros started to come in off the bike and some super speedy age groupers.   I made my way over to the Relay transition and optimistically waited for Brian to return.  Bikers started coming in but there were a lot of us waiting.  Jillian and I were chatting and trying to guess when we might see him.  And then he appeared, I was so excited to see him and find out how it went, he just look at me and said get that chip off me, so I grab the chip said great job and went on my way.  In the end he pulled out a 5:37:47 bike split for 112 miles (average 19.9mph), super proud of my hubby for suffering for the team!

            I of course went out way to fast as I was so happy to finally be moving after sitting around most of the day, I started to click off the miles in the 7:25 pace area, I had planned on trying to settle in at about 7:45-7:50 but was not able to find my groove, so I just kept going with it knowing that this is a fatal mistake when running a marathon to think you can bank miles, but I decided to just see where I will end up.  The marathon course was flat as a pancake on a gorgeous Jersey Shore summer day, which meant the beaches were crowded.  I was prepared in my head for some dodging of people/children/beach chairs.  For the most part I found the crowd along the south part of the board walk very supportive; many people were sitting on benches and cheering the racers on, great crowd support.  In front of the casinos was another story, you were in a live video game dodging people, but sometimes listening to the comments of the people as you go by talking among themselves was priceless.  The volunteers were fantastic, they had so much energy and made sure at every aid station they would get you what you needed.

            My wheels started to fall off at about mile 13.  I knew I was in trouble since I still had the other half of this race to run.  Luckily since this was a long distance triathlon there was cola on course, so in my head I decided to go to coke at mile 16, which seem to help for a few miles.  Jillian jump in and ran with me since Brian was still MIA after his bike.  Jillian had fresh legs so that help, I was having visions of handing her the timing chip and taking a break.  Over the last half of the marathon I just watched my average pace slip further and further away, the miles in 7:40ish pace went to 7:55pace to in the 8 min area and eventually I saw a few 9s pop up.  I really could not complain about suffering as I was only running the marathon leg out there and many of the people around me were 130 plus miles into finishing 140.6!  I eventually finished at 3:33:27.  Lesson learned:  No marathons in the peak of Tri Season, the run takes too much out of your legs.  Run more then 19 miles in long training runs, even though a relay it still was a marathon –ALWAYS Respect the Distance!