Bob Mann: 2006 New Jersey Marathon

Sun Apr 30 2006

On Sunday April 30, 2006, I completed the New Jersey Marathon, (which is my second marathon. My first was in Chicago last October. I ran that marathon in 4:27:48. I learned a lot from that experience, and I trained harder this time around, so I was expecting to do a bit better in this one.

The course was nice and flat. There were two 13.1 mile loops, with the start/finish lines right on the boardwalk at the Jersey shore. Also taking place at the same time were a half-marathon (one loop of the course, obviously) and a marathon relay, where each of two teammates would run one loop.

A week before the race, I checked the long-range forecast, and it was calling for temps in the 50s with showers. That actually sounded like very good running conditions. But as Sunday drew closer, the forecast changed. Sunday's high temperature was actually nearly 70, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. In the grand scheme of things, it was a gorgeous day. But it was a little warm and the sun was a little too strong (or a LOT too strong) for it to be considered a great running day. Especially since it wasn't all that long ago that my runs were being done in very cold conditions, quite bundled up.

Chicago, of course, is one of the largest marathons anywhere, with a field of about 40,000 runners and something like 1.3 million spectators. This race wasn't anywhere near that size. Here, there were about 1500 marathoners and about 1900 half-marathoners. And the crowd of spectators was much smaller, of course. There were certainly plenty of people near the start/halfway/finish point. And a number of people made it over to mile 5/18, which was only a few blocks from the start. But other than that, it was pretty quiet. About the only people who were watching the race at any other point were the people who lived in the houses that we were passing. It was quite a different experience than Chicago.

My goal for this race was 4:15. I was actually even holding out hope that I could hit 4:00. I knew that would be a significant improvement from my Chicago time, but I knew I had trained harder. I wanted to make sure I didn't go out too fast, so I kept the pace slow at first. I wanted to keep my first half time at just around two hours, specifically between 2:00 and 2:05. I came in at 2:01:19, so I'd say mission accomplished.

The field really thinned out after the first loop, since more than half of the runners were only running the Half. This made parts of the second loop a little depressing. More depressing were the marathon relay people who were running just the second loop, and were thus obviously fresh. While us marathoners had already labored thru 13 miles, these people were zipping along without a drop of sweat on them. At least I know that if a relay person was passing me at this point, it means I finished the first 13 faster than their partner did, and they didn't have another loop to go. That made me feel a little better...

I think one of my mistakes was that I didn't take any walk breaks in the first half. On my long training runs, I always stuck in a brief walk break around mile 5 or 6, and another around 10 or 11. But for some reason I skipped that here just becuase I felt good. I took my first short walk break around mile 17. And by this time (close to 11:00am) I think the sun was starting to get to me. I ended up taking walk breaks just about every two miles from then on. All of them were short (no more than 30 seconds) except for one around mile 21 that lasted a good couple minutes.

Obviously this was dragging my time down, but that was okay. I still felt rather strong. In Chicago, I was pretty much dead by mile 23 and it was a real struggle to go the remaining distance. Here, I felt like I was ready to kick it into gear at 23 and take it on home. Unfortunately, that's almost exactly the point at which my left calf began to really hurt. It felt like a charley horse coming on. I had taken fluids at every aid station up to this point, sometimes grabbing both a cup of Gatorade AND a cup of water. But I might still have been fighting dehydration. And thus the impending charley horse.

So this was very frustrating. I actually felt like I had the energy to pick up the pace, but my leg wouldn't let me. The calf felt fine if I went slow, but it barked if I tried to go fast. So from mile 23 to about 25.5, the pace was kept quite slow. FINALLY, with about half a mile to go in the race, the calf loosened up. And I was finally able to turn on the jets. This was quite the opposite of my finish in Chicago, where I really limped to the finish line. This time I crossed it strong.

My chip time was 4:17:03. So I missed my goal by two minutes. Not a big deal. I'm still very pleased with this because (a) I finished strong, and (b) I feel I can blame the sun/heat for the dehydration, which I can blame for the calf, which I can blame for losing two minutes. Also, I am pleased becuase my post-race aches and pains aren't nearly as bad as Chicago. There, I could barely move for two days. Now I am a bit sore, of course, but nothing really hurts. So even if my time isn't an amazing amount better, I know there are other improvements as well. I've known forever that I'll never be a very fast runner because I'm way too heavy (5'10", 195 lbs). But wow, I think I'd really benefit if I could shave off 10 pounds or so. Maybe I'll try to do that before my next marathon and see if that helps...

Well, there's the report from Long Branch, NJ. My town here in northern NJ has a 5-mile road race on Sunday May 7, and I hope to run in it. Since it's only one week after my marathon, I will probably not be in top form, so I will make sure to take it rather easy. And after that, I may take a little hiatus from running to concentrate more on some activities that I've been neglecting for the past couple years (specifically biking and golf). And then after a couple months I'll start training again and shoot for a fall marathon. Right now, Las Vegas (Dec 10) is the leading candidate for that, but it's a long way off and things could certainly change...

And now the photos. Click any image to enlarge.