The Shameless Whiner: Surfside Beach Half Marathon 2.18.12

We were on the road by 5:00am to allow enough time to get down to the beach in the weather. I thought I would be able to sleep on the road but the heavy rains made me too nervous. I was thinking the cost of a hotel room might have been better than driving through that! We only made a couple of brief stops but still cut it very close. By the time we finally made it to Stahlman Park I was getting really nervous because it was twenty minutes to start time and I needed to get my packet and do all of my little pre-race things.

The half marathon was scheduled to begin at 8. Because of lightning we ended up delaying the start until 9:20. Thank goodness packet pick up was indoors because it gave us a dry place to wait out the lightning storm and watch the poor marathoners who started at 7 and were running through all that heavy rain. Roman enjoyed eating pretzels and playing pick-up sticks with the twist ties on the chip timing table while we waited. It was a good time hanging out with my friends before the race and discussing how crazy we all were to run in this. Finally it was time to head down the ramp to the starting line. It was a mess. There were huge puddles and lots of mud. It took a bit to slosh through it all to cross over the timing mat and then we were off. Somehow I lost my friends so I lined up and started on my own. It wasn’t long before Kim passed me and another minute or two until Kelly caught me. We spent the majority of the race together. I really enjoyed having her company. There were a few times when it was tough to keep up with her but I think it worked out well for the most part to have each other to pace off of. The course is run entirely on the beach. We headed about two and a half miles down to the first turn around. The rain had let up for this portion of the run. It wasn’t long before I had to tie my jacket around my waste. It began to lightly sprinkle when we hit the turnaround point and we launched onto the six and a half mile stretch down the beach to another turn around point. This stretch was the most challenging run I have done in a long time. We were heading into the wind for this stretch and the rain began to fall quite heavily for the majority of the time. I got really cold and was glad I had taken my jacket. At some points the sand was very soft and we were sinking with each step so we needed to stay close to the tide where the sand was packed the most. At first we were dodging the tide but eventually it seemed to take more energy to run away from it than to run through it and I just let it catch me. This, of course, kept my feet freezing for the most part. At one point I was tempted to take off the shoes and run barefoot but there was too much debris on the beach. In fact, I missed most of the mile markers because I was watching the ground. The soft sand, the dodging of beach debris, the running through water both ocean tide and many a raging river of rain water draining down the beach coupled with the strong resistance of the wind and heavy rains made this quite a work out. My legs were really feeling it. Finally we reached the turnaround point and were headed back toward the finish line. In an instant the wind was gone and I was blazing hot. I tied my jacket around my waste again and was disappointed that I didn’t feel in assistance what I did in resistance from the wind. By now the rain had let up and the sun even peaked out for a little while. I really enjoyed this stretch of the course. My legs felt great and with the wind to our backs I felt really strong and running felt easy. It felt good to go ‘fast’ at this point. With about two miles to go Kelly fell back and I pulled ahead. I was really surprised because early on I thought she would be the one to pull ahead of me. Without the resistance of the wind, I was really trying to push myself to finish under three hours. I was really feeling it but was able to push through until the cramps set in. For about the last mile I would run and run until the cramps were too much and then walk them out and run and run and walk out the cramps. When I saw the finish line, I still had a chance to finish under three so I ran as hard as I could. It was really hard to kick in at the finish because the beach was so muddy at the finish chute that I had to slosh through it as quickly as I could safely do. I crossed the line with 2:58:49 on my Garmin. The race results showed 2:59:07.

After some really strong Gatorade and pictures with my friends the ocean was looking very inviting. The best part about running near the beach is the ocean. I took off my shoes and socks and headed in to let the waves hit my legs. It felt wonderful. I rinsed the sand out of my shoes the best I could and here is where I went wrong. I put the shoes back on. This was a very painful task and I would not recommend it. Having to point my toes to put my feet back in the shoes was enough to tie my toes up with cramps. Flip flops next time!!! Flip flops!!

Despite the challenges this race posed, it was probably the most fun I have had at a race so far. The sound of crashing waves in my ears, soaked to the bone with rain, kicking sea shells, splashing in puddles, sloshing around in the mud, fighting the wind- carefree. There aren’t many days like that.