Coastal Delaware Running Festival

April 22, 2018

Sorry for skipping Monday's post but after running in Sunday's Coastal Delaware Running Festival Marathon, I decided I'd earned myself a day off. 18 weeks of training has finally come to a close and culminated in my first ever full marathon! Starting on Friday as my wife and I began the journey down to southern Delaware, I made the conscious effort to jot down notes throughout the weekend so I would have something to look back on when writing this recap.As I sought to describe the feeling before, during, and after the race, the emotion I kept falling back on was surreal. I've been preparing for this race since before the new year and I couldn't believe the weekend had finally arrived. Truthfully, it's been tough trying to organize the everything into a comprehensive review, there was so much going on it would be impossible to capture it all. But without further adieu, here's an in-depth look at my first marathon!

Pre Race

My wife and I drove down for the race on Friday to spend a night with my family in Wilmington before heading south to Rehoboth for the race on Saturday. The nice thing about running a smaller race was that everything was so easy because you didn't have to navigate crazy crowds. We were through the expo in under 20-minutes with our bibs, race swag, and a finisher's jacket. I have to say, I was a bit superstitious buying finisher's gear before the race but they weren't selling any merchandise post-race so I had to get over it.The rest of Saturday was a quiet evening. We spent the evening getting settled the Dogfish Inn which was incredible. We knew the hotel was going to be awesome but definitely weren't prepared for just how great it was going to be, more on that later. We made our way to the obligatory carb-filled Italian dinner Saturday night, met up with some old friends, and then made our way back to the hotel early to try to get some sleep before the big day. Per usual, it was definitely a challenge getting to sleep Saturday but I snagged a few Zs before the 5 am wakeup call.

The Morning Of

Waking up felt like any other race. I knew it was so much more than that but I had no experience to draw from. I double checked my gear, confirmed my playlist, and repeated a few mantras to get myself mentally prepared for the day. My sister and I were both grinning ear-to-ear for most of the morning in disbelief that this was about to happen. The other nice thing about this being a smaller race was that we got to line up at the start together and run the first hundred yards or so together. All I kept thinking was "this is it, you're only a few hours away from finishing your first marathon."

Miles 1-8

The start of the race I was so concerned with my pace, it was all I could focus on. I was so concerned with burning out early on that I was consistently doing a check of how I was feeling. I checked in with my breath, my legs, my hydration, going over everything to make sure I wasn't pushing myself too early in the race. We didn't have spectators on the course until the eight-mile mark so those first eight miles were spent focussed entirely on internal reflection.We'd organized spectators before the race and the last time I'd see anyone before the finish was 21.6 miles in. I kept having flashbacks to my first half-marathon when I crashed in the final three miles and I was so worried that I'd crash as soon as I passed our final spectators. It was also during these first eight-miles that I was introduced to the gravel paths we'd spend so much of the course running on. I knew we'd be running on bike trails for most of the course but I'd expected them to be paved. This realization wasn't too damning but over 26.2 miles you tend to obsess over the smallest details.

Miles 9-15

This was going to be a long race and I was feeling okay, I'd started slow but I wasn't feeling as strong as I had hoped. With my pace hovering around 9:30 I had planned on my legs still feeling fresh by the halfway point so I could start picking up the pace. I passed the 4:15 pace group about 10 miles into the race but by mile 15, my legs were starting to feel the first signs of fatigue and I hadn't been gaining much speed.I wasn't having any trouble maintaining my pace but I was starting to worry about how much I'd be able to speed up over the last few miles. I was still listening to podcasts and hadn't planned on switching to music until the last six or seven miles so I tried not to think too much about speeding up yet. I still wanted to focus on staying calm and finding a relaxing rhythm that I could maintain with ease.

Miles 16-21

We had family watching at the 15-mile mark and then again at 21.6 so that stretch between the two was the closest I came to hitting the dreaded "wall." My legs were starting to burn and I still had over 10 miles left. This part of the course also had a lot of long straightaways that were out in the open and they seemed to drag on forever. With the sun rising higher in the sky, the change in temperature was noticeable and motivation was hard to find.This gap between spectators led to a lot of time spent negotiating with myself. I was worried about my pace but my top goal was just to finish so I kept reminding myself not to worry about speed. At the same time, I don't know when I'll be trying a marathon again so I really wanted to have a strong effort in this race. Luckily, my music kicked in around mile 19 which definitely helped a bit to pick up my mood.

Miles 22-26.2

Passing the marker at mile 22 provided a slight uptick in motivation because the remaining distance no longer seemed too threatening. The downside was that I started doing the math on how fast I'd have to finish the last few miles to make it in under four hours. Even on the last few straightaways, I couldn't see the four-hour pace group up ahead and I didn't know if I had enough gas left in the tank for a strong finish. Everything was starting to hurt but I couldn't think about that.This is where experience pays off because I started reliving past race finishes and remembering how great I'd felt crossing the finish line. I knew that I could handle a few miles of pain because I'd done it plenty of times in the past. I'd picked up the pace slightly on the back half of the course hovering close to a 9:10 pace but I knew that wouldn't cut it. I finally broke a 9:00 pace during mile 22 and managed negative splits from then on. My legs were on fire at this point. With each mile, I was feeling more and more confident about a strong finish but also less confident about breaking four hours.

The Finish

During the final mile, I was giving it everything I could and I even threw my hydration vest in the last straightaway to shed some weight. I ran that last mile in 8:00 and according to my Garmin, I was breaking a 7:00/mile pace for at least the final 0.2. I have never felt so much relief crossing a finish line, I thought I might collapse. The finishing chute was a bit of a blur but I stole a glance at my watch and saw 4:00:24. I thought I would be more disappointed but I felt an overwhelming sense of relief and accomplishment that it was over. I'd officially completed my first marathon.The surge of adrenaline I'd relied on to get me across the finish line dissipated almost immediately and I very suddenly became aware of how exhausted my legs were. I wanted to keep walking to give my legs a chance to cool down but my quads started quivering uncontrollably and I was having enough trouble just standing. I only made it a few strides past the chute before I had to grab a nearby bench for support.Huge thanks to my wife at this point for running over to find me hobbling around. I could hardly walk or get out any kind of lucid thought but she was great at keeping me moving but also giving me chances to break or sit down when my legs started seizing up too bad. The shaking lasted for probably another ten minutes before I was finally able to stand and walk somewhat close to normal.

Post Race

We made our way over to where the rest of my family were waiting and I immediately helped myself to my second favorite post-race beverage, a cold jug of Pedialyte. Now that I was finished running, I was happy that it was so warm, it was the perfect weather to sit out on the Rehoboth boardwalk and relax. It was here that I got the confirmation text that my official finish time was 4:00:19. Sure I was sad that I hadn't made it in under my goal of four hours but I couldn't be too upset with my first marathon. I was still in the mood to celebrate so my sister and I shotgunned a Dogfish SeaQuench Ale to honor the accomplishment.While recapping the experience over a delicious brunch at the Dogfish Head Brew Pub, I crashed hard energy-wise so we all made our way back to the hotel so the runners could take a nap. We'd had grand ideas of a night on the town Sunday evening but after waking up, I had enough trouble just shuffling around the hotel room. The Dogfish Inn has a beautiful cottage so we decided we'd head there to make a plan for the evening over a hot cup of coffee. Once we were there, however, we just couldn't bring ourselves to leave.The staff member working the front desk got a fire going and invited us to peruse the hotel's record collection to get some tunes cranking. We sent the able-bodied spectators upstairs to stock up on beer from the room and decided to spend the rest of the evening recounting stories from the course and enjoying the company of our friends and family. I couldn't think of a better way to close out such an incredible weekend, we had such an amazing time, my wife and I even bought one of the hotel's special edition record players to bring home with us.

What's Next?

It feels amazing to have finished my first marathon, but you better believe that those 19 seconds are going to haunt me. Going into the Coastal Delaware Running Festival, I knew the race was going to be brutal but I didn't have any experience to base my expectations on. Now that I've got one under my belt, I'm ready to start thinking about a 2nd attempt but that won't be for at least another year.For now, it's still surreal that for the first time in 18 weeks I don't have anything to train for. Sure I have the Broad Street Ten-Miler in a couple of weeks but I likely won't be doing much running at all before then. For now, I'm just going to enjoy the break over a nice ice bath and a few cold beers!

Cheers!

RunningApril 24, 2018