Atlantic City Half Marathon

My half marathon tour of the East Coast continues, this time with a trip to Atlantic City!

Yes, the east coast sin city, land of the Boardwalk Empire, has it’s own marathon and half marathon, on a course that can be pretty darn fast if the weather cooperates. But like Philly before it, the appeal of Atlantic City wasn’t so much the location, but more the people who I was meeting there. AC was a Team Peacock race, which meant there was a race and a weekend of fun with some very good friends. Going into race weekend, I think I was more excited about the company than the race itself.

Why not so excited about the race? Well, for a race that I hoped to make my goal race of the fall, I went into AC after a month of shaky training. I lightly strained something in my foot during Philly and I missed a few runs from that. And then the week pre-race I had a lingering feeling of oncoming sickness. As a precaution, I laid really low. The combination of the two meant I had done no speedwork and only 2 long runs in the month between the two races. Not exactly the training you want going into a goal race.

So honestly, I went in with no expectations except to finish, since I was still feeling iffy. I decided to be a bit conservative, and run with the 4.15 full marathon pacer (the courses for the half and full were together for the first 11 miles). And at first, that pace felt REALLY fast. But it turns out it was–the pacer was holding us right around 9.20. But I settled in and held it–and ran possibly the best 15k of my life. Really. At the 10k mark I was two minutes ahead of my Philly pace, and at the 10 mile marker I was about three minutes ahead. But then we were on the boardwalk and I just hit the wall. I think it was a combination of the brutal wind, dry air, constant sand blast, and my undertraining.

I don’t know what was worse–how bad I felt those last few miles or knowing that I was sliding off a PR pace. My injured foot cramped badly at mile 11 and I just wanted to stop. But luckily, I could see the casino at the finish (Bally’s) and I willed myself forward. It was probably the hardest running I’ve ever done, but I’m proud of not stopping. And for as horrible as I felt at the end, I actually ran my second fastest half–2.08.50.

This was a true “pain is temporary” moment. After an ice bath and a nap I was so glad I had finished–and glad I had learned that I NEVER want to go into a race undertrained again. There is a difference between feeling exhausted from running hard and feeling like you’re just done. But now, a few days later, I’m weirdly happy about the whole experience. Probably mostly because I got to spend the next day and a half with some fantastic people. But also because I learned something which will help me going on this running journey.

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