Thirteen years ago, I ran the New Jersey Marathon in Long Branch, my second marathon. At the time, it was a double half-marathon loop. In the years since, they restructured the course to make it more marathon-friendly. Now, it's a point-to-point-ish kind of race, starting near Monmouth Park race track and winding through residential neighborhoods, before landing on Ocean Avenue and generally heading south to Asbury Park and back, to end on the boardwalk in Long Branch. I had been doing long slow training through the winter, so it felt like a good time to give the new course a try for my 25th marathon on March 7.
I spent the day prior studying the course, tracing the route on my good old Hagstrom map, writing turn-by-turn details on note paper to bring with me, and using Google Earth to find landmarks as well as signs of anything that might trip me up.
Because it was within an hour's drive, Gloria and I got on the road relatively early (but not the insane type of early that organized marathons usually require) and I was able to hit the ground running at 9:30 a.m.
The first two miles consisted of a mini-loop in Oceanport and I was determined to keep a measured pace (7:48, 8:02). After the debacle in Hartford in October, keeping it conservative was of utmost importance. There was no shame in playing it safe. My two marathons in one weekend last year showed me that running as slow as nine-minute miles and still coming in under four hours is incredibly rewarding.
Winding my way through some more Oceanport neighborhoods, the next three miles were mostly in the range for which I was shooting - 7:48, 7:42, 8:09. Keeping it to those high sevens and low eights would give me plenty of wiggle room at the end, but still (hopefully) ensure that I did not burn out. Sure, I felt that way in Hartford, but I was much more comfortable today. The weather was better (30s and sunny, if a little breezy) and I felt a lot more relaxed. The latter may be because I was listening to a Trey Anastasio Band show from March 1, 2011, which started with an acoustic set and gradually built to a full-band raucous frenzy. The more informal acoustic section provided a great backdrop for this portion of the run.
Over two small bridges - first into North Long Branch and then into Monmouth Beach - the course still had me running through pleasant residential areas in miles six and seven (8:03, 8:06), and then into Long Branch proper for miles eight through 11 (7:57, 8:00, 8:11, 8:06).
The course was incredibly flat, which helped me keep the pace consistent, though mile 12 was my slowest yet (8:23). The little detours off of Ocean, like Lake Drive around Takanassee Lake and a brief round-the-block in Deal provided a little bit of variety in miles 13 through 16 (8:12, 8:10, 8:16, 8:27), and the electric portion of the TAB show in my ears gave me a little boost. Plus, seeing Gloria on her way back north was a pick-me-up, too.
After the tiny towns of Allenhurst and Loch Arbour, there were a few somewhat confusing turns in mile 17 (8:20) but then I was finally in some familiar territory - Asbury Park - and that provided me with another jolt of confidence and energy.
That energy was sapped quickly, though, as I got onto the boardwalk to continue through Asbury and into Ocean Grove. It was a chilly winter day, but from the crowd on the boardwalk, you would have thought it was mid-spring. So, I put on my mask and powered through what I was hoping would be the fun part, but turned out to be the stressful part. Still, for miles 18 and 19 (8:22, 8:25) into the turnaround at the border of Bradley Beach, I felt pretty good.
By this point in Hartford, I was already dead in the water. Not so on this day - and knowing that it was now a mostly straight shot back north on the boardwalk and Ocean Avenue, the final 10K felt throughly do-able, even if I could feel the fatigue starting to set in. Rather than fight it, I let myself slow down, knowing I could do those last six miles at an 11-minute pace and still come in well under four hours.
For the most part, each mile got slower from 20 through 25 (8:39, 8:55, 8:56, 8:45, 8:56, 9:03), but I still never felt like I was going to fall apart. The TAB show ended and I put on Prince's 'Lovesexy' album for the home stretch. Life is pretty good when you are grooving to "Alphabet St." in the last few miles of a marathon.
Though there would be no big sprint to the finish, I did feel excited about the ending - Gloria found me and ran with me for the last tenth of a mile or so, I still had Prince playing in my ears, the day was turning out to be gorgeous, and most importantly, I had shaken off the stink of the mess from Hartford. With a finish time of 3:39:00, I felt downright good.
How about that? I felt good. Not exuberant or euphoric, but also not wrecked or beaten. I felt good. At this point, I will take that as a win.
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