Rehoboth Half Marathon recap

Last year, a handful of my online friends came out here to run the Rehoboth Seashore Marathon and Half Marathon, and we all did such a bang-up job of promoting it in our blogs that we had a considerably larger group this year:

That’s all 30 of us at the giant beach house we rented, after everyone arrived Friday night. The five of us wearing tiaras are the ones who ran this race last year:

Jen, Jillian, Allison, Erin and me.

There was a lot of joking Friday night about the fact everyone had come to Delaware to run a race. This scene from “Wayne’s World” had been referenced more than once leading up to the weekend:

Whatever. I like this place. The cost of living is cheap, I’m close to the beach, I don’t have to put a front license plate on my car and I don’t have to deal with a lot of other people.

We had dinner at the house Friday. Vanessa made a pasta bake and a big pot of spaghetti, and there was plenty of bread, booze and desserts to carb-load with too. Linnea eats vegan and gluten-free, and she brought a spaghetti squash dish. I figured this was a good chance to see if avoiding gluten the night before a race would help with my running-related GI issues, so I only ate the spaghetti squash. I didn’t have one beer, and I held off on all the desserts, even after I saw Bangle practically making out with one of Peg’s homemade caramels. They looked so freaking good!

I got a decent night’s sleep. The four of us in my room got up at 5:30 a.m. I’d brought way too many running clothes with me for only planning on running once the whole weekend, but I didn’t know what it was going to feel like when I woke up that morning. It’d been mild all week, including Friday, but then a cold front blew through that night, just in time for the race.

I went downstairs as soon as I got up to see if it was as bad as they’d predicted. Before I got out the door, I heard Greg announce it was “cold and shitty” outside. He was right. It felt about 30 degrees colder, and the wind was blowing. Eff.

After a lot of deliberating, I settled on capri tights and a long-sleeved top that had a mock neck and a quarter-length zipper, so I could make some adjustments if I got too warm, along with thin gloves and an earband. I also decided to wear my 1400s instead of the Zeros in a race for the first time.

The house was two blocks from the start line. For some reason, everyone wanted to leave 20 minutes before the 7 a.m. start, which meant a lot more standing around shivering in the cold wind than necessary. We found a Candy Kitchen with an overhang and huddled together to keep warm. Eventually, people started peeling off to go do warm ups, but I wasn’t running the race as anything more than the week’s training long run, so I didn’t bother.

Brian started the race with me. I knew we were too far back in the pack when three people dressed as elves carrying water bottles full of what looked like egg nog got right in front of us. It was too late to try to move up though.

The horn blew to start the race. It took us almost a minute to shuffle over the starting mat, and then we had a lot of weaving through slower runners to do.

Sometime in the first mile, I felt my right sock start to slip down my ankle. It kept right on going, until the whole back half of it was wadded up under my arch. I thought about stopping to fix it, when I felt the left one do the same thing. The hell? I’ve worn those socks with those shoes before, and never had a problem. I left them both like that the whole race. Eventually I couldn’t feel them, and I didn’t get any blisters from it.

We passed a few Loopsters in the first couple of miles that had started ahead of us. I think we saw Angie first, who would run a 4:00 marathon. Then we saw Peg, who was running her first marathon, and Bangle, who had coached her through all the training and was pacing her until he turned around with the rest of the half marathon runners at mile 9. Finally, we passed Carissa, who was going for a Boston qualifying time, 3:35 or better.

On the way out to the first turnaround, we saw several Loopsters who were way ahead, including Greg, who had a shot to win the marathon, and Erin, who was trying to win the half. They were both cruising.

The next few miles were pretty even. I wasn’t pushing the pace at all. At every mile marker, my watch was just behind an 8:00/mile pace. My chip registered at 40:05 at the 5-mile mat.

Just before mile 6, we passed a sheriff’s deputy barking at the runners while he was controlling traffic. I recognized him from a 5K I ran in Rehoboth a couple summers ago. He reminds me of basic training, yelling at us to hurry up and get off his roadway haha. Whatever helps pass the time when you’re stuck standing on a road for several hours.

Then we got on the trail. The first year I ran this race, 2009, this was my favorite part of the race. Last year, it’d rained the night before and was a little muddy in spots. This year, I didn’t think it’d rained much leading up to the race, so I was expecting it to be pretty clean again.

Well, I was wrong. It was definitely even muddier than last year. There were a couple spots where the puddle reached across the whole trail, and runners were having to step off the trail to go around it. Still, most of the trail was in good shape.

I think my pace started slipping here, but not because of the trail. Just like last year’s race, and just like so many other races, I could feel the first gut rumbles coming on. I’d been worried about it, because I hadn’t been able to go to the bathroom before the race started. I guess it was too early for my system or something.

I really wanted to make it the rest of the way without stopping for once. I tried everything to take my mind off it. A couple of times, it felt like it was getting bad, but I’d be in a spot where I couldn’t get into the woods, and by the time I could again, it would have faded away.

Approaching the turnaround. Definitely fighting it here.

I made it all the way past the turnaround and back onto the trail when I finally could no longer ignore all the sloshing in my guts. I caught up with Brian and told him I’d see him after the race because I had to go now. Then I turned right into the woods, kept going until I thought I was out of sight, found a tree to hide behind and took care of business.

I later found out Kevin was coming the other way down the trail and saw me running into the woods haha. Perfect timing!

Anyway, with that taken care of, I felt 100 percent better. Soon I was passing the 10-mile marker. Just a 5K to go.

Not long after stopping in the woods, and feeling a lot better.

There’s not much to say about the rest of the race. I kept expecting Bangle to catch up to me, but he didn’t. I felt fine all the way to the finish line, which I crossed officially in 1:47:58, overall average pace of 8:15/mile. A good long run that would have been a lot better without the bathroom break, of course.

Welp, glad that’s over.

I was 14th of 117 in the F 30-34 group, 82nd of 781 women and 208th of 1,200 total finishers. No First Place Ass this year!

I got my enormous finisher’s medal (seriously, this thing is bigger than any marathon medal I have) and got my first post-race beer with everyone who’d finished before me. Soon we were all getting cold in our damp clothes, so we walked back to the house to change into dry stuff.

By the time I got back to the after party tent, a lot more Loopsters had finished, and more kept trickling in. I stayed until the kegs were just about kicked.

Greg, Erin, Allison, Jillian, me, Kevin and Deanna.

Jillian, me and Allison.

Bangle looks like a little person on his tiny chair.

While I might have completely phoned in that race, a lot of my friends pulled out some great times.

Greg finished the marathon in 2:45 and was fourth overall.

Erin led much of the half marathon for the women, but, in her words, “died” at the end and finished in 1:28, second overall woman and less than 30 seconds behind the winner.

Peg finished her first marathon in 3:46.

Carol (4:05) and Carissa (3:33) both qualified for Boston for the first time.

Ken ran 1:38 — a big PR and good enough for second in his age group.

Eventually I went back to the house. I was one of the last ones to take a shower. By the time I was dressed, the house was completely deserted. Everyone had already gone to Dogfish Head, so I teetered on down there in my stupid heels. One of the women had the brilliant idea that we should wear dresses and heels out that night.

We had dinner at Dogfish Head, and then we all moved on to the Purple Parrot for karaoke and more drinking.

Left to right, I think this is Kevin, Mrs. Bacon, me, Allison and Vanessa.

Brian, Jillian, me and Caitlin.

I left the Purple Parrot to help walk Jen back to the house, who’d been getting shots all night from a group of guys who thought she was wearing her tiara to celebrate her completely made-up impending divorce haha. It was getting close to last call anyway. When we got back there, she warmed up a bunch of food, took two bites of it all and then disappeared up the stairs to go to bed.

Not long after she went to bed, everyone else got back from the bar. Kevin, Brian and I were the only three members of the LBC still standing, and Brian and I weren’t too excited about the idea of going out for the traditional late night breakfast. But Kevin was insistent, and then he called Megan, who wasn’t able to make it to Rehoboth, to guilt us into going. It was a dirty trick, but it worked. We called a cab.

We were joined by Allison, Jillian, Peg and Angie. The seven of us piled into a Lincoln Town Car that took us to the Rehoboth Diner, where the conversation eventually turned into a big session of hating on NASCAR just to make me mad. My favorite quote of the night was when Jillian told me she loved me, and I was so smart and so pretty, but I talk like a hillbilly haha.

Back at the house, I sat down to watch TV, where I immediately went to sleep, finally. I woke up later and went to bed.

Sunday morning was low-key. A lot of people were feeling sore from running a race the day before. Not me! My legs felt totally fine. I wonder why.

It was snowing Sunday morning too. A few of us walked down to the beach. I don’t think I’ve ever been at the beach when it was snowing.

Rehoboth boardwalk covered in snow.

Jillian wanted to get her feet wet.

A lot of people left in the morning. The rest of us went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant in the early afternoon, and got back in time for the second half of the Ravens-Vikings game.

I had a bet going with Brian and Bangle, who are both Vikings fans from Minnesota (though Bangle now lives in California.) I’d gotten another blood blister in the race that had been grossing out everyone that morning, so if the Ravens won (and I was almost positive they would), those two were going to have to rub my nasty feet. If the Vikings won, I had to give them each a back rub. Peg later pointed out how uneven the wager was, but like I said, what were the odds the Vikings would actually win?

We’d been tracking the game on Bangle’s phone at lunch. It seemed like a pretty boring game, and the Ravens were up at halftime, though only by one point. At the end of the third quarter, the score was still only 6-7.

The fourth quarter, however, got pretty exciting. A little too exciting. Both teams kept scoring touchdowns and trading the lead. The Ravens pulled off one last score with four seconds remaining to finally win the game and save me from double back rubs.

I pulled off my socks and collected my winnings. Bangle got the foot with the blister — you can see it between his thumbs.

Aaaahhhhh!

While this was going on, Clark was making his way back from another trip for work to Ohio. When he got home, he came to Rehoboth.

A few of us were still awake and ready to keep drinking by the time he got to the house. At some point, he and Brian went to Dogfish Head to get even more beer, where they met up with Angie, who’d gone down there earlier in the evening to meet some friends. Clark let Angie carry back all the beer he bought haha. And it was a lot of beer.

Clark brought “Dumb and Dumber” because Peg has never seen it, but we couldn’t get the stupid DVD player to work. So we just sat around and drank some more. Clark and I were the last ones to finally go to bed.

I felt worse Monday morning than I had Sunday. I think it was just a cumulative effect of all the drinking and not sleeping over the past few days. Everyone packed up and said their goodbyes. I had the shortest trip home, and I was back by the afternoon.

Other than a little 2-mile fun run with Pepper this coming weekend, I don’t have any more races planned until Shamrock in March. It was inspiring to see so many great races this weekend, especially knowing how hard a lot of my friends worked while training for Rehoboth. I haven’t had any foot pain at all since Clark and I got back from Tennessee, so I think it’s finally time to put in the work over the next few months and kill it at Shamrock.

Of course, this morning I was so tired when I was supposed to get up to do the 7-mile easy run on the schedule, I just stayed in bed haha. Training starts tomorrow for real!