Surfside 26.2

Surfside, Texas.

A place of seashells, fishermen, oil rigs, toxic ocean, and the Surfside Marathon/Half marathon.

This race is marketed as the only US marathon that is run completely on sand. I had to try it out. I had heard about it just a week before the Houston marathon, but didn't really think much about it. After a somewhat slower Houston marathon time than I wanted (partly because I had a fever and bronchitis/laryngitis and likely emphysema or the plague... and partly because I didn't get my long runs in for one reason or another) I was interested in seeing what I could do right now if I wasn't sick. Although Houston was definitely fun, I knew I could do better, so when I heard that my daughter's principal and one of her classmates mom and dad were going to run Surfside Half Marathon, I decided I would sign up. The only problem is that when I went to sign up for the half marathon, it was full. I so wanted to run and I saw that the marathon was not full, so I opted for the marathon.

A little background of the race is that it is small. Very small. That worried me a bit. Last year there were only six people in my age division. Only 240 marathoners in all. There was good potential that I could come in last...or first...but more likely last.

Things that interested me in this race before I ran it:
1. The only US marathon run completely on a beach. It sounded challenging and the website said to calculate your pace at 30 sec/mi slower than your normal marathon pace or a half hour overall.

2. A coaster. I got a too-large-to-wear-other-than-to-bed (my husband loves it when I come to bed all sexy in a big baggy race shirt *ahem*) technical shirt which other than the size would be a great shirt to wear. And the website raved about how people loved their "original" stone coasters. I have to admit, it's quite fantastic. I used it for my glass of water tonight at the dinner table. What a prize!

3. It was hammer sponsored. I always think that a hammer event is going to be a good one. I'm not sure that is completely true, but it has been for me so far.

The Pre-Race
We got up at 5 and headed out the door by 6 to make the drive from Houston to Surfside. I have to thank my husband here for being such a great support crew. I guess the crew part comes from him toting around our children all day, getting them ready the night before, keeping them fed and happy. He's great like that. Google maps said the drive would take 1 hr and 40 min. We made it in an hour...all without a ticket. Isn't he great? And we got to see wild pigs on the drive down which I have never seen before! I squealed with delight.

It was COLD. It's likely that I have turned into a Texas pansy seeing as when the weather dips down into the 50s, the winter coats come out for the people of the city. I have acclimated to this too and so when we got to the beach and it was 37 degrees, it was definitely cold. And a touch windy.

One great thing that I really liked about this race was that they had GUYS and GIRLS porta-potties or porticans as they call them down here. Blue ones for boys, pink ones for girls. They were even stocked with TOILET PAPER! That was a perk that the Houston marathon lacked. And they smelled like bubble gum...not gross bubble gum, but nice clean bubble gum.

They had a few announcements, sang the national anthem, and we were off to run the beach.

The Race
This run was essentially an out and back in two directions. I started out running with Madison's principal who was running the half. The first two miles were definitely short. We were jogging through the crowd (I know it wasn't a large race, but everyone wanted to run on the same area of the sand to start out with) and hardly exerting ourselves and the time was 17 min something. We definitely were not pulling an 8-something mile. But I digress. After the first two miles the half marathon turned around and headed back towards the starting/finishing line and we turned right and headed out for another half mile before turning around. Once I made that turn, things really thinned out. At the turn around for us, there were three people writing down bib numbers. Very technical. It was cute. It was at this point that I realized that the people were so very nice out there. Everybody I passed said something to the effect of, "Good job" or other encouraging words. It was refreshing.

The first five miles went smoothly. Since there was a headwind I would sneak up behind people (probably not as sneaky with my heavy breathing and all) and draft off of them until I passed them and then find another person to draft off of. It worked well for awhile. About mile three a guy running the full ran off to the side where his car was parked, took off his shoes, and ran back on the beach. He ran the entire thing barefoot. I don't think it would be that bad, but there were so many broken shells and rocks out there.

After mile five we were back where we started and headed out the other direction. It was here that I got to see the first glimpse of my biggest fans. It's always so great to see my husband out there with his camera and my daughter waving and my son crying for me. Poor kid. I shed my coat and kept going. After a while I spotted a lady doing the full marathon that I picked to be my rabbit I guess you call it. She was clipping right along and I thought if I could hold on to her for awhile, it would push me. I think she thought the same thing about me for awhile because before we knew it, we were running together. I made a friend. I know. It's crazy, but I did. She was a super nice pilates teacher who was out doing a training run for a 50 miler that she's running in April. She was staying with me and I didn't want to slow her down, so I just ran her pace...for 15 miles. She was fantastic, encouraging me, asking how I was doing. I don't know why she didn't leave me, but it was great. We carried a 9:02 pace for the first 15 miles until we hit the turn around and then she started running ahead of me. She kept telling me, "There aren't that many girls in front of you. You are going to do fantastic." or "She's your competition. How old are you? She is who you need to watch out for." as we would run by people. It was great. I had the time of my life out there. We did have a headwind for the first 15 miles coming off of the ocean so it was nice to turn around and have a bit of a tailwind for the trip back. I saw my family multiple times as they were able to just drive down the beach (it's Texas. That's what they do here) and that kept me going to. My husband is fantastic. Have I mentioned that?

The Finish
The run back was uneventful other than I was just having a great time out there. The ocean was spectacular (even for being the second largest dead space in the world) and even the brown muddy waves were pretty to watch. I saw a pelican swoop into the ocean waves and grab a fish out. The aid station helpers were super great highschool kids who would run out to meet you, even though you said that you didn't want water, but they didn't understand you from a long ways away. I passed a bunch of people on the way back. People just started walking after mile 20 for some reason. My husband said that one guy that I passed had bleeding nipples. Maybe that's why he was walking. When we got back to running with the half marathoners (all walkers by now as it had been three hours already) I passed a guy who was not under 350 lbs. Walking away out there all by himself. I thought it was awesome. I was going to say something to him, but he was also very enthralled with whatever it was that he was listening to that I didn't, but I was super impressed that he was out there. I love seeing stuff like that. Makes the exercise scientist in me smile just a little bit brighter.

The hardest part for me was about four miles out you could see the top of the white tent at the finish line. When you are running you think, "That's not very far." But yet, according to the Garmin, it's still four miles. It's like the finishers chute at the Houston marathon X4. Instead of being one mile long, it's four (in case you couldn't do the math there. You're welcome.) I had looked behind me and saw that this girl was sneaking up on me. I know she had her sights on me so I decided I just couldn't stop at all for the next four miles and that I needed to step it up a pace. It was rough. I felt pretty good, but I didn't feel like I could hold a fast pace for very long, so I would run 8:45 for a few minutes and then drop it down to 9:30 in hopes that this girl wasn't running any faster than that. Well...she was. With a half mile left, I heard feet coming up behind me. She started sprinting so I started sprinting. Yeah, there was a half mile left. I wasn't about to sprint a half mile at that point, so I just took it down a notch. Then she jogged right up next to me and started chit chatting. She was super nice. Although I'm sure it was her strategy to be so nice to me that I wouldn't want to beat her so badly. She was from Lewiston, Idaho. What are the chances? We finished it up together and I believe that her foot did cross the finish line before mine, although I will have to check the results to see for sure. I didn't much care at that point. She was nice, I'll let her have it. She won me with her niceness. We crossed the finish line together and hi-fived. I'm not even joking. I think at this point trigirl82, you are going to be very jealous. I feel like I cheated on you. Haha. One day we will have our hands holding, skipping across the finish line moment. One day....

Post Race
We got a super cool medal that is shaped like the state of Texas (Holla!). I was a little disappointed as the website said that the medals were all made of seashells, but ours are still cool. We got a free $5 smoothie that was completely fantastic and then they had a classic down home Texas BBQ. Being a vegetarian, I opted for the steamed cabbage, potato salad, and baked beans of which I ate three bites of it all and threw it away. It just wasn't my style, but it was a nice idea. After the race the lady I ran with so long came over and told me I did good and the race director walked by me and said good job to me. It was great. So small town feeling. I loved that it was so small. For the majority of the last hour I ran by myself, but there was not one point in the race were I got bored or didn't have a good time. If I lived here I would run this race every year. It was by far the most fun running event I have ever had. I loved running on the beach. It was quite fantastic and let's just face it, it obviously didn't slow me down. I PR'd my marathon time at 4:13 (still not breaking through the 4 hour barrier) and for where I'm at fitness-wise and seven months after having a baby being sleep deprived, I'll take it. It was great.

I still don't know where I placed in the scheme of things. I think I counted six girls in front of me after the turnaround of which I passed one and then finished with my new friend so I might have been seventh girl overall? I always seem to land in the middle. One of these days I will get better and land closer to the top. For now I'm just happy to run. It feels good.