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| 40th Anniversary! |
The Cape Cod marathon has been on my list for years. Although its been rumored to be an extremely hilly course, its also stunning, with occasional shoreline stretches, one of which goes past the scenic Nobska lighthouse, inland scenery of farmlands and cranberry bogs along roads tree lined with colorful fall foliage. I've always wanted to travel to Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, and conveniently this marathon runs in the southernmost area of the Cape, Falmouth, the closest area to the ferries to Martha's Vineyard.
Our rather large group has traveled to various northeastern locations each fall, and this year we decided the Cape Cod marathon was to be our destination race. We had 16 people signed up for this trip! I managed to find a 3 story 9 bedroom, 6 bathroom house within walking distance to the race's start/finish and all the shops and restaurants along Main street of Falmouth. It was PERFECT for our group.
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| Originally built in late 1700's! |
Up until now I was a big advocate for driving the marathon course prior to race day. Six of us out of the nine marathoners headed out to check out the course and returned to the house shell shocked. We knew the course was hilly, but we didn't know how big the hills really were. Mark had been sending us various elevation charts, one of which was the Tuesday morning hill run of 6 miles repeated 4 times. It was this chart that most closely resembled Cape Cod's elevation chart, which, as we found out, was pretty much spot on. I thought it best not to carry on to the other three marathoners about how hard it was going to be, but I couldn't hide my look of fear and sometimes dread on my face. To make matters worse, the lovely Nobska lighthouse was under renovation, hence completely covered up in plastic wrapping. Combined with the unseasonably warm and humid day it was going to be ugly, and I know ugly. I've done ugly.
The course would require some sort of survival strategy. #1, and emphasized to all, was the need to run the first 10 miles relatively flat miles EASY, saving as much as you could for the remaining 16 miles. #2 was to carry a water bottle, since the water stops were too few and too far apart, especially for the weather conditions. The hills would kick in around mile 10, and then grow steeper and longer when we entered the Sippewissett area, which we lovingly referred to as the "Shippishits". Our mantra was to survive the Shippishits. We would leave the wooden inland of hills to run along the coast a few times, grateful for the break from the hills, only to be pelted by 20-30 mph cross winds. The only saving grace was the final mile, which turned off the beach and headed back into downtown Falmouth with the wind at your back.
Of our group, 3 had ran the half marathon the day before, and again on a relay team with 4 others. (3 of them walked together for the first leg of the relay), so on marathon day we all had skin the game, which was great! Everyone was up and about that morning running around the house getting ready.
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| Half marathon finishers: Susan, Art, and Jedonna |
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| The entire group ready to run on Sunday |
We quickly lost each other at the start and with a loud cannon we were off! It didn't take long for the core of us who train together find each other and settle in. (Toby was gone right away of course). I was really really happy to see us all adhering to our survival strategy and staying pretty conservative during the first 10 miles. We sort of paired up and went back and forth, switching out pairs here and there. I started off with Kathy, then later Jean, who picked it up around mile 14 to join Kelly, ahead. I last spotted the two of them on a hill around mile 18, and that was the last I saw of anyone in the core group. My "strategy" was to get to mile 20 without resorting to walking (minus the stops to fill my bottle), and then take it from there. Once I got to 20 I walked a hill, and tried not to walk any more hills, but found myself doing it from time to time. I saw George at the last relay exchange, cheering and screaming so loudly people were laughing, which was welcome, and then again as he ran past. I didn't mind the relay runners as they ran past, mostly because it was a pretty rural and remote course. Still, I enjoyed the quietness of it and never turned my music on.
I tried to take moments to look around and enjoy the scenery, but I have to say it's really hard when you're hurting! I laughed when I got to the golf course because I remembered our conversation in the car when we drove by the day prior. At that point we had seen so many hills we started making jokes about it all. We commented how here we would wish for someone to run us over with a golf cart or hit us in the head with a golf ball. Well, no such "luck". Since I was drinking so much I got "burpy" and felt like I was going to get sick a few times, which lead to even more walk breaks. When we came out to the beach and the wind blast I noticed there were painted rocks placed along the sea wall! I was SO EXCITED to see these rocks, because they told us they'd be on the course and I had failed to see any until now. I took way too much time trying to pick out a small yet pretty rock, and then again on the second beach portion I swapped out that rock for a prettier one. Some people in our group never saw the rocks, which I found funny because at that point they were all over the place! Just another example of how hard those last miles really were...
Although physically my legs were getting less and less cooperative with running, mentally I was holding up ok and trying to just go with it and "enjoy" it as much as I could. I really wanted one of the others to come up from behind me to run with, but that didn't happen, even though it turns out we were all pretty close to each other in the end. Even when I turned on the last mile I had to walk a little. My legs were just DONE. Nearing the finish and hearing our group cheering for me was one of my favorite memories ever, even though I felt very wobbly and unsure of my footing.
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| An unsteady finish |
Afterwards I was so dizzy I had to lie down for awhile, unable to make it to the beer tent, but my lovely husband brought the beer to me! That's true love! A few of us were in the same predicament at the finish, lying on the ground, but we all survived!!
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| Oh the carnage! |
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| All together again at the finish! |
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| My treasure |
Later at the house, we celebrated and celebrated, first at the fire pit outside, and then later indoors with singing and dancing into the night until one by one we cried "uncle". As we slept hurricane force winds descended upon Falmouth, taking down trees, power lines, fences, etc. Had that happened just 24 hours earlier the race would NOT have happened!
Here is how our group fared:
(Note: PW = personal worst, or your slowest time recorded)
Toby : 3:17, 2nd place in age group, won $100! Freak!
Mark: 4:03
Kelly: 4:09
The Island of Misfit Runners: 4:09 (quite impressive)
Jean: 4:10
Laura Harvey: 4:13
Me: 4:24 (not quite a PW, but close)
Kathy 4:29
Laura SP: 4:30 (a PW! Congrats!)
Mike 4:31
In summary, this was, terrain-wise, the hardest marathon I've ever ran. We did train for hills, which helped! I'm just not sure what else one could do to prepare for this one, other than lower your expectations! Our group had a BLAST, even though we failed to make it to Martha's Vineyard, due to the high winds. Memories that I will cherish forever...
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| Always fun to do the day after a marathon... |
