Publix Fort Lauderdale A1A Marathon!
Round about 6 months back, someone reached out to me on
Twitter about a “Running Cruise”. Big group, meeting in Fort Lauderdale, run
the A1A Marathon, and then get on the Regal Princess, cruise the islands, with
shorter 5 and 10k runs at the island stops.
What could be better then that? Already planning on the San
Luis Obisbo Marathon in April, I figured, what the f*ck. I’ll be training, I’ll
ramp up sooner, and this should be a total blast.
Left work a few days early and headed to Lauderdale. Good chance to see my father and not be
arriving last minute for the race. No way I’ll ever want to sleep on that
single bed in my dad’s guest room again, but that’s another story.
Having lived in Broward near Lauderdale for 10 years, it was
with no small sense of déjà vu that I headed over to the hotel. Broward Blvd
and the Broward Center, Las Olas, A1A, the beach and hotels, all were places
that I’d spent quite a bit of time, but hadn’t really been too in a decade.
The hotels haven’t changed. Still over priced and under
serviced. Still poorly maintained and barely adequate. If you want a great
vacation experience with healthy food and wonderful service, Fort Lauderdale
Beach is not the place to look. But I just wanted a room near the finish line
so I could collapse and shower after the run. Baia Mar checked that box. Found
the room, found some food (a poor excuse for fish tacos) and got my gear laid
out and got some sleep Saturday night.
Sunday morning came right away, and like all race days,
you’re up an hour before the alarm goes off at 4am. As the finish line was
being set out front of the hotel, we all waited in line for the shuttle bus to
the start line over on the other side of the intracoastal. I got their early enough
that I only had to wait for one batch of busses. Others who were just a little
later on told of really really long lines, and arriving at the start right at
the gun.
Got to the start line and searched out the 4:45 pace group.
Figured that was my best bet, and it was lead by an amazing lady named Maria.
The A1A Marathon was her 300th, and between her stories and the
bunny ears, I kinda thought it could be a great distraction for the later
stages in the race. One note. Don’t count on getting to a porta potty at the
A1A. There were all of like 20 of them for 5000 people at the start line.
So the gun went off right on time at 6, and our little 4:45
group crossed the start about 5 minutes after the gun. Heading east, we crossed
back over the intracoastal just as the sun was rising and turned north up A1A
along the beach. Maria and the group were everything I’d hoped, and the first
few miles flew by almost unnoticed.
The only real challenge with the A1A marathon is the combo
start for the full and half. The first 6 or 8 miles are pretty congested, and
even at my slow pace I had to dodge traffic quite a bit in the beginning. As a
result, maybe 6 miles in I saw a crease in the traffic and pulled a little
ahead of my 4:45 pace group to get into clean air. The quicker pace felt pretty
good, and I planned on keeping it up a mile or two and then drifting back to
the group.
Well, that didn’t happen. Maybe the extra training I had
done, maybe the flat course, maybe just the cool temps and the familiar
landscape, I just kept on moving. By mile 8 I’d lost site of the 4:45 group
behind me and was ticking off miles more in the 10:20 to 10:30 range. The Half
Marathoners split off right around there and those of us in the full had the
road to ourselves.
Splitting away from the beach, we tracked our way up through
the familiar streets and neigborhoods. Past Oakalnd Park Blvd and Commercial,
past the bars and restaurants, the retirees and vacationers. By the 13.1 point,
I was pacing closer to 10:00/mile. Having only half way to go, I experimented
with the pace a bit and picked it up towards 9:45 splits. This took me most of
the way to the tour of the neighborhoods of North Lauderdale as we looped
around and headed back south down the beach, less then 10 miles to go.
One of the really nice things about the A1A are the
volunteers. Every hydration station and aid station was well staffed. Everyone
was smiling, every one had a choice of water or Gatorade, quite a few had Cliff
shots or a treat. For me the Gatorade went in and the water went over my head.
It was not so cool anymore by 8:30 or 9AM.
The next 4 or 5 miles went really quickly, the wide flat
track we were on didn’t give much resistance and as I passed 3 hours, I had a
really good feeling I could kill my best time. My splits were drifting down
into the 9:30 range, pretty much unheard of in my world!
The last 10K along the beach was hot. Out of the shade, with the Atlantic Ocean on
our left, and the hotels rising again on our right. It’s a great feeling when
you’re that late in the race, still feeling pretty strong, keeping your splits
consistent and knowing you’ve got a great shot at a PR.
The last mile or two the crowd grew, and the other finishers
were gathering to rest, re count and cheer on the remaining runners. I got to
the finish in one piece, looked at the clock, and was almost shocked. Pretty
close to negative splits through the race, at least until mile 20, and then I
gave a little back. Still 4:25 is 19 minutes of my previous best, and not
something I would have expected to run!
Boring Details:
Official Time: 4:25:23
Official Pace: 10:08
Official Place: 409
Age Group: 32/52
