As I have noted in previous posts, we have not been to Myrtle Beach in a long time. But the drive from Atlantic Beach is an easy one, down the coast through Emerald Isle, Swansboro, then around Camp Lejeune and Wilmington, and finally south on US-17 - called "Kings Highway" as it passes through the wall-to-wall restaurants, amusement parks, shopping malls, and hotels of Myrtle Beach. It brought back some old memories.
The expo at one of the two host hotels was nicely done, and package-pickup went perfectly. Then we drove what I remembered to be the course, down Ocean Boulevard between the tall motels lining the ocean along what they call the Grand Strand, past the Gay Dolphin (named, I suppose, before "Gay" meant what it does today), then back up the Kings Highway to the start/finish at Pelican Park, a big sports stadium across from the Broadway at the Beach shopping center. We checked into the second host hotel, The Breakers, and found ourselves, directly on the ocean and very nice: palm trees, several different buildings on the campus, and heated swimming pools including the "lazy river" that meandered outside under our balcony and then back inside again in which children and their parents were floating and splashing and laughing.
It was only a mile from the start, but we decided to take the shuttle which ran from 4:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. and were glad we did - traffic is a nightmare near the start of this race in which 4,489 runners participated. We had pasta that we prepared ourselves in our little kitchenette room Friday night, and then set the alarm for 3:00 a.m. but woke up before then. A slim new moon floated low over the ocean as I did my morning Tai Chi on the balcony.
What a surprise to find ourselves on the shuttle bus sitting behind my old friend Pat Muse, who worked for the Macon County Health Department and has run our Twilight 5-K in Highlands more than once. He was pacing his neighbor Trish and her daughter (who works for Old Edwards Inn), and it was nice to catch up with him there and in the starting area. We also ran into Dave Cockman, a friend of ours whom we met several years ago when he ran from Murphy to Manteo. We were staying in Duck at the time, but we organized runners from the Highlands Roadrunners Club to run with Dave through Highlands, and then we watched him finish at Jennette's Pier in Nags Head several days later. Dave was running the marathon, but he is a modest runner, and we did not find out until later that he had run a marathon two weeks ago and plans to run another one two weeks from now.
It was dark as we waited for the 7:00 a.m. start, and we watched a brilliant sunrise gradually fade away behind overcast skies (much preferred over bright sunshine on a long run); temperatures were in the upper 50s, and after a rousing singing of the national anthem, we were off, running south on Kings Highway and then circling through a development called the Market Common (not part of the course back in 2008 when I ran it - and the course also ran in the opposite direction then). I passed Martha on the divided road to the Common, as this part of the course is out-and-back, and we waved encouragement to each other. She was looking very strong, and in fact finished about 40 minutes ahead of me.
But I knew it was best to stick with my pace of 13:30 per mile or so - "Run your own race," the old adage says - enjoying talking to various runners around me and looking at the scenery. I would ask a group of onlookers, "Hey, is there anybody behind me?" which would always get a laugh. A man in a black tee shirt got up behind the 3-hour pace group; he had a medley of Bible verses on the back of his shirt all on the theme of Faith, and I told him that I always seemed to come upon someone with inspiring Bible verses in a marathon or half-marathon just at the moment I needed to see it. "Glad I could help," he said. The three-hour group began to disappear up ahead of me. A tall woman with a pony tail was running with me off and on - Jessica, from Myrtle Beach - and was clearly struggling; she told me the three-hour group was way ahead of schedule. She ended up finishing a few minutes after I did, as did black-tee-shirt man (I clapped him on the back at the finish and told him, "Faith could move mountains.") You make such quick friendships on these long races! I ran for a long time with an older man and woman wearing "50 States" shirts, and it turned out that he had run 324 marathons and she had run 326, in 22 countries. What an achievement! They looked like they could run all day and not tire at all.
Coming up Ocean Boulevard in those last difficult two or three miles, I caught up with the 3-hour pace group and black tee-shirt man again and passed them. One of the two pacers, a young woman, was doing a great job - encouraging and pumping up the man, who seemed to be the only one with the group. I joined in and we told him how wonderful it was that he was out here, doing something special. I told him how my Mom used to ask me when I returned from a marathon, "Did you win?" And I would always say, "Yes, I won; I crossed the finish line!" And I told him, "That's what you're going to do today. You're going to be a winner!"
I picked up the pace in the last mile, and two black woman standing on the sidewalk with "Jesus Saves" hats on cried out "Hallelujah!" I said, "Thank you! That's what I've been saying to myself this whole race!" And then there was the final turn, and the finish line, and the big clock overhead. I ended up finishing in 2:58:35 and could not have been happier with my time. And my knee, which I had been a little worried about, did not hurt at all.
I walked around in that slightly-dazed state of exhaustion, sipping a water bottle someone had handed me, accepting a mylar blanket and the heavy finishers medal and the special "Finishers" shirt, grazing on bananas and pizza. Martha had found me at that point and we decided to find our way to the shuttle and return to the motel. Martha, who had been waiting over half-an-hour, had been warm at first but then had become very chilled - I know the feeling well! - and I gave her my mylar blanket.
What a relief to finish this race, this culmination of two months of training, and my first half-marathon in two years! Martha ran a strong race in 2:18:22. Of course, neither of us placed in our age groups, nor did we expect to (I had 20 runners in my group). But we accomplished what all runners should do, regardless of the distance or the age-group awards: we ran the best race we could.
After showering and relaxing a bit, we went out for lunch - Duck Tacos for me, Shrimp Tacos for Martha - and then walked on the beach for awhile, down to the pier from our hotel. It was warm and sunny and it felt good to walk.
This was a well-organized race and one that we may return to again. Everything went well for us, and the shirts were especially nice, bearing a picture of the famous Myrtle Beach Skywheel. We had our picture taken on the pier with the big skywheel turning and turning in the background - a perfect day, a perfect afternoon, for celebrating our achievement.
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