Two down, two to go!
This was the weekend of the most highly anticipated marathon of my career. First and foremost, not only were my Ocala running buddies coming down and staying with me for the weekend, but this would also mark the first time my good friend Pam would be running a race with me in South Florida. In addition, the ING Miami Marathon would be the largest race I’ve ever participated in. In total, there would be 19,986 runners, 3,945 competing in the full and 16,041 running the half. After the Ocala Marathon last weekend, I had a good seven mile recovery run on Wednesday. It was now time for the ladies to make their way down to hot and humid Coral Springs.
Pam, Jen, Terri and Toni arrived at my house around 6 pm Friday afternoon. After a quick tour of Stately Wayne Manor, we headed down to Las Olas Blvd. for dinner and sightseeing. Glenda’s business partner Gary has a condo right on the intercostal on the 28th floor, which provided several picture taking opportunities for the ladies. We woke up pretty early Saturday morning and headed down to the expo, which was held at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The expo was huge, and the race shirts were excellent! I purchased two add-on water bottles from the iFitness booth, but did not ask the salesperson for a demonstration to make sure the bottles would be the only thing not bouncing up and down. After a couple of hours of shopping, we took a trip to FIU so my guests could see where I work. We grabbed an early dinner at Sweet Tomatoes, and went to bed around 8:30 pm.
I woke up on Sunday morning at 2 am. No…you did not read that wrong. The start time for the race was 6:15 am and I didn’t want to take any chances of getting caught in traffic. We left my house at 3:15 am and parked at Bayside around 4:10 am (it’s amazing how little traffic there is when you get to a race two hours before it begins). Bayside is right next door to the American Airlines Arena (home of the Miami Heat), which put us as close to the starting line as you can possibly get. We walked through Bayside for a little while, and of course hit the bathroom several times. We made our way over to the American Airlines Arena around 5 am, and met up with the Marathon Maniacs, Half-Fanatics and Running of the Ears for a quick photo session.
We decided to make our way to our corral at 5:30 am. By this time, the streets were packed, and the excitement of the race was starting to kick in. To see so many people in one place out in the street ready to run was quite an adrenaline rush. When the gun sounded for the start of the race, it took us close to 30 minutes before we crossed the starting line.
While in line, there was only one thing both Pam and I could think about…just how bad we had to pee! I can literally drive four hours from my house to Ocala and not stop once, but I can’t run three miles without having to water the lilies. Less than one half mile into the race, I told Jen and Pam I needed to find a bush and take care of business. After a very satisfying drainage, I was back on the road again. I did not see the ladies, so I figured they just started walking (the rule here is to walk and stay to the right). After about five minutes, Jen called me and asked where I was. Apparently, they were still waiting for me, not knowing that I had run ahead. I waited for them to catch up to me, but this debacle probably cost us close to 15 minutes. Pam still had to go, but the Porta-Potty line at the first water station was pretty long. When we got to the second water station, Pam could not hold it any longer, and told us to keep running without her. Since she was only doing the half marathon, we reluctantly ran ahead. Less than a mile later, I of course had to duck into the bushes once again, and now Jen had to go to the bathroom. The next water station (around four miles into the race) had no wait at all, so Jen checked into the Hotel Port-O-Let. This gave Pam an opportunity to catch up to us, and we were ready to run together again.
We had now run over 3-95 (MacArthur Causeway) and were heading towards South Beach. This part of the race was similar the Latin Music Miami Beach Half Marathon, but it changed once we headed away from the ocean. We were running past a golf course with "real" bathrooms, and I once again had to visit Uncle John. This time, something took place I’ve never experienced in a race before…I had to "drop a deuce.” Under the category of “more information than you need to know,” I had more paper work than a traveling salesman! This delay probably set us back yet another ten minutes or so, and quite frankly, it was starting to get a little frustrating. I had so much more energy than I did last week in Ocala, but I could not take advantage of it.
After running on Miami Beach for a few more miles, we made our way towards downtown Miami. It was at the 12 mile mark that we separated from Pam. At that point, Jen and I tried to formulate a game plan to make up for all of our delays. How’s this for a plan…RUN FASTER!!! The race took us through Coconut Grove and past Cocowalk. It was here that we caught up with Chuck and Terri. We were also now running with a woman who was entertaining us with her stylized rendition of “Borderline” by Madonna. Of course, I joined in with the chorus, and changed the name of the song to “Finish-Line,” complete with my own original lyrics. She then broke into Pitbull, which brought back memories from the Miami Beach Latin Music Half Marathon.
As we made our way down Brickell Avenue and towards the finish line, it started to sprinkle a little bit. We were very fortunate during the race, as the sun really never came out. Jen, Terri and I crossed the finish line holding hands, and I had never felt as good physically after a marathon (despite our miserable finishing time).
We met Pam and Toni back at the Bayside parking garage, only to find the battery had died in Glenda’s car. AAA came to the rescue, and we were on the road and back to my house. After a quick pizza lunch (thanks to Glenda), the ladies showered and hit the road back to Ocala around 4 pm. The weekend lived up to all expectations, and we all signed up for the race again next year (including a few more of the Turtles). I guess we’ll have to build an additional wing to the house!
Next up, 26.2 With Donna in two weeks.
KEEP TRACK OF MY RUNNING ON
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