In 2008, I ran the inaugural Cox Sports Marathon in Providence, Rhode Island. If you are ever planning on running, here is what you can expect during the race as you prepare for your marathon.
The Starting Line
The race started about 10 minutes late. The race directors did a pretty good job of making sure everybody knew when (and even why) the race was starting a little late, so nobody should have been caught off guard.
We got treated to the most humorous rendition of the star spangled banner that I have ever heard. The woman who sang it had a beautiful voice and sounded great, except that she got nervous and kept forgetting the words and stopping. Eventually, she just skipped to the end of the song. All of the runners clapped and cheered for her, so I hope that she took it in the honest spirit in which it was offered and wasn't too embarrassed. When she was singing, she sounded great.
I did not have any problems with the start of the race or with the hill that came within a quarter mile of the start. I rather liked that, actually. I did hear some complaints about the start being a little too narrow for 2000 runners and that it got pretty packed in tight. I started in the second line behind some half marathoners that I knew were going to go out about 10 seconds per mile faster than me, so the course cleared out nice and quickly for me.
Elevation Profile
I really enjoyed this race, and found that the bumps along the way kept things interesting and kept you from stressing your legs with the exact same repetitive motions as you go along. There were 3 or 4 good climbs along the way, but most of the hills were just little changes of scenery and until we got to the end there weren't very many places where it was too steep of a descent.
Training in snow and on ice while trail running all winter definitely made a huge difference. Had I tried training on flat roads, or even had I not run a very hilly marathon down in Georgia 5 weeks prior, then this race might have been a little more difficult. As is, I really enjoyed it and thought that they found a nice route to take us through.
The Early Miles: 1 through 12
Within the first mile of the race I met somebody that was running about the pace that I wanted and started chatting with me. Being an incessant babbler during my marathons, we hit it off pretty well. He was looking to run around 2:40 for his first marathon, and I was looking to run (ideally) 2:37 to 2:38 but (realistically) 2:40 as well. I wanted to run between 6:00 and 6:10 per mile while maintaining effort, which meant that there would be a few faster and slower miles due to the regularly spaced climbs and descents along the course. The first 12 miles involved a couple of fun bumps and 1 good climber around mile 6.
We could see one marathoner in the 15 to 20 people that were up ahead of us that we had spoken with before the race. He had apparently planned on running a 2:45 marathon, but for some reason went out in 2:32-2:33 pace I'd estimate over the first 12 miles. Personally, I am not a big fan of huge positive splits to hit my goal time; it is too painful to do it that way.
So we just cruised along, chatting away and knocking off the miles. The marathon and half marathon split off at around mile 8, and shortly thereafter we were told that there were 2 guys ahead of us and that they had about a 2 minute lead on us. I was not too worried at this point, assuming that at least one of them was likely to blow up in short order.
The Early/Mid Miles: 13 through 16
Shortly after mile 12 (it may have even been in mile 12) we started to have a shadow. A Team-In-Training volunteer on a bicycle was riding behind us to protect us from traffic and make sure that we didn't get lost. This was the first time that I had an official shadow in a race, and it was a good feeling. After he had been riding with us for a mile or so I asked if he was just riding with us or if he'd been assigned to us, since I couldn't actually see him as I try not to turn around more than I have to while I'm racing.
I really appreciate the help from all of the bicycle volunteers in the race. Since I had traffic at my back in quite a few spots and I never got hit by a car or lost, they must have done a pretty good job. The biker assigned to us was a little chilly riding at only 10 miles per hour, but we stayed comfortable and amazed him by our ability to not shut up while we ran.
I could tell that my running partner was starting to have some trouble with the pace that we were setting, but I brought him through the halfway point at 80:26, which is right where he would want to be for a 2:40-2:45 marathon. We cut the lead down to around 30 seconds as we reeled in the second place runner. As we started talking less, I started watching the lead runner up ahead. He was easy to pick out due to the flashing lights on the police escort ahead of him.
We finally passed the second place runner in the 16th mile. I asked him how the pace was treating him and was going to offer to pull him back into pace, but he gave me the evil eye as I passed so I decided to drop a hammer instead. That was actually pretty easy at this point since we were running down hill.
The Late/Mid Miles: 17 through 19
Picking up the pace in the latter half of the 16th mile and through the 17th mile meant that I also dropped my running partner at this point. I think that that was probably a smart move on his part, since I think that he would have been hurting pretty bad had he tried to keep moving at the pace we were going. I was starting to get hungry to take the lead, and I knew that there was no way that I could lose this race to any of the 3 people that had been running with or ahead of me up to this point.
The first and second place runners had fallen back too fast over the last half dozen miles for them to be feeling good, and I knew that my partner's inexperience had caused him to set a little too aggressive of a goal. I felt great, on the other hand, and could feel no differences between mile 17 and mile 8.
Towards the end of mile 17, the course takes a left turn followed by a hard left onto a paved trail along the river. This was great, since I was tired of sucking down exhaust and having a nice buffer of shrubs and trees for a few miles came at a great point in the race.
I buckled down and concentrated on running down first place. My shadow had ridden ahead, since there was no traffic and it is difficult to get lost on a path that has minimal turns and no way to go but straight. Every time that I looked up, I was gaining on the leader. I was pretty sure that I would catch him midway through the 20th mile, and was looking forward to a climb that I remembered from the elevation profile that was right around that point.
The Late Miles: 20 through 24
The marker for mile 19 fell at the bottom of a hill. Catching the leader was pretty anti-climactic since by the time I got to the top of the hill and was getting ready to take the lead, he started walking. I felt bad for him; he looked awful.
I wish I'd seen his bib so I could find out how he did at the end; I have no idea what place he finished in or even if he did.
I offered to pace him and tried to get him to start running again. Walking rarely helps you recover late in a race unless it is part of your race plan and if it had been then there is no way that he would have led the race for 19 miles.
There was nobody else in the marathon for the next 7 miles.
By the time I reached the half marathoners in the final 2 miles, I had 6 or 7 bicyclists shadowing me. They kept telling me that nobody was even close to me, and I had to keep telling them that I didn't want to hear that.
It was pretty cool to have a police escort leading the way on their motorcycles. For the most part, they stayed about 50 to 100 meters ahead of me which made it pretty easy to tell which way to go. There was one point where I was running to the outside around some cones and an officer on foot was pointing left; once the escort got by him he yelled for me to get to the inside. That was nice; it let me run some better tangents, but the way the cones were laid out it seemed as though you needed to stay on the outside of them.
Shortly after that turn there was a water stop where the people manning it stared at me with their arms crossed and I had to grab a cup of water off of the table myself. I managed not to knock any over.
In what was probably cruel to most of the marathoners but was great for me, there was a short steep climb followed not too long after by the same hill we got to climb in mile 6. I went up it much slower this time, as my left calf was giving me 2 second spurts of pain every 5 or 10 minutes and I just wanted to maintain my lead without blowing out my achilles. I had hoped that that pain was a phantom or taper pain in the past week or so, but apparently its something that was actually asking for recovery time.
The Final Miles: 25 through 26
The race directors in the Cox Sports Marathon did a much better job of merging the half marathon with the marathon than they did down at ING Georgia. In Georgia, they merged us together with quite a few miles left to go, had an 8:1 ratio of half marathoners to marathoners and made the marathoners wade through thousands of half marathoners, and then put five 90° turns on bricks that got consistently narrower in the last couple of tenths of a mile. Even the race leaders had to merge, which I hear caused quite a bit of criticism.
Here in Rhode Island, there was a bit over a 2:1 ratio of half marathon to marathon finishers, they only merged in the last couple of miles, and the roads were set up so that it was easy for the marathoners to run by. This may have only been an easy transition for myself near the front of the race, and perhaps 20 minutes behind me was a different story, but from my perspective it was handled much better.
I dropped my last few hammers in the predominantly downhill finish, cheering on the half marathoners that weren't wearing headphones as I passed them and acknowledging their encouragements and cheers as they yelled for me when I went by. It was a very heady feeling, and I enjoyed myself immensely. The trick now is to get into better shape so that I can lead another long race like this some time.
The Finish Line
Coming through the finish line, the police escort blared their sirens and I got to listen to my name get announced over the loud speaker. I also learned a very important lesson about breaking the tape. Once you go through, you should grab it with at least one hand. It was pretty heavy and since I kept running through the line, it did a good job of wrapping itself around my legs.
Thankfully, I did not trip and fall on my face, although that probably would have made for good TV if I had.
There were no solar blankets for finishers, which can really make a big difference in equalizing a runner's temperature after a long endurance effort like a half marathon or marathon. Thankfully, I stayed pretty warm even though I had stopped, which is when a runner's core temperature can drop by what feels like approximately 20°. The baggage was located pretty close to the finish chute, though, so it was not a big deal for most of the runners to get into dry clothes as long as they remembered to bring some.
I hung around in the finish area for a while after the race. It took me at least 10 minutes to get my bag, since I got to do a few television interviews, took my picture with the race sponsors, greeted some of the runners as they finished the race, and generally hammed up the whole winning experience. I had never won a race this large and I was enjoying every minute of it.
When it came time to chat with the woman from the Providence Journal, I decided I really needed to start cleaning up so I met up with her by the baggage area. Shortly after talking with her, I spotted the guy that I'd been running with and learned that he had run a very respectable 2:55 and change in his first marathon. It took me 6 tries to break 3 hours.
Author Resource:-
Blaine Moore is a running coach in Southern Maine with 20 years of training and racing experience. Download his free report, The 3 Components of an Effective Workout, to learn why the work you put in during your training is only the third most important factor that determines how well you improve as a runner and an athlete.
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