13/50 The Melbourne Music Marathon

I made a bet with my wife after the NYC marathon that I could gain more weight than she could lose in the last two months of 2011.  I wasn’t going to start training for the Florida marathon until the middle of December so this gave me plenty of time to focus on the consumption of donuts.  I’d say I averaged about four a day.  These were good times, however our bet ended in a draw; I managed to gain 2.6 lbs. while she lost 2.6 lbs.  What are the odds?!

The Melbourne Florida marathon coincided with a conference my wife was attending at Disney World.  For the three days she was working, I rented a Harley and rode the coast of Florida.  Starting in Orlando, I headed east to Cape Canaveral and rode the coastal A1A (Vanilla Ice reference, anyone?!) to Miami.  What an interesting city.  The best I can describe it to those who haven’t been there would be “tacky opulence”.  I camped for the evening and toured a couple of homes once owned by members of the family I work for that have since been purchased by the state of Florida and are now showcased as historical landmarks.  If ever in the area, I encourage you to visit the Viscaya Museum (www.vizcayamuseum.org).

Next stop Key West.  The ride from Miami to Key West is a beautifully scenic four hours of split-lane highways, impressively long bridges over blue and green hued waters and unique tourist draws.  The city itself is where 50-somethings go for spring break.  This alone was worth the visit!  When they all turn in at 9pm, I was left with a small town replete with bars highlighting a rich Ernest Hemmingway history, biker bars, quaint seafood restaurants, Cuban pasty and coffee houses and cleverly disguised franchise shops. At the end of the day, I retired to a campground site located on the water and just across from an Air Force training center.  The jets proved to be an effective 8am wake-up call for my 400-mile ride back to Orlando. 

1,000 miles of motorcycle riding in jeans and a t-shirt is my ideal marathon taper.  The tranquility of riding solo on Florida’s warm coastal highways sure beats stressing out about the race and other minutia.  Maybe that’s why I wasn’t too worried about the race after having just injured my knee two weeks prior.  I had an eight-week training plan for this race and managed to run for six of those weeks, averaging about 45 miles a week.  Then, I fell on ice trying to catch my train one evening.  My two-week taper included very little running. 

The race is largely a half marathon race with 400 marathon participants and over 3,000 half marathon participants.  The course was a loop around a body of water with two bridges being the only elevation gain.  The marathon runners ran the loop twice.  Their description of these bridges really downplays the size.  Each bridge is about one mile long at approximately a 6-8% grade; fairly substantial considering I neglected to do any hill training.  The highlight at the top of one of these bridges was a tuxedoed man with a white grand piano belting out Billy Joel tunes!

I was alone for most of the race.  Spectators were hardly existent and competition fell victim to the heavy, warm ocean air.  At mile 8, I was already planning to re-visit Florida after dropping out of this one after the half.  Instead, I soldiered on, though the second half of my race was 10 minutes slower than the first half!  I finished with a not-so-satisfying time of 3:04.  I still finished in 7^th place so I knew the weather was taking its toll on everyone. 

After breakfast with my wife’s family (who came in for the race), we headed north up the coast for one last warm convertible ride to Cape Canaveral for a late lunch at Seafood Atlantic (www.yelp.com/biz/seafood-atlantic-inc-cape-canaveral) .  It was here that we were seated on the pier in front of a fishing boat named “Iron Maiden”.  Sure, I recommend the restaurant, but to witness the “Iron Maiden” is worth the trip alone!