48/50 - Wrightsville Beach Marathon

March Madness: Libertyville Running Club vs. North Carolina

We - Nate, Stephen, Me, Jeremy, Ted, and Andrew "The Duck", as he came to be nicknamed on this trip - all had big goals for this race. We flew into Wilmington, NC just after 9pm on Thursday (minus Ted, who joined us Friday) with a hankering for food in a town that's not open late. Oh look, a brewery! Bill's Front Porch Pub and Brewery would have been a welcomed oasis had I not given up beer. Based on how good the food was, my pang of desire was strong.

Sadness overwhelms a bear without a beer

A Friday morning shakeout run led way to breakfast at Sweet & Savory Cafe. I made a lot of blueberry pancakes these past 4 months and their blueberry pancakes special raised the bar. The day was pretty low-key with a trip to the expo, then a nap, then dinner.

We were a bit underdressed for our reservation at Roko Italian Restaurant. Strolling in with powdered sugar on our faces from the donuts we just ate in the parking lot (there was a Duck Donuts next door, that place is great!) probably didn't help us look any more dapper. I also gave up desserts but without beer the night before a race, I needed these.

These didn't stand a chance

Giving up drinking and desserts wasn't an attempt to get all "race weight" serious; I was replacing those carbs with mostly good carbs. I'd had 48 (!!!) beers or glasses of wine in the 3 weeks leading up to my PR race last year so maybe the opposite would yield better results? Nutrition became a focus again when I got a new Fitbit Ionic for Christmas. I'm obsessed with its food log and sleep tracking and I get the most random compliments on it: from a guy in a truck stop bathroom, a TSA agent.

I tried a lot of other new tactics while training for this race: increasing my cadence, drinking protein shakes to aid recovery, drinking 100oz or more water per day, and eating the right foods for my next run. In the 5 days leading up to this race, I attempted to eat 4 grams of carbs a day per pound of bodyweight. Do you know how hard that is? At 160lbs, that's a lot of damn sweet potatoes!

I used to love you, sweet potato!

Over the course of 16 weeks, I devised and executed an adaptive high mileage plan by setting goals and key workouts for the coming month then writing the next month based on how that previous month felt. To my surprise, this resulted in 3, 100-mile weeks at its peak and I never succumbed to burn out or injury, just a loathing for the bitter cold. Curious what this looks like? There's a SPREADSHEET!

All this was an attempt to beat my 2:44:30 PR from last year at the Lower Potomac River Marathon.

We walked over to the race Saturday morning in ideal conditions: cloudy, little breeze off the ocean, and 50F, albeit humid. The marathon and half marathon runners started together and I soon had a pack of half a dozen runners within my targeted 6:16 - 6:06 pace per mile. My hope was that someone would go with me after the half marathoners turned off at mile 8.5.

This map had me worried I'd be alone and make a wrong turn

I needed competition to hold this pace and I was left with no one. Around mile 10, the course veered off the road and onto a tight, winding bike trail that zapped the energy out of me. Though I made it through the half in 1:21, I struggled to get back on pace for that PR. Shortly after, I started doing the math on bringing this one in under 2:50. I ran the last 8 miles with the lead woman and her lead bike.

Starting to look like a caveman again

North Carolina became my 43rd sub-3-hour state marathon, finishing in 2:48:53 (4th place overall and my 4th fastest out of 67 total marathons). Am I happy with that? Hell yeah! Was it worth giving up the beer, wine, and dessert? Hell no! Donuts are fuel, beer is recovery, and everything in between is just running.

I ran back to the finish line excited to see what the others would do. Soon, Nate came barreling down the homestretch to his 1st sub-3-hour marathon, The Duck, then Ted followed, both claiming age group awards, Stephen bested his PR, and Jeremy followed with a HUGE 27-minute PR!

Growlers for age group awards, now we're talking!

While it's not what I hoped for me, this weekend was everything I could have hoped for LRC: good times (literally and figuratively) with friends, my reunion with beer courtesy of Dogfish Head at the finish then Waterman's Brewing Company for the after party, and sugar - we went back to Duck Donuts after the race... and I ate Nate's masters winner prize from Nothing Bundt Cakes.

This song was in my head all weekend; how am I the only one on this trip that knew this song?! North Carolina, RAISE UP!

Next up: The New Jersey Marathon