49/50 - The New Jersey Marathon

Welcome to the Jersey Shore! 

New Jersey, The Garden State, lays claim to legends such as Jon Bon Jovi (I once played drums in a Bon Jovi cover band), Bruce Springsteen (you know him, you love him), and Les Paul (beautiful iconic guitars bear this musician and solid-body electric guitar and sound recording innovator's name). Oh, and Snooki from The Jersey Shore; we "met" Snooki this weekend but I'll get to that later...

Non-Jovi circa 2008 w/ Brandmeier playing live on his 97.9 Loop radio show 

The Gibson Les Paul guitar in all its beauty

It's also notable for landmarks including the George Washington Bridge that spans the Hudson River, Asbury Park - famous for its beach, boardwalk, the recently-demolished Palace Amusements indoor amusement park built in 1888, and the Paramount Theatre and Stone Pony - venerable music venues - along the Jersey shore.

Remnants of an old casino along the boardwalk in Asbury Park

Laurie, Michael, me, doing the obligatory touching of the ocean

Art over dilapidation on the Jersey Shore

New Jersey will be remembered as my 49th state marathon and 44th sub-3-hour state marathon for a goal that began at the 2009 Boston Marathon 10 years ago this month. Though I'll have a few states to redo for sub-3-hours, Alaska in June will be my 50th state marathon and culmination of an enjoyable, expensive, and hard-fought tour of the States. Visiting 250+ breweries along the way has helped ease the pain as much as it contributed to the expense.

Where it all began: Me and Melissa celebrating after the 2009 Boston Marathon - my 1st sub-3 

Michael, who has joined me on 10 of these state marathon trips (second in number of states only to my wife), Laurie, and I arrived in New Jersey on Friday morning. Michael loves Kevin Smith and I love taking pictures of Michael taking pictures of the things he loves.

Film location of Kevin Smith's Clerks

Kevin Smith's comic book store

Given New Jersey's contributions to music, it was fitting that the race expo was in the Paramount Theatre, featuring an oblivious punk rock DJ spinning old 45s while we drank espresso shots offered by Diadora - the Italian running shoe company staging a comeback in the States.

Afterward, we sampled through the beers at Carton Brewing in a loft space on relaxed couches to a punk rock soundtrack from my 1997 youth. New Jersey feels familiar, and I like it.

Between all the laughs, we found time to grab dinner at Sirena (that's Italian for "mermaid") Ristorante on the oceanfront with table-side views of a thunderstorm developing off the ocean. It was fancy, and we were not. We retreated to our hotel with warm cookies and HGTV's Property Brothers, Michael's favorite channel... Sorry, I didn't get a pic of him taking a pic of an episode.

Sandy Hook is a peninsula steeped in military history once serving as a test site for the Nike Missile. For us, it was the location for a windy Saturday morning shakeout run and near encounter with Gunnison Beach, a nude beach located on National Park Services land. Who says our National Parks are not beautiful?

No naked people but here's Laurie mounting a Nike Missile

Why do people love lighthouses? My brother used to paint lighthouses and collect trinkets of them as a joke in high school. I left Navesink Twin Lights lighthouse and museum, home to America's first Fresnel lens and site of the demonstration of the wireless telegraph, with an appreciation for lighthouses and their contribution to naval history.

DOUBLE LIGHTHOUSES!

Saturday continued to be low-key with a visit to one of New Jersey's 600+ stainless steel-clad 1950's diners, dinner at Pasta Volo after our encounter with Snooki... ok, it wasn't Snooki, but that didn't stop the look-a-like with newborn and husband from proclaiming to be her to an excited group of tourists that approached. Look, Snookie would NOT drive a Volvo! Besides, she's still pregnant and not due until next week according to her Instagram... we checked.

Sunday morning, 7:30am race time: we arrived at Monmoth Park horse racetrack at 6:30am. It was a bit cold and windy, Michael was shivering while I dragged us from porta-potty line to line. With 5 minutes to start time, we entered our corrals.

The New Jersey Marathon had a 2:55 and 3:00 pace group and according to my training since the Wrightsville Beach Marathon 7-weeks ago, I estimated a 6:40 - 6:45/per mile pace, something the 2:55 group would achieve. We started behind the 3:00 group which felt claustrophobic ( this race had close to 100 sub-3-hour marathoners in addition to starting with the half marathoners!), so I left Michael and moved up to the 2:55 group by mile 5.

Running alone sucks. By letting the 2:55 group set the pace, I was able to settle in and not work so hard. This strategy worked until mile 17 when I moved ahead of the group that had dwindled from about 20 to 6 runners. At mile 19, the course turns back to run along the shore, much of which is on the boardwalk, with a noticeable crosswind and my hips reminding me that 68 lifetime marathons is beginning to take its toll. I finished in 2:55:49, a 6:42 pace - nailed it!

4 and 4 for my 44th sub-3-hour state marathon

I stood at the finish line waiting in bated breath for Michael to finish in under 3 hours, and with 3 seconds to spare, he did! As if that wasn't enough of a close call, after showers at Laurie's sister's home, celebratory ice cream at New Brunswick's Thomas Sweet Ice Cream, we arrived at our flight's gate with about the same wiggle room... another squeaker!

2 days later at home...

Michael and I have a fascination with numerology. We spent much of the weekend searching and only once we stopped trying, did we see this: My 2:55:49 started from wave 2 and resulted in 55th overall finisher and 49th overall male for my 49th state. Crazy, right?

But here's my favorite numbers game of the weekend:

Number of Bon Jovi songs heard vs. Dunkin Donuts locations spotted (they're everywhere on the east coast) = 6 to 7.5*. Dunkin for the win!

*We gave half-a-point for a new Dunkin, mid-construction.