MYRTLE BEACH MARATHON

The weekend started off with snow on Wednesday night into Thursday morning; which cause the Federal Government to close offices on Thursday. So Thursday I spent the day cleaning and packing for the trip to Myrtle Beach on Friday morning. I woke up Friday morning to find out that Panera Bread and Starbucks were opening at 9:00am; so after getting gas I proceed on my 6 1/2 hour drive to Myrtle Beach. I was really looking forward to the weekend. I was seeing Aimee for the first time in year - she spent last President Day's weekend with me in Jacksonville, FL. I called her at 9:30 to let her know that I was 4 hours away from Myrtle Beach; we were trying to time our arrivals.
 

 

I arrived about 10 minutes before Aimee and I waited at the Holiday Inn Express for her before heading over to the Expo to pick up my bib and race swag. The race swag consisted of a messenger bag and a pair of socks. We walked around the expo for a bit and I ended up purchasing a pair of arm warmers for the next day since the morning was supposed to be on the chilly side. We ended up over by the area where they had the animals out playing.

After walking around the expo for a bit we went to get some lunch. I asked Aimee where she wanted to eat and she said it didn't matter so we stopped at McDonald's.

Once we were settled I asked her where she wanted to eat knowing this was going to be a challenge because she can eat just about any place and be happy with her choice. So I came up with a few ideas and we both settled on Olive Garden which was 7 miles from the Holiday Inn. The first one we went to there was an hour and half wait (Valentine's Day); we left there and went to one that was a little bit further away and only had to wait about 20 minutes.

The rain stopped 10 minutes before the start of the marathon which was a good sign but we had to deal with 36 mph wind gusts out of the west for the entire race. The first few miles of the race was fine until I started dealing with a right calf cramp that would not go away. Around mile 4 we ran around the Myrtle Beach Airport for a few miles, I was great to see the Eddie Vega (who is going for the GBWR for the most marathons ran barefoot, Ed Loy who is 5 states from completing his goal of running a marathon in all 50 States plus DC, Letty, Charlotte - whose running attire for this race was a Sunshine and countless other Marathon Maniacs. There were long sections that we ran and some neat neighborhoods before we meandered our way back towards the finish line area.

Around mile 23 I caught up my Tyler a fellow maniac who raced the 5K on Friday night and who said he had ran out of gas around mile 21 and was walking from that point forward. I came to learn that he was coming off and injury he acquired his summer training phase. We walked last 3 miles together and finished in 5:30:32. I was happy with that since I could not get rid of my right calf cramp.