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| Linda C |
On November 1, 2012, before the NYCM was cancelled, I happened upon a
booth at the NYCM expo for the Puerto Rico Marathon and Half-Marathon. The inaugural running in
San Juan was set for May 5, 2013. I don't remember it being particularly
cold that week, but running a marathon in sunny warm Puerto Rico sounded like
fun. I took the postcard with the discount code and weeks later
registered to run the Puerto Rico Marathon, later switching to run the half-marathon (Flyer Louie R also was in Puerto Rico and ran the full marathon). With that, at 4:22AM on May 5th, I found myself on a bus going from the
Caribe Hilton Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico heading to the start of the race
near the Puerto Rico Convention Center.
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| A Pitch Dark Start |
The race was scheduled to start at 5AM. It was pitch dark out and already
79 degrees. With beads of perspiration forming on my pale NYC winter
skin, I began to realize that I may have just underestimated exactly how warm
it would feel going from temperatures hovering in the 40's to temperatures in the 80's with high humidity. Nevertheless, I was out to enjoy the race.
According to the race results, there were 1,321 runners (300 marathoners
and 1021 half-marathoners).
One week earlier I ran NYRR's Run As One –– a
4-mile race that had 6,998 finishers. This was quite a different race. Marathoners and half-marathoners had the same start and the same start
corrals. Corrals were set by projected race pace and based on the
honor system with the fastest corral set at 6:00 min/mile and faster, and the slowest
corral at 12:30+ min/mile. Some announcements were made and a moment of
silence was taken for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings (or at least
I think that's what the moment of silence was for as the announcement regarding
it was made in Spanish), a musical recording of the Puerto Rico and U.S.
national anthems were played, the start horn sounded and we were off.
We were in pre-dawn darkness for the first few miles of the race. My
thoughts ranged from telling myself to keep an even pace so as not to burn out
in the heat to telling myself to run a bit faster to keep up with the group
because I didn't know where the heck I was running and it was dark –– there were
street lights, but the streets of San Juan are certainly not as well lit as the
streets of NYC. We rounded a corner and suddenly the shore was to our
left and the sun was rising. It was breathtaking. Running alongside
this beautiful view was easy. It was still very warm, but I began to
think that just maybe I could finish this race with a pretty good time; at
least beat my time from the frigid Manhattan Half. But then the sun came out.
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| Sun Rises Over the Course |
With the sun rising, we were back inland. Saturday night revelers were
still in bars along the course, but came out to cheer us on. There
weren't many spectators along the course, but the few people we passed cheered
us on heartily, whether they were intentional spectators, on their way to their
Sunday chores, or extending their Saturday partying. We ran through the
city and the sun continued to rise higher in the sky. My sunglasses went
from the top of my head to firmly on my face and as the race progressed I
tucked my visor a little bit lower. This was by no means a hilly course
and several times after dousing my head with some iced water at the fluid stations,
I'd attempt to push my pace. But it was a struggle and I would soon
revert to just plodding along to the finish.
There were fluid stations every 1 to 2 miles and Gatorade gels
available at several of the fluid stations. While the course information
promised three porta-potties at each aid station, I spotted only one port-potty
at one of the aid stations on the course. The marathoners and
half-marathoners share the course for the first 4.75 miles or so before
separating. The marathon course then rejoins the half-marathon course
within about 4 miles of the finish. At about this point in the race for
me, the marathon pace car passed me and the would-be marathon winner ran
quickly by seemingly unfazed by the heat (he is a resident of Bayamon, Puerto Rico
and finished in 2:43:35).
The sun was unrelenting and when the course brought us once again within view
of the shore, there was still no relief from the heat. With the waves
crashing below, one would think that there would be a sea breeze, but there was
none. With not many miles left to go and running through a more affluent
neighborhood in San Juan with glimpses of the shore, the heat was bearable. While I was running I didn't feel that I was slowing down, but my Garmin
told me otherwise. I still overcame some
of the runners that were consistently in front of me throughout the race. The finish was in full sun and heat, but it was glorious! It was
the finish. My sister was at the finish line cheering me on and was even
able to take a video of me coming in to the finish.
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| A Glorious Finish! |
The post-race amenities included sports massages (not my thing),
Gatorade, water, bananas (raw green bananas that I did not take), and, oddly,
packages of sweet honey buns and bottles of Pepsi! I finished with my
slowest half-marathon time, but I enjoyed the race. What made the race
experience even better was walking back to the hotel and recovering in the
hotel pool and the private hotel beach. My legs never felt better.
I would run this race again and next time I'll be ready for the heat. Plus, one lesson I learned from running this race –– remove the KT tape
from my leg BEFORE spending the afternoon recovering in the sun.
-Linda C
P.S. There was a peacock and swans on the hotel grounds!
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