The plan for the Surf City Marathon was always to drop around mile 20. My bigger goal, the Los Angeles Marathon, is right around the corner, and I’ve really struggled with long run workouts. Last marathon cycle, I did none. All of my long runs were at easyish pace. That was for a number of reasons, but the biggest one was I hadn’t run a marathon in several years and I wanted to make it to the start and finish line healthy. I hadn’t done 14, 15…20 mile runs in almost 4 years!
Anyway, one thing I wanted…and probably desperately needed was a quality long run in the marathon pace window. Learn how to run at goal marathon pace (for me between 7:30-8 minutes), take all of my fuel, run with a bottle, etc. I love the Surf City Marathon and half marathon events, so signing up for the marathon and dropping at 20 made the most sense to me. Running a decent half and tacking on miles was fine, but getting 20 miles at goal marathon pace was better.
I wasn’t tapered going into the Surf City Marathon and I had run 10 miles the day before. The weather was supposed to be torrential rain, but luckily we missed that and got some wind. I decided to run in the 361 Furious Future, which will likely be my marathon shoe for the Los Angeles.
Before the Surf City Marathon:
As mentioned, I wasn’t tapered and ran 10 miles the day before. For a number of reasons, but I figured it would prevent me from finishing the Surf City Marathon. Why not finish? That would add a lot more recovery time and I would miss too much time for the Los Angeles (probably). Many people can run two marathons in 6 weeks, but I haven’t even made it to two in one year. So, I figured it was not in my best interest as tempting as it might be.
I drove down to Long Beach Airport to pick up my husband and then over to Huntington Beach. We actually made it kind of early, picked up bibs and relaxed. I didn’t sleep well, pretty much all of the week before so I wasn’t expecting much.
That morning, I woke up with stomach issues. I’m still not sure why or what from and I was really not sure if I would even finish 20 miles. I did not feel good (serious déjà vu from 2022 Surf City Half, except I didn’t eat tres leches cake). We got to the Surf City Marathon around 5:30 and walked to the start. I was extremely concerned about my stomach.
Surf City Marathon Race:
By the time I knew it, we were off. I lined up between the 3:10 and 3:30 pacer. I would have lined up to the 3:20 pacer, but there wasn’t one. 3:20 would be my ideal pace, but honestly, I had no idea how this would go especially with my stomach issues. The first mile of Surf City Marathon went by pretty fast and I ran a 7:52. I was weirdly bummed because while yes, it is my range of 7:30-8 mins, 7:52 felt a lot harder than it should.
From there I just kept to myself. I ran a 7:51 and 7:46 next couple of miles. My body didn’t feel terrible, but not great either. The 3:30 pace group began to swallow me up and I was like what the heck, I’m at least 20 seconds in front of an 8-minute pace. But I didn’t let it bother me and just kept trucking along. Eventually I pulled away and they never caught back up.
We climbed one of the larger hills of the race and I ran a 7:55, which would be my slowest mile for the day. At every mile of the Surf City Marathon, I was drinking UCAN. At mile 5 of the Surf City Marathon, I opted for my first gel. I planned to use a Maurten 100 but ended up ripping the top off too small and couldn’t get it open. I stuffed it back into my pocket and just had the Maurten 160 instead. I’ve been using a different method of gels in which I don’t inhale a gel in one bite, but sip it over the course of a mile or two. It seems to work well and I didn’t have any stomach issues during the race. From there, my stomach issues seemed to dwindle to nonexistent which was ideal. At 5:00 am, I felt like I was being punched in the stomach. At mile of the Surf City Marathon, I mostly felt fine.
From miles 5 to 8 of the Surf City Marathon, headed into a park for a few miles and it was fairly narrow. It was paved, but there were plenty of cracks and it wasn’t ideal to run. Some of the paved trails were flooded with mud and like a diva, I thought absolutely not about running directly into the mud. I likely didn’t run the tangents “well” and ended up avoiding giant mud/water puddles. These weren’t my fastest miles but I think it really helped me run “easy” to feel better later. I ran a 7:40, 7:44, 7:41. A few women passed me and I wondered if I would come back to them later.
After we left the park, I somehow picked up a rock in my shoe. That was the only time I quickly stopped during the Surf City Marathon. It took me about 10 seconds to get it out and it wasn’t exactly the smoothest operation I’ve done. From there, we went up the roads.
When we hit the roads, it felt like a lightbulb went off and I started feeling pretty good. I didn’t go, “now I’m going to sprint for 10 miles” but I slowly picked up the pace and never looked back. The Surf City Marathon had some wind, but it didn’t feel terrible to me. Likely it’s because I live in one of the windiest areas of the US. We headed down a steep downhill at mile 10 and I ran a 7:30.
The next few miles went out on the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). It’s usually a boring, hot stretch for me. The first year I had stomach issues in the half and it felt neverending. The second year I actually felt good until the hill. Anyway, I started passing people on the Pacific Coast Highway. I ran 7:40, 7:37. It wasn’t as if I was getting too much faster, but other people were fading.
We turned around mile 12 of the Surf City Marathon and headed back towards the start for the next four miles. This had both a headwind and a climb, but I was still feeling good. I took an Orange UCAN Edge gel at mile 12 and a pineapple about mile 14. I was starting to feel good. I ran a 7:37 and 7:41. We began climbing at mile 14 and I felt myself picking up the pace a bit, which is funny because it was an uphill. I just felt good.
I was getting motivation from the half marathoners going the opposite direction. When I looked down I realized I had climbed the hill faster than both times I ran the half marathon, and only 15 seconds slower than when I ran the 10 miler.
We were near the finish line of the race and I saw my friend Mary Kate. That sort of thing gives me energy and I ran a 7:32 and 7:32.
As we turned around for the last 4 miles, I realized “wow just 4 miles for me,” but also I thought do I feel good enough to finish? I did, but I knew it wasn’t the right move for me.
The next four miles were on a narrow path. There was some dodging of crowds on the narrow pathway but everyone was respectful. We had a tailwind and I ran a 7:26 and 7:26. At mile 18, I started my next gel. Did I need a Maurten 100 caffeine? No, but that’s when I plan to take the gel in the marathon so wanted to keep it going.
As we hit the beach, I knew I was still feeling good which is a great place to be in the marathon. The last mile I ran a 7:23 and it wasn’t because I was sprinting, I just felt good. When mile 20 of the Surf City Marathon came, I knew I should drop out. I really thought hard about it because I was feeling good, not feeling like I was suffering through.But I did and walked to meet my husband at Bolsa State Park. It was the right move for me and what I planned all along. But I won’t lie, it was still hard to execute because it took me almost a quarter of a mile to talk myself into stopping.
Surf City Marathon Thoughts:
Was dropping out of the Surf City Marathon the best idea? Should I have continued? I don’t really know. I do believe in my heart, I could have run somewhere between 3:20-3:25 that day. I averaged 7:37 which put me at finishing. marathon just under 3:20. BUT, we all know the real race of the marathon starts at 20 miles and no way to know if I would have felt good or not. But I’ll never know and I can’t look back. I also know it would have likely taken me some time to recover after so I’m happy with my decision.
Everything went as smoothly as it could. I didn’t think I would be able to run under 8, let alone closer to 7:30. I’m looking forward to seeing what these legs can do with a few more weeks of training and taper. Los Angeles Marathon is much hillier than Surf City, but I’ll be tapered.
You can see all race recaps here and Strava here.
Questions for you:
Have you run the Surf City Marathon?
Have you dropped out of a marathon?