Enter mariners, wet.
It’s one of the greatest stage directions ever written. It is of course William Shakespeare and appears in “The Tempest.” An English teacher pointed it out to the class somewhere in my educational past and it has always stuck with me.
I thought a great deal about that stage direction during today’s New Jersey Marathon. It wasn’t a torrential downpour, no tempest mind you, but it was a steady drizzling rain accompanied by some chilly winds that made for an ordeal all its own. Oh, sure, I’ve run far worse and if I’m being 100% honest, it actually was decent running weather for a good portion of the race. But the head winds and the chill took a toll over the miles and I struggled.
After finishing the race, I drove to meet my brother back in PA. Regrettably, I must have driven over something sharp as my front left tire indicator popped up on the dash saying I was loosing pressure fast. I drifted into Bordentown, NJ, and finally found a tire place open on a Sunday. They tell me it’ll be a couple of hours. There’s a number of cars I the bays, a lot of people milling about the waiting room. The smell of rubber pervades the place, which may be a blessing as I haven’t had a chance to shower and am still dripping wet from the run. This is not how I pictured spending my Sunday afternoon. Steve and I were supposed to be watching Cannonball Run by now. What can I say? I had a hankering for some Burt Reynolds vehicular mayhem.
So I’m sitting here killing time. I should write up more on the race itself but there’s not much to say.
They called us to post with that bugle racetrack fanfare. There were 10 corrals (A through J) and I was slotted in corral C. By 7:33 am, I was off and running.
The course itself was very neighborhood-y. It was only after the half split that we got a bit more Boardwalk/Jersey Shore-ness. But we also got a lot more wind and heavier rains hitting us in the face.
Somewhere in the last 6 miles I kinda gave up trying to take photos; it was just too wet to swipe open the camera or key in my passcode to unlock my phone. On top of that, I think my hands were too cold to register on the keypad anyway. It wasn’t freezing but the waterlogged nature of my digits coupled with the wind chill made for a frustratingly non-responsive phone. Thus, photo opportunities were missed… Although there weren’t exactly Ansel Adams shots I was looking to capture anyway. Lots of grey, lots of drizzle, a few sights to see. But here’s what I did snap at some points along the way.
And if you’ll permit a small indulgence — this sign is Exhibit 137 in my reasons for no longer living in the northeast.
One last note. I don’t usually put hard data in regarding the number of marathons I’ve run, beyond the milestone accomplishments — 50 states, 50 sub 4 hours, seven continents, etc. but I hit a personal milestone today. I’m just going to leave a little note here to remind me more than anything. Today was 200<4.