As always, the Space Coast Marathon fully embraces its “space” theme.
I wore a red shirt from JJ Abrams Kelvin-Universe Star Trek, courtesy of Kellogg’s boxtops.
I was feeling like today was a good day for goals so I was trying to channel Scotty — “I’m giving her all she’s got, Captain!”
- Stretch Goal: break 3 hours.
- Realistic Goal: set a PR.
- Minimum Goal: get a Boston Qualifying time with enough buffer to ensure an entry in 2021.
Turns out, I was more of a doomed Red Shirt destined to be killed by the course.
***
I didn’t take many photos during the race. This was partly due to my having run this event a couple of times and therefore having documented the route here and here… and a few other times not even chronicled on the site.
As the Space Coast is a notoriously flat and fast course, and affords pretty good weather most years, it’s a popular race for goal setting or for running along scenery. You tend to see people you know if not from other events than from this race. In the first half, I ran past a few folks I knew and I told them I was trying to get a PR… at that point I was on a sub-3 hour pace (if only barely… I think in my head I was looking at a 2:59:59 but that’s still sub-3).
Around mile 23 I saw somebody else I knew and told her I was trying for a BQ but I didn’t think I was going to make it.
At the finish, I saw a guy who had crushed the course and who knew me. Christopher asked how I did. “I didn’t make it,” I said, somewhat despondently. “Sorry, man,” he replied, his smile dimmed slightly. “There’s always another race, another day.” I shook my head, not sure what to say. I had done as Scotty said — I had given it all I had… and it turned out not to be enough.
Right now it seems oddly depressing to have failed to hit any of my goals for the day. I could make excuses, like some of the water stops were impossible to get to because the half marathoners were clumped up and walking through them. I could say in trying to duck and weave around those halfers I tuckered myself out and added mileage that didn’t help me hit the target. I could critique the revised course that takes us on a serpentine back and forth route to the finish line, passing the festival and proving demoralizing rather than inspiring a final push to the finish.
But those are all empty excuses.
The reality is I simply couldn’t put together any kind of contingency plan when the going got tough in that second half. I shuffled and kept moving; my foot and knee were a minor nuisance but far less than they have been of late. The sun was rising and with it the temperature but it still was solid running weather. I just didn’t have it today. And Christopher is right, there will be another day, another race. But right now it just feels like I’ve been reduced to a salty cube and crushed by an alien… or I beamed down to a planet with Captain Kirk to investigate a vampire cloud and gotten all my blood sucked out of me… or any of a number of other Original Series Red Shirt demises.
On the plus side, this was by far the coolest costume I saw today. Ziggy Stardust plays guitar… and runs a half marathon.
