The Hilton Head Marathon

Or Fun with Rain, Wind & a Bridge

This article will be shorter than my usual writing about a marathon.  There was more to remember from the weekend about spending time with relatives than the actual event.  I flew into Columbia, S.C on Thursday, stayed at my niece Elizabeth’s place, and had dinner with Elizabeth, my sister Priscilla and her husband Bucky.  On Friday Elizabeth, an emergency care pediatric physician, had to work before we traveled to Hilton Head that evening.  I spent the day walking around the area of Columbia where she lived and going out to lunch with brother-in-law Bucky.

After going to Hilton Head, we went directly to the Westin Hotel to pick up our numbers.  Elizabeth had entered the half-marathon and it was to be her first.  But she had developed tibial tendonitis.  She dropped down to the 5K, figuring she could get through that without so much more aggravation to her injury.

We found the Quality Inn, which was right across a highway from the entrance to the park where the races would start.  After having a meal, we checked in and agreed to meet in the lobby for breakfast at 6:00 A.M. and retired to our rooms.   At breakfast we got into a conversation with a woman who seemed to be a pretty good runner, capable of running a marathon in the low three-hour range, who said she felt she was developing a stress fracture in her lower leg.  The symptoms sounded very similar to the ones Elizabeth was experiencing.

The weather forecast was not looking good.  Low 40s at the start, but also with drizzle and wind.  I wore shorts, a long sleeve shirt and a pair of gloves.  I also decided to start with a clear rain poncho.  I felt a bit stupid at the start.  No one else was carrying such gear. 

It was a bit irksome to find that the 5K was going to go off with the half and full marathons.  I saw no reason why the 5K could not have started a half hour later.  At any rate the course wasn’t too crowded as all three events were on the same course for 2 and ½ miles, with the 5K runners returning on the same section as the longer distance runners were still going out.

I decided to wear the poncho as the race started, but after three miles, I was getting sweaty and my hands were warm.  So I took it off, bunched it up and stuffed it into a pocket of my shorts.  A few minutes later it started raining – at first a drizzle, then a bit heavier.  It never rained hard, but after five more miles, I was wet and my shoes were soaked.  I got cold.  So I pulled out the poncho and put it back on and left it on the rest of the way.  I did not take into consideration the fact that when I first became warm, I was running with the wind at my back.  When the course went in the opposite direction, the wind chilled me down.

I had an inkling in the days leading up to the marathon that it was not going to be a fast one for me.  My quads still felt tight from my previous marathon in Baton Rouge as I could tell in the early miles.  In addition to the rain and wind, I had not counted on THE BRIDGE.  The marathon course was a variation of a double loop.  After leaving the park area, we ran out on a highway – the left shoulder and inner lane.  After a couple miles we hit the bridge – about a 100-foot climb and drop in 3/4s of a mile.  After running a couple miles on the other side of the bridge, we went back over it and headed back towards the park.  At some point the half-marathoners peeled off to finish.  This was probably the original course as the race had been only a half-marathon for years.  Crossing the bridge twice would have been OK.

But those of us in the marathon then proceeded to an underpass and crossed under the Cross Island Parkway.  After running a mile or so on a side road, we turned around and headed back out the parkway on the right side of the road this time towards the bridge.  Crossing it, we turned into one of the many “plantations”, similar to gated communities.  This one had many huge live oaks and that was the prettiest area of the course.  I found myself wondering why we didn’t run through more scenic areas, instead of doing the same stretch of out and back highway twice.  The last time over the bridge, the wind had picked up and we were going straight into it.  My mile split was two minutes slower than the first two times over it.

With only 160 marathoners (579 in the half and 300 in the 5K), the latter miles became lonely sloughs.  I was lucky to see someone a quarter mile ahead.  I was chasing a few people for the last few miles, slowly reeling them in as they had slowed more than I had.  Turning into the park, I passed a man who looked similar to my age.  That was a minor accomplishment.  I finished in 4:25:26, not what I expected.  Clearly, the wet and cold conditions sapped my will to try harder as my feet seemed half numb through the second half., which I covered in 15 minutes more time than the first half.

Getting done I was met by Elizabeth, who had moved her car across the street.  She took me back to the motel and I got a shower and cleared my stuff out of my room.  We went back to the finish area.  The awards were not to occur until 2 p.m.  I had bought a ticket for three craft beers and we spent some time waiting around.  We found the woman we had met at breakfast resting on the lawn.  It turned out she won the race, doing about 3:10.  She said her leg was feeling bad the last couple of miles, but she pushed through the pain.  Similarly, Elizabeth felt fine in the 5K, but was limping around afterward.  Clearly she intends to deal with the issue before running more.

I also introduced Elizabeth to Steve and Paula Boone, who are the main movers behind the 50 States Marathon Club.  She was bemused by the fact that Steve is not built like a marathoner, carrying extra weight around the middle, and yet had just done his 555^th marathon.  She found him to be witty and engaging.

I had checked the results and was listed as third in my age group, but after the results were actually announced, there another person  had been found, who finished ahead of me.  I was a bit perplexed as to how they had missed someone who had finished 18 minutes before I did.  The beer guy took pity on my having to wait for nothing and gave me another beer.  That was my third, as Elizabeth had had one from the earlier purchase. 

By the time of the awards there were only a dozen or so people left.  Only the winners and a few age group people were there to collect their awards.  The announcer was asking where everyone was and saying maybe they needed to move it up an hour.  Duh!

Recommendation:  Registration is relatively cheap if it’s done early.  The Quality Inn, which was not one of the host hotels, is the place to stay.  It wasn’t even full the night before.  The packet pick-up at the Westin seemed out of the way and was hard to find in the dark.  For a course in Hilton Head, it was definitely a disappointment.  There was no touring through the older areas of the island, not a whiff of the ocean, and only a small section going past nice homes.  The run out and back on an expressway would have been OK for a half-marathon, and I assume that was the original part of the course.  But doing it twice was way too much.  For a marathon at the beach, the draw should be a fast and flat course, not a course with four one hundred foot climbs. The weather in February is luck of the draw.  It could possibly be near 70 and a bit warm for Northerners, coming out of the cold.  So it’s a mixed recommendation.  There is certainly room for improvements, but it’s something to consider if you want to get away from winter.