I think this is the first race to work out for me where I went looking for races that had posted on their website they were looking for pacers. Most races I contacted never even responded back to my emails, but this was one where I got a quick response. So...by late October of last year I knew this one would be on my schedule. Back in 2006 I had passed through Buffalo on my way to Niagara Falls, so I was excited to go back and actually see the city.
When race weekend arrived I decided to forego my usual last chance pacing practice run in favor of getting an earlier start on the road. I didn't have as far to go as Savannah or Myrtle Beach, but I wanted to do a little sightseeing and they wanted us to spend some time working in the pacer booth at the expo. Also, the pasta dinner was running from 4-6 and Jeff Galloway was
going to be the featured speaker.
As I approached the NY state line coming out of PA I decided to take the more scenic route right along Lake Erie instead of paying a toll to go up I 90. It was a beautiful day!
Coming into Buffalo, the first place I wanted to go was the Buffalo Main Light. I had not gotten to visit this lighthouse on my previous trip, and it was only a short drive from there to the expo at the covention center.
When I finally found the proper hall that the expo was being held in, the pacer booth was the first thing I saw. It was good getting to meet some of the other pacers and get their insight on the course/race since most of them had run it before. One thing that felt a little odd about this race is that because the half and full stayed together until mile 13 only a few of the pacers were running the entire full marathon. Most were running either the first half or the second half because it was easy to have an exchange point. This meant that for my time slot there was not a dedicated half marathon pacer; I was covering the 2:25 half AND the 4:50 full. The expo itself was decent sized and even had speakers throughout the day. I missed getting to hear Bart Yasso who had been there earlier.
The pasta dinner continued to be a good chance to interact with other pacers since we had a couple of reserved tables that would also allow other runners to meet us and decide if they wanted to join a pace group in the morning. Along with the meal, we got our first taste of the Mile 27 beer by the Flying Bison brewery that was to be featured at the post race party. I thought it was quite good! After a short address by the race director, we got to hear Jeff Galloway. He was on the US olympic team in 1972 and these days is known for his run/walk/run method often used by beginners and older runners, but also successfully used by faster runners struggling to meet benchmark times (such as a sub 3 hour marathon) using a constant running strategy. I'm seriously thinking about trying this in the future to try to get a Boston Qualifying time.
On race morning I arrived early and ran into a fellow Beast pacer who was there to support his girlfriend who was trying to get a marathon PR. It was nice to see a familiar face cheering me on along the course, too! Before the race we were treated to a small fireworks display. The national anthem was performed, but it was either a really short version or we were a good way into it before the sound started working. 😃
When we started I had a pretty good group around me since it was made up of both half and full marathoners. We headed north towards Delaware park for the first 5k then turned around to head back through downtown out to the lakefront. For some reason I had a really hard time nailing the pace at the beginning. I was running about 20 seconds/mile fast for the first 3 miles, so I made mile 4 kind of a "correction" mile to get my average pace closer to what it should have been. The lakefront was beautiful with great views of the lighthouse and the very cool fireboat that had its water cannons running continuously. They had several live bands along the course and I remember some of the better ones being in this area as well.
As we were on our way back into the downtown area I started encouraging the half marathoners to push on ahead to the finish. Once the full broke off, things felt much more serious. It was getting warmer and we knew we were in for the long haul. The remaining group got pretty quiet and I could tell they needed a mental distraction so I shared my weight loss/running story with them. This got people inspired and motivated again for another mile or so, but the warm weather and fatigue were taking their toll. The group began to dwindle as we ran through Delaware Park (again) and there were only a few left as we neared the 20 mile mark. Jeremy, a first time marathoner who had been sticking pretty close to me for most of the race, was getting to the point where he knew he could no longer keep up. I gave him some advice on using a regimented run/walk strategy to finish the race and was thrilled to discover later that he had finished in 5 hours and 1 second. Somewhere between miles 21 and 22 the last of my group fell back. I'm finding that the success of my groups relates directly to race day temperatures: the hotter the day the earlier in the race I'm running on my own. On a nice, cool day I could have runners finish with me or even go on to finish ahead of me. Once I find myself in this situation I usually just want to get finished, because I very rarely find anyone along the way to repopulate my group.
In the second half of the race they had aid stations every mile. Mile 24 was in a residential area and directly across from the aid station was a big party that was spilling out into the street. I was at the point where I needed a little bit of fun, so instead of heading into the water station I went towards the party and asked if anybody had some beer. One of the guys closest to me ran about 100 yards with me and I took a few sips from his PBR.
From this point downtown and the finish line were getting ever closer. I continued to monitor my pace and make adjustments as needed. The course seemed to be running a bit long, so the quick miles I ran early in the race actually got me in the neighborhood of where I needed to be to meet my goal time. I was mostly passing other runners, but occasionally the presence of a pacer would inspire someone to dig deep and push on even though they were hot and exhausted. Eventually I made it as far south as I needed to go and got to turn back north for the final few blocks to the finish line. My finish time was 4:49:13. Most of the time I would be happy making it in within a minute of my goal time, but we were having a pacer contest and I didn't think it would be close enough to win. Final distance on my Garmin was 26.5, the longest I've had for any marathon I've run.
After collecting my medal and bottle opener I headed up to the post race party. I was not too proud to take the escalator back up to the second floor of the convention center. Upon my arrival I ran into a woman who had been in my pace group at the Biltmore last year! After a nice little catch up, I headed for the far side of the room where the beer and pizza could be found. They made us work for the good stuff! 😉 Everything including the beer was self-serve, so you could get as much as you could carry. I refueled as much as I could handle before hitting the road, as there was another marathon to run the next day and it was about a 6 hour drive.
Overall, this was a good medium size race. The marathon had the same basic shortcomings that most marathons struggle with--the second half of the course was not quite as interesting and didn't have nearly as many spectators. On course entertainment and aid was very good. The race director claimed they had trained medical staff at almost every aid station. After race food and drink were excellent, and they even had a live feed of the finish line on a big screen in the room. The biggest variable in this race is the weather. It got a bit warm this year, but last year was worse. From what I hear they took good care of the runners, but I definitely wouldn't target this race to be a fast one since the chance of heat on Memorial Day weekend is too high.
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