Space Coast Marathon – Third Time is a Charm?

We first participated in the Space Coast Marathon in Florida back in 2011 – that time, Chris ran the 1/2 and I walked the 1/2. We were only vaguely trained up for it.

It would be over a decade until we entered our next running event.

Life, travel, businesses had us put less focus on fitness in general until the start of the pandemic. We turned things around, and were determined to enter our 50s healthier than ever.

So in 2022 for Chris’ 50th Birthday – he set a goal of running his first marathon. He selected the Space Coast Marathon – as it lines up nicely with being in Florida with the family. I supported him in training by gearing up for running my first 1/2 marathon (well, run-walk-run, technically). We both rocked it.

Since then, we’ve both kept up our fitness. We have each completed multiple 1/2 marathons since, and we get out running consistently 3x a week. It’s such a great way to explore the places we visit. We’ve added in long distance cycling, yoga, pilates and strength training too.

So last year.. was MY year to push myself even further.

Back in September, knowing we’d be returning to Florida for the holidays – I signed us both up for a third time for the Space Coast Marathon.

But this time, we both selected ‘Full Marathon’.

Gulp.

Integrated into our travels, we started adding miles to our training to gear up for the December 1, 2024 event. Training felt great, and when I first pushed over 20 miles – I cried. I knew I had this!

After holidays with the family, we drove over to Cocoa Village and pretty much repeated everything we did back in 2022 the night before – from camping downtown to be at the race start line early (vans are great for this!), eating at the same restaurants, getting tickets to the musical in town and even purchasing the same pair of sandals.

Not that we’re superstitious or anything!

Below are each of our individual accounts of our marathon that we wrote up after completing this milestone achievement – recorded here for posterity.

Cherie’s First Marathon

They* say you should have three different time goals when you enter a race. Covering ideal conditions … to not so much.

Seeing as today was my very first marathon (!!!), I had set three goals:

• Practical: Finish. It’s my first after all, if I finished the damned thing, I was going to be pretty darn happy.
• Would be Conceivable: 6H 11m. Based on my last long training run, I was averaging 14’11”. This would be the timing that translated if I could keep that pace for the full course.
• Batshit Crazy: Under 6 hours. This would translate to a pace 13’43”. My fastest 1/2 marathon to date was a pace of 13’44”, and it was an outlier on a day with crazy unicorn conditions (low temps, lots of clouds). Most others were closer to the pace above. But what the heck, it’s nice to have goals.. right?

(Remember, my paces are pretty slow comparatively.. I’m a 51-year old still newish to run-walk-run.. or heck, any running at all).

Honestly, up until around 3pm yesterday – I didn’t think I’d be able to complete a 5k. Nevermind a marathon.

My hip was in agony. It’s a common pain I know well as I push myself. And I kinda pushed myself too much this last week (90m bike ride followed by my 2nd fastest 5K ever because of said unicorn conditions).

Usually such pain takes a solid week of taking it easy to resolve.

But by some miracle – through some massaging by Chris, lots of Tylenol, and lots of hopeful thinking – it resolved.

So it was race-on this morning. The temps would be pleasant enough, but there was going to be an annoying sun ball in the sky without many clouds (my nemesis!). I gave myself every allowance to bail at any point.

At the start line, I eyed the 6hr pace group… and thought I’d start there, and likely fall behind to a more realistic pace soon enough.

But somehow, in the craziness of the start – I ended up situated with the 5:45 pace group (with an insanely crazy – for me – pace of 13’09”). I figured I’d stick with them for a couple miles and then fall back.

Around mile 6, I crossed Chris after his first turn around – and he was keeping up with his stretch goal pace, and was shocked at my 5’45” pace (as was I!).

At mile 10 (!!!), I was still with my pace group.. and just starting to feel like I should fall behind. I had brief fantasies of finishing this thing at 5’45”.

A pit stop had me behind them, so I just continued at my own pace… consciously slowing it down, knowing there are a lot of miles ahead.

I ended up at the 1/2 mark .. having bested my best 1/2 marathon with a 13’21” pace. Woah!!

The way the course is designed, the 1/2 way mark was also at the finish line, an easy bail out spot. I decided to not bail. I had this. I was doing the fricken full marathon. And I was slowing the heck down.

Somewhere around mile 17, the 6 hr pace team caught up to me. And I paced with them for a while. They stopped at an ‘adult water station’ (booze), and I got ahead of them again.

Which meant I was till amazingly keeping around a 13’43” pace.

I made the final turn around for the last quarter of the race.. and I was definitely slowing things down. More keeping my training 14’11” pace. The 6 hr pacer passed me, having lost all her runners along the way (anything to do with the booze stop?).

After I crossed 23.1 miles (my longest run to date), I did some math as best my brain could manage… and realized, I could still finish under 6 hrs.. by my watch’s metrics anyway.

Given that I had taken a nearly 2 minute pit stop AND the race seemingly had an extra .2 miles than my watch was calculating.

So I convinced myself to pick up the pace for the final miles. And as soon as MY watch clicked over to 26.2 miles, it was showing 5:59:01.

I had achieved what I thought was BAT SHIT CRAZY!!

I cried, I celebrated.. and then walked the final .18 miles to the last turn into the finish line. And I let loose and ran all out right over it!

And I officially crossed the finish line at 6:03:55 (which my watch calculated at 26.43 miles at 6:02:21 with a previously seemingly impossible pace of 13’43”).

* They = some random person Chris met on the course. But hey, the method sounds really logical.

Chris’ Second Marathon

My head is still spinning from this #SundayRunday – the Space Coast Marathon in Cocoa, FL!

I had done this race two years ago for my fiftieth birthday – my first marathon ever. With Cherie’s training help and encouragement, I was able to ramp up to run-walk-running a marathon distance with just two months of training. And Cherie ramped herself up from not running at all to rocking the half marathon course.

I had originally thought of running a marathon as a once in a lifetime experience, but something about running clicked for both of us – and after that marathon we kept up running together 3x weekly (each at our own paces), a schedule that has kept us in shape and generally up for the occasional half marathon.

Running together like this has become one of my absolute favorite things.

Last February Cherie decided that she wanted the challenge of a full marathon too – and we started plotting out ramping up our training to include longer runs, and scoping out potential marathon options that might align with our travels. It just so turned out that the Space Coast Marathon would once again slot in nicely with our Florida Thanksgiving plans – so in September we signed up.

And yesterday (December 1st, 2024) – we both did it!

And not only that – we blew away our most optimistic forecasts of how fast we could go!

My official time: 4:56:51 – 11’20” Pace.
Two years ago – 5:30:20 – 12’37” Pace.
I shaved over 30 minutes off my time!!

My split times:
5K: 34:16, 10K: 1:08:49, Half Marathon: 2:23:31, 20 Mile: 3:43:51

I was 519th out of 1104 registered runners, though it looks like 907 actually started, and 881 finished…

I can hardly believe that I beat 5 hours. Based on my recent training runs – I was aiming for 5:15, with a 12’ pace.

But the wonderful weather and race energy just had me flowing – and I threw my race plan out the window.

The race started at 6AM – and I started with Cherie towards the back of the starting pen between the 6:00 and 6:15 pacers – her target time.

My plan was to run the first 5K non-stop to let the crowd disperese- then switch to a run 90s, walk 30s run-walk-run rhythm with a 12’00 target pace.

But the first 5K in the dark weaving through the crowd just felt great – and as the sun rose I found myself pulling ahead of the large 5:00 pace group and not wanting to slow down.

Perhaps foolishly – I decided to keep running at a faster than 11’00 pace – without any walk breaks. The urgency of my bladder waking up and seeing the long lines at the scattered portapotties probably added some extra spring to my step, and around mile 5 I heard two women running nearby mention spotting a bathroom ahead without a line, and I sprinted ahead to beat them to it.

A quick pitstop found me behind the 5:00 runners again – but I quickly pulled back ahead, not wanting to run in (or behind) the crowd. That mile seven was my fastest of the race – with a 10’03” pace recorded on my watch.

During this turbo-boost run to pass the 5:00 group I had reached the northern turnaround to start heading back towards the starting line. This was my opportunity to cross paths with Cherie – and I was planning to keep an eye out for the 6:00 pacer’s sign running my way to know when I should have the camera ready to snap her and then kiss her.

But long before I was ready – she ran right into me and gave me a kiss! She was blowing her own time estimates out of the water, and was running with the 5:45 RwR group!

Seeing her on fire inspired me to keep at it – and I settled into a steady 11’00” pace with no walk breaks. I felt as long as I was keeping my heart rate below 150bpm, I should be able to keep it up.

The beautiful morning light and water views made for a wonderful chill run – and the early morning weather was absolutely perfect.

Around mile 9 I found myself in a small pack of runners surrounding a woman with a “Marathon Pacing – Kate” sign on her back. Everyone in the group was chatting – and I asked her if she was an official pacer and they all laughed.

She explained that she had signed up to run with a pace group and they had given her the name sign so that her pacer would know what to call her, but she had decided to just run her own pace and not be part of a group. Seemingly no other runners had worn pace group name badges – so now she kept finding people asking her if she was a pacer, and that is how the group around her had coalesced.

She said “but I am a friendly voice and like to talk – so I don’t mind!”

The informal group hung together off-and-on chatting for several miles – making runners’ small-talk. What do you most crave eating after the race? What other races have you done? Etc…

One of the runners in the group used to be a running coach – and she shared some tips about setting realistic goals for races.

Her tips for setting an “A, B, and C” goal for a race – and considering all of them to be just as valid to achieve as the others (depending on your body, the weather, etc…) was a great perspective.

I shared my memories of the race from two years ago, and how it had been so brutally hot that people had been passing out on the final stretch. We all agreed the weather today was MUCH better for running.

I have never run/chatted in a group like this before – and it was a great distraction and made the miles flow by. One of the runners I met was “Ryan with an R” who was running his very first marathon. His buddy he had planned to run with had dropped out just the night before, but Ryan was having a blast.

Around mile 12 we passed a crowd of spectators holding various “Go Ryan” signs, he stopped for hugs – then caught back up to tell us his family was there cheering him on.

Getting close to the halfway point – I was still feeling great, and I pulled ahead of the group to go for a better mid-point split. I crossed with the course clock reading 2:25:17 – an amazing pace for me! I felt energized and kept up the speed, and my watch recorded a pace of 10’27” for mile 13, and 10’37” for mile 14!

This is when the marathon course merged into the half-marathon course – and race energy picked up as the stream of 907 marathon runners began to encounter the 2,958 half runners who were on their return leg from the southern out-and-back course.

I also saw the soon-to-be marathon winner blowing past everyone with a police motorcycle escort – on his way to a 2:46:52 finish. Wow!

When I hit mile 15 – I realized I needed to slow down before I burned out, and I at last started to incorporate a few sporadic 30s walk breaks. It was getting hotter and sunnier, and the route heading south along the water was only partially shaded – and the sun was right in your eyes when the shade was lacking.

Fortunately there were ample water and energy gel stops. There were even a few “Adult Aid Stations” set up by spectators serving up shots and beer.

I kept myself distracted by cranking up the playlist, and by taking pictures of myself and the view at (almost) every mile post I passed – occasionally managing to post to Facebook during brief walk breaks to share my progress too.

I was also thrilled around this time to be watching Cherie’s dot on Find My Friends – and when I saw her pass the halfway mark I knew she was still keeping an awesome pace and was pushing onward to do the second half.

She was going to run a marathon!!!!

After mile 19 was the southern turnaround point – a wonderfully shaded oasis on the route with volunteers handing out cold soaked towels to cool down with. I very nearly hugged the woman who handed me one – and I txted Cherie a picture letting her know what she had to look forward to. It was SO refreshing.

Turning to run back north – there was a gentle breeze in my face and the sun was at last to my back. I felt energized and managed to pick up my lagging pace a bit. As I was now passing the oncoming runners heading south – I saw that I was still a decent way ahead of the (now much smaller) 5:00 pace group – a place I had not thought possible this late in the race.

I knew I wasn’t running fast enough anymore – so I expected that the 5:00 pacer would soon catch me. But I was comfortably enough ahead of the 5:15 group that I felt very on track to meeting that goal.

Around mile 21.5 Cherie and I crossed paths again – and this time I was tracking her dot and was ready for her. She was still ahead of the 6:00 pace group!!

We shared a kiss – and right after I kissed her I saw a spectator on the side of the road holding up an adorable “Tap Here To Power Up” Super Mario Bros mushroom sign, and I slapped that too.

Seeing Cherie holding on ahead of the 6:00 pacer inspired me to pick up my pace to try and keep ahead of the 5:00 pacer chasing me.

It kept getting hotter and my pace was slipping though – my watch recorded mile 24 as my slowest, at 12’30”. I could feel my energy dropping so I focused on some calories and hydration – and overall I was still smiling and feeling great.

As I pulled away from the final water station somewhere between the mile 24 and mile 25 flags – I heard the volunteers cheering an incoming pace group behind me. Looking over my shoulder- the 5:00 pacer was almost right behind me!

I still had legs that were feeling good and gas in my tank – so I kicked it into passing gear and started gaining ground, passing other runners. My watch recorded a pace of 11’39” for mile 25, and 11’04” for mile 26. And for the final push towards the finish, I recorded 10’01”.

When I cam around the final bend and the finish line was in site – I saw the clock, and realized I actually was going to finish under 5 hours! It brought tears to my eyes – I could hardly believe it!

During my final push I had pulled ahead of “Ryan with an R” – so I got the be the first to congratulate and fist bump him when he finished his first marathon a minute behind me.

Next up was cooling down with water, beer, and pizza….

I remember dropping the lid to the water bottle and starting to bend over to get it, only to realize it would be a one-way trip for me to sitting on the grass. My legs were jelly. Bending over was impossible.

I had aspirations of catching Cherie twice for her finish – once as she began the final loop of the park hosting the finishing celebration, and again at the finish line. But as I hobbled around – I realized that it would take me 10 minutes to get from one side of the park to the other, and I would end up missing her finish.

So I grabbed another beverage and staked out prime viewing to watch Cherie cross the finish. Soon she came around the bend, beaming ear-to-ear! I think this time we both had some tears flowing!

Once she had grabbed her medal and finisher’s towel, we hobbled around and grabbed some pizza – at this point they were handing out entire pies and not just slices. We also had some hard cider – awesome to have a gluten free beverage option at the finish.

And then back to the van to get off our feet.

We had done it!

Third Time is a Charm!

Space Coast Marathon – conquered for a third time! This time, both of us rocking full marathons!

And faster than we ever imagined possible!

Yeehaw!