If you were outside this weekend in the NJ area - you know how unseasonably warm it was to do anything. And to run a Half or Full Marathon in what ended up being close to 90 degree temps and 80% humidity - brings running to whole new level of insanity.
Which brings us to the New Jersey Marathon and Half Marathon.
More than 10,000 other runners attempted to complete the event, steering clear of EMS and Medical teams waiting in the wings and a few haphazardly run water stops to the finish line. Happy to say that I finished....and honestly feel more pain after from the sun exposure, than from the run itself. Despite completing the first 14 miles in about 2 hours - I felt pretty good, but after mile 17-18 and the leg cramps started to kick in -- it was certainly not a performance for the record books (Olympic or my own!)
A friend of mine took it to a whole different level, by running the marathon in an Elvis costume...this is his invitation to follow & post his pix - or if you want to follow his group on Facebook (The Running Elvii of New Jersey)
In hindsight, organizers should have started the event earlier than 9am and/or increased the #of water stops. Last news I heard 13 runners were taken to hospital and 6 were admitted for heat exposure/dehydration. Lesson learned, is to not over-exert yourself on such a hot and humid day. If it were during training, I think I would skipped the day entirely and gone to beach to hang out with the kids and drink margaritas!
Did I mention it was hot out there?
Top Photo Credit: New Jersey Marathon, NJMarathon.org
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ReplyDeleteKudos to those who ran that day! I did a mere 5K the day before and the heat that day was crazy. It reminded me of the Belmar 5 I did last summer on a very hot July day... people were vomiting as they crossed the finish line. Lovely, right?
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