Running with Dixie at the Space Coast Marathon
I helped out running partner and fellow FRBer as well as fellow Suncoast Strider (my running group here) on his quest to run a Boston Qualifier race at the Space Coast Marathon. Plan was to run approximately the last 14 miles with Dixie for pacing help and moral support and whatever else I could think of. Woke up at 4:30 and left the hotel at 5:00 and arrived about 5:15 (Jorge rode with us to the start). Met up with Victoria, warmed up, waited and did the usual stuff before a race. I saw the racers at the start and wished them luck. I chatted with a guy who asked why I wasn't racing today (I was dressed for a race, except for no bib). Hung out in the car for a bit, double checked the race course map and for some reason needed to use the POPs about three times. Finally, headed up to find the 12 mile mark. I had started the Garmin when the race started to keep track of the total time. I had actually forgotten my Garmin (some pacer I am!!), and was borrowing Dixie's old garmin (which is actually Keith's old Garmin Forerunner 101). I could not get a satellite signal at all, but tried one more time by turning it off and back on just before Dixie was due at the 12 mile point. I had told Dixie that he could not show up at the 12 mile point any sooner then 1:35 (8:00 pace * 12 - 1 minute early if feeling good). Right at 1:35 on my garmin, he showed up running with a couple of other people. He was actually more ahead of the planned pace because it was at 12.2 miles and I had lost 30 seconds from turning the garmin off and back on. At about the half way point we were going to pass pretty close to where the car was parked. The temps had warmed up a bit and Dixie wanted to ditch his shirt but be able to get it back, so I said I'd take it back to the car and catch up. The car wasn't too far off. But it took me about 2 miles to catch back up where I had to run about a 7:15 pace. It turns out that those were his two fastest miles, 7:31 and 7:40. He slowed down a bit when I caught back up and we held the pace in the 7:50's for the next few miles. One of the ladies we were with was running a little ahead of us. I said we shouldn't try to keep up, so we let her go about mile 18 or so. Things were going pretty good until just before mile 20. Then the pace started to slow a little bit more each mile. I was keeping an eye on the diminishing cushion of time each mile. I tried whatever I could to keep the pace moving along close to 8:00, but it was a losing battle. The time was slipping away. At the rate we were losing time, if it continued he would miss his BQ time by just seconds. I didn't want to see that happen, he had come so far and done so much work. But, it was all up to Dixie. I tried running ahead, running behind, running next to him. I tried being mean and being nice. Told him no matter what it was going to be a huge PR if he just kept running which is all he was able to do. Last two miles were right about a 9:00 pace. Finally, the 26 mile sign and the turn off to enter the park with the finish chute. I let him go and hoped for the best. I cut across to the finish line and saw him finish. Saw the clock reading 3:31:xx. Not sure if he made it in time. Dixie showed me his garmin which showed 3:31:02, but he said it took him a few seconds to find the stop button and he couldn't remember if he had started it before crossing the start line or exactly when he crossed it. So, we waited for the results. Got some food and drink. Dixie found some ice to put his feet in. Finally the net times were posted - 3:30:56!! I'm not sure how much I helped but I'm glad I was there to see it happen. Saw a bunch of our friends there and traded stories about the course. It was a beautiful morning to be sitting in a park near the coast, celebrating a marathon finish.
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