The Unofficial Mini Marathon

The Bad News

Well, Tropical Storm Nestor decided to be a punk and mess up the schedule for the MB Mini Marathon. The city felt that it wasn’t going to be safe enough to put up any of the traffic barriers while the storm was rolling through the area, so instead of postponing the event for a couple of hours, they just cancelled it on Friday.  Hours of training by up to 1200 runners was basically thrown out the window.

That wasn’t going to stop the men of F3 however. Almost immediately after the news of the cancellation,  a number of the guys started texting back and forth between each other and in group chats and basically decided to get their 13.1 miles in any way they can. #RainORShine

Luckily, Black Dog Running Co. stepped up and took over the event creating the “Unofficial MB Mini Marathon”. This was not going to be official, there would be no traffic control, but there would be a 13.1 mile route with an aid station along the way and pizza at the finish line (better than anything we could’ve asked for given the situation!).

The Unofficial Mini

Since the unofficial mini was going to start later than originally planned, that messed up the schedule for a number of confirmed PAX that were supposed to run/ruck, but we still had a decent showing. Sunshine and Hot Tub were the first to arrive, quickly followed by myself and Skidmark. Headgear met us in the parking lot behind the BDRC store where the start/finish line was quickly being set up. Around 20 min to the gun, the rest of the pax started filing in, fighting off other runners for coveted parking spots. Franklin, Hamburglar, Flyover and his short shorts, ERC, Hoser (our lone rucker), and last but not least… Rubber! Apparently the dude can just roll out of bed and run a half marathon! #Jealous

For most of these guys (except Rubber), they’ve been training since the summer and have been putting in a ton of miles and hours on the pavement. Little did I know it, I had been training for this half marathon for a year. My one year F3 anniversary was Saturday.

I never had any intentions of running a half marathon when I started F3 in October 2018. In fact, I couldn’t even run a mile last year. I was 40 lbs heavier then where I am today and a #SadClown and didn’t know it. If anything, I could probably guarantee that I was NOT going to have any part of running in the 2019 half marathon at this time last year. But thats how much F3 has changed me in the past year, so when the official half was cancelled I made up my mind to do it anyway that I could.

The Start

The starting line was located behind the BDRC storefront. The route would take us down Farrow Parkway, all the way down past Business 17 onto Ocean Blvd. From there we would head north to 21st Avenue and turn around and follow the same path back to the store. 6.55 miles out and 6.55 back for our 13.1. Since there was no traffic control, everything was on the sidewalks and bike lanes, with cars and pedestrians all over the place to make it even more interesting.

The F3 crew had to wade through approximately 200 other runners at the start to find some clear running lanes. All of us (Hoser included) ran for around the first mile to get some distance between us and some of the slower runners. The PAX were all located near the front by the time we got to Ocean and before the race really stretched out.

The Run

As always, I tried to keep the PAX in view as long as I could, but of course they started to pull away. That’s okay, I will just run my pace. Around mile 4, I can tell that I just don’t have it today, but then I hear this voice behind me telling me to “keep pushing man, just keep going!”  I look and sure enough, Rubber was right there behind me with the perfectly timed encouragement. We get to the aid station near 2nd avenue at just the right time as I didn’t bring any water. We continue north on Ocean Blvd. and somewhere after mile 5 as I was transitioning from the sidewalk to the road, I land kind of funny on my right foot and felt and heard a pop in my foot. #NOTGOOD

My foot was hurting, but the adrenaline was going, and as Rubber so aptly pointed out to me, we couldn’t let another lady pass us on the run. So I marched on. Continued to follow Rubber to the turnaround point at 21st Ave as best as I could, but he started pulling away.  I think it was around the time that I got to 16th avenue is when I first saw Flyover and Sunshine already headed back towards the finish line. Couple of streets later, I could see Hamburglar and Headgear, then a couple more streets and I saw Skidmark.

Finally got to the turnaround point and started my journey back to the finish line, the foot was on fire, but I couldn’t stop now. The last half of the run was a mix of run/walk with a terribly slow pace in the 12-13 min range, way slower than our 9-10 min training runs that we had in the summer. But this wasn’t about time anymore, it was about FINISHING. I owed it to myself and my fellow PAX that helped train with me and pushed me to limits that I didn’t know that I could get to, to keep going. As I tried to ignore the pain and get into a rhythm, a familiar voice came up from behind me “man this sucks, why did we do this?”

I still have no idea how I got in front of Rubber or where he came from, but apparently he just has a way of popping up behind me and making me laugh. I don’t know if he just ran some extra laps or what, but it was just what I needed to get my mind off the pain. We made it back to the 2nd avenue aid station again (8.25 miles down – 4.85 left). I can’t remember the exact street, but it was around this time that I ran into Hoser on the course. The dude was trucking and beating a lot of the runners on the course. #BEAST.

The headwind that we encountered on Ocean Blvd. on the way back was brutal, but on the bright side it did cool you down a little bit. Finally crossed Business 17 to get back onto Farrow Parkway (2 miles left). I couldn’t see Rubber anymore, but I knew that I was close enough to just gut out the rest of the distance. Got to around 800m to go and I saw Headgear and Franklin with fresh new shirts and a ruck on heading back to find Hoser and then around 400m another #HIM in Hamburglar joined me to finish the race. Turned the corner and saw the rest of the PAX waiting at the finish line.

11 PAX, 13.1 miles each with Flyover coming in at a blazing 1:50:14.

YHC came in at 2:33:40, definitely not the time that I wanted… but hey, this is unofficial and more importantly.. I wasn’t last!

Great job by all the men that finished!

– TR