My girlfriend Jamie told me about the Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon a long time ago.  She ran the half there last year and I thought about running the half this year with her but I opted for the 5K instead.  I hadn't ran a road 5K since October 2007, when I ran a 17:41 as part of a team in the Emerald Isle Triathlon.  I added more 5K training (faster 400s, 800s, and 1,000m repeats) to my training the last couple weeks to prepare for the Coastal 5K the day before the half marathon in Myrtle Beach.  My goal was to break 18:00. 

Jamie and I arrived in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Friday afternoon and went to the expo and packet pickup.  I was bib number 626 in the 5K.  After that we headed to some outlets and just did some looking before grabbing a marginal dinner at Famous Wok in the outlet shopping center.  The food wasn't that good but at least I got some carbs and protein from the rice and  chicken.  We stayed the night with her parents in their condo in North Myrtle Beach, about 20 min from the start of the 5K.

I didn't sleep well the night before the Coastal 5K but I was still ready to go when I woke up race morning.  Jamie and I loaded up and got her dog, Justus, and headed to the race.  I ate a blueberry crisp Cliff Bar at 6:30am after we parked.  It was cold, 43 degrees but the wind was calm.  I love running in the cold so I was happy with the weather.  I did some dynamic stretching followed by a 10 min jog to warmup before the start of the race.  After that I drank a G Series Pro 01 prime pouch to give me an extra boost 15 minutes before the start of the race.  I lined up at the front of the starting line and talked to some runners while we waited for the start.  I met Ann Mazur and she said her goal pace was 5:30 so I figured we could be close in the race.  After a moment of silence for the troops fighting for the USA and the playing of the national anthem we were ready to start the race.

The gun went off at 7:30am and I was out fast with Ann right beside me.  We easily pulled away from everyone else.  She led  the first mile but I was right behind her.  My first mile was 5:44, right on my planned pace.  I felt good and pulled even with Ann. We ran side by side until shortly before the turn around where I took the lead.  I opened up a little lead, maybe 10 seconds or so, and kept running hard.  My 2nd mile was a 5:46.  I was leading but knew Ann was close.  It was a 2 person race as we had out distanced the chase field.

Ann ran me down and had caught me by 2.8 miles.  I should have opened up more of a gap when I took the lead.  She pulled up beside me as we kept running hard towards the finish line.  She pulled ahead of me and my plan was to out kick her.  Ann held me off and won with a time of 17:45.  I finished 2nd Overall, 1st Male, in 17:47.  It was a flat and fast course and the weather was perfect. 

Ann ran a strong race and it was fun to push each other.  The place was excited that a female won the overall race.  I've been beat by my friend Anne before and by women at the Boston and the Shamrock Marathons.  I may have been "chicked" but at least Ann was a former All-American at Notre Dame and runs a 1:15 half.  I felt great the whole time during the race and probably could have dug deeper and ran harder and faster.  I'm not used to running 5Ks so I wasn't confident in what pace I could hold.  I beat my 18:00 goal so I was happy with my performance.  It's good to know I can still crank out a sub 18 minute 5K when I rarely race that distance.

After cooling down and stretching, Jamie and I watched the high heel run that had 2 men compete but it was won by a woman.  I would feel pretty bad if I was a woman and got beat my a man in high heels.  After the high heel race was the Doggie Dash, that Jamie and Justus were racing.  Jamie and Justus started off towards the back of the pack but quickly picked off other runners and their dogs.  Jamie and Justus finished 6th Overall and 5th in the female category.  They ran right around 8:00 min pace for the 1.5 miles.  Justus was a big hit at the race; adults and kids loved him.

The next day Jamie ran the half marathon.  Her goal was 2:15-2:20.  Her half pr was 2:29 at this race last year.  She did awesome and finished in 2:10:58 and knocked an amazing 19 minutes off her personal record!  Her dad also ran his first half marathon and he finished in 2:09:20.

The Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon is a great race and a fun weekend with a variety of events.   The courses are flat and fast.  It is also very well organized.  There are a lot of things to do in Myrtle Beach so you can enjoy the area on a fall weekend.

The Twin Bridges 8K Road is part of the North Carolina Seafood Festival and I've ran the race every year except one since 2000.  The race starts in front of the Beaufort Drawbridge on the Morehead-Beaufort Causeway.  It follows Highway 70 West from the Beaufort Drawbridge, over the Beaufort High-rise Bridge into Morehead City, through Morehead City to the Atlantic Beach High-rise Bridge, ending in front of the Bella Pizza & Subs on the Atlantic Beach Causeway.

I've always enjoyed this race for many reasons.  It's a point to point course and it just feels like a fast race as a result.  I also love the high rise bridges.  I train on the Atlantic Beach high-rise bridge a lot.   It's 400m from the bottom of the AB Bridge on the Morehead City side to the top where it flattens out and it's 1.5 miles over and back on the bridge.  My mentor and local running legend, Sonny Hyman, and his wife started the race a long time ago and it is now run by the Morehead City Parks and Recreation.  I haven't broke 29 mins at Twin Bridges but I've ran a lot of sub 30s I have a lot of top 5 finishes to my credit.

I felt good going into the race this year.  I felt like I had a real shot at breaking 29 minutes for the first time there.  My running was going well since returning from a week training in the mountains while on vacation.  I did 4X800 with a 400 jog between at 2:48 and 4X400 with a 400 jog between on the track Tuesday as a final speed tuneup before the race.  I felt great on the 800s, like I was on cruise control and could have gone faster and done more. This was going to by my first race in my G Series Pro Elite Tribe uniform as a member of their running team.  I was excited and wanted to do well for them. 

I arrived at the staring line around 7am, an hr before the start.  I ate a powerbar, had 16oz of water, and then just sat and relaxed while waiting for the buses to bring the other runners.  My friend Gene, Iceman, Chiellini also parked at the start so him and I talked and exchanged stories while we began to warmup and stretch about 30 min before the start.  It was windier than I would have liked but the temperature was great at 59 degrees.  It was going to be a brutal head wind the whole way to the finish.  After doing an easy mile to warmup I made my way to the starting line.

I lined up on the staring line with my friends Jimmy Waters, Sonny Hyman, Mike and Becky Fitzula, David Garrison, and about 300 other runners.  The gun was off and the race started.  I went out fast but steady as I watched Jimmy take an early lead.  The wind was tough and we hadn't even got to the top of the first bridge yet.  I found my friend Leon and he said his goal was sub 29 as well so we tried to run together.  I pulled away from Leon a little bit as we made our way up the first high rise bridge and the first mile marker.  We went through the first mile in 5:56, 6 seconds slower than my goal pace.

The wind really started to pick up once we hit the top of the Morehead City high rise bridge.  Even with the first 1/4 of a mile downhill coming off the bridge the wind was still slowing us down.  I kept trying to run hard against it but was having no luck.  I ran mile two in 6:18.   I was in 7th place overall after Leon had left me going down the bridge.  I kept running hard and passed a high school runner that went out too fast shortly after mile two.  I set my sights on my friend Jordan.  He's really fast but also goes out too fast.  He would go out at 5 min pace if he could in the Beach Runs earlier this summer in the 10K and I would always catch and pass him between miles two and three and go on to win the 10Ks by 1-4 minutes. 

Mile 3 was another fight against the wind and I ran it in 6:16 but I had made up ground on Jordan.  At about 3.5 miles we made a left turn and started up the Atlantic Beach Bridge.  Finally the wind was at our side and not directly in our faces.  Jordan was just ahead of me when I made the push up the Atlantic Beach Bridge.  I passed Jordan pretty easily and pulled away from him.  Mile 4 was almost at the top of the bridge and I ran it in 6:15.  I saw my Dad at the bottom of the bridge on the other side and he cheered me on as he took pictures of me and my friends. 

I picked up the pace going down the bridge and now made a faster push on the straight and flat road to the finish line.  I was running hard when I heard someone catching me from behind.  I tried picking it up more as Jordan caught and passed me with about 400m to go in the race.  I couldn't believe it.  He's never passed me back in a race where I passed him.  I ran the last mile in 5:40 as a result of having the wind finally at my side and not directly in my face slowing me down.  I ended up finishing in 6th place overall out of 307 runners and placed 2nd in my age group with a time of 30:24. 

Jimmy Waters won the race for the 2nd time in 28:48.  Mike Fitzula came in 2nd place overall in 28:53.  Jimmy had to out kick Mike for the win.  Becky Fitzula won the women's race for the 2nd Consecutive year in 32:41.

I was disappointed  in my time and overall finishing place but that wind was tough.  In all the years I've ran this race I've never had to fight wind that strong the whole way to the finish before.  It slowed everyone down.

It was a tough day but it was good to see a lot of friends and to have my girlfriend Jamie and her dog, Justus, there to cheer me on.  Justus was a big hit with the kids.  Kids kept coming up and wanting to play with him and pet him.  This was the second race he's gone to and cheered for me.  The first was the Crystal Coast Half Marathon earlier this year in Morehead City.