Too Tough To Tame - Darlington Marathon

I've been a long-time NASCAR fan although my interest has waned a bit over the last few years.  I still follow the results, news and standings but I no longer sit and watch full races.  It was appropriate that the Darlington Raceway was the backdrop for my latest marathon.  The track known for its "too tough to tame" image and labeled with the "lady in black" moniker due to numerous black tire marks on the white retaining walls lived up to its reputation for the marathon also.  Frankly, the course is not that tough in and of itself, a rolling mix of hills and flats in Darlington County with a couple of laps down pit road and on the apron (inside groove) of the track.  But, marathons are not made up of just course layout.  If that was the case, most marathons would be relatively benign because most race directors try to offer a fair (I didn't say easy) course to attract runners.  The Darlington Marathon course was a fair course, a double-loop rolling course mixing short hills with long gradual uphill's, flats and gradual downhill's.  So, what it made it "too tough to tame" for me?  Let me take you through the experience so that I can figure it out.  With me was my crew chief, Cynthia, who truly is my rock (not to be confused with another NASCAR track in Rockingham, NC) at marathons and in life.  In many ways I am more concerned about the logistics for her at marathons so that she can be comfortable than I am myself.  A pet peeve of mine with marathons, which requires another post, is the lack of respect some marathons have for people who join us to cheer us on race day.  This one was very conducive to having our personal "fans" being able to cheer for us at different stages in the race.  My race reports are different than most.  I write about the entire experience and not just the marathon because at my level of running, its the entire marathon experience that I am after and not just the marathon.

Packet Pickup

Packet pickup was at the Darlington Raceway Museum (or if preferred, race day morning in the infield garage area.)  We wanted to be able to see the museum so we left early enough for a visit.  They staged packet pickup at the back of the museum providing access to the storied history of the track.




Upon Arrival

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NASCAR Convertible

Davey Allison's Car

Daryl Waltrip's car after a horrific crash that rolled the car 8 times

Richard Petty's car

Can you imagine this being a stock car one day?

Rusty Wallace's car

 After packet pickup which included my race bib of #82, a towel, a cozy and shirt littered with sponsors (on the front!) and a draw string bag, we headed to the track to see if we could get to the infield.  After a brief chat with security, we made our way through the main tunnel to the infield.  We would eventually run through this tunnel 3 times.

Short severe down and up

The Track

I've only been to one NASCAR track for racing, Dover.  Its a 1 mile track compared to Darlington's awkward 1.3 mile track.  I say awkward because the ends are misshapen where turns 3 and 4 are much tighter than turns 1 and 2 kind of like an egg.  I can see why cars would hit the wall in turns 3 and 4.  We drove through the tunnel and straight down the middle of the infield.  Comparatively speaking to a football field and stadium, the inside of the track is huge but of course nothing like Talladega's 2.66 mile tri-oval.  We drove to pit road.  Frankly, I was in awe of being on pit road and being able to walk out onto the track.  I had the same sense of awe when I finished marathons on the 50 yard line of Notre Dame's stadium and Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions.

Turn 1 stands

Pit Road looking back towards the start/finish - tire tracks and all

Start/Finish press box

Paying homage (not just to Bojangles, the main sponsor!)

Sitting on the pit road wall at the start/finish line

Donuts from the past winner Kevin Harvick?

Retaining wall looking at start/finish

Me and my crew chief, Cynthia Anne

After spending some time at the track, we found our hotel, the Courtyard Marriott, in Florence and ate some dinner at Olive Garden.  I generally sleep well the night before a marathon and usually get up 3 hours before the start, depending on logistics.  It was a 20 minute drive from the hotel back to the track but there are no hotels right at the track. 

Marathon Morning

It was dark outside when we arrived at the track but it was lit brilliantly.  We were able to park right on the infield grass just across from the garage area and start/finish, very convenient for both of us.

Upon arrival - the track at night

Pit road and turn 1

Front stretch stands at start/finish

The stands in turn 1

Leader board

I like when Cynthia takes pictures of other runners meandering around at the start as well as on their marathon journey.

Selfie at the start

Love the southern marathons that start with a prayer!!

Figured I'd start at the back

Some guy ran as Tonto

This picture has the two last place finishers in it - the lady in the tutu and the guy maniac in the center.  They were highlighted by the newspaper which I thought was totally cool.  They became friends at mile 15.

Late start or unscheduled pit stop?

It appears that me and the other squatting guy have some tribal ritual to perform before running.

Approximately 300 runners - 86 in the marathon, a handful in the marathon relay and the rest on the half marathon

Off we go at 7 AM coming off pit road into turn 1

How small we are compared to the banking on the track

Time to leave the track

Sun rising on an empty track

Cynthia's fascination with fences and there are plenty of them in the infield

The marathon starts on pit road at about stall 20 and enters the track in turn 1.  We run about half way around the track staying as close to the wall as possible.  For one, it is the shortest way around the track and secondly, it is the flattest way around the track.  You would have to have one leg extremely longer than the other to run on the 25 degree banking.  The camber on the straights is 2-3 degrees.  It is an egg-shaped oval that came to be because the owner, when the track was built in 1950, refused to encroach upon a minnow pond near the one end.  Once we left the track, we followed a long gradual uphill for about 2+ miles (W. Smith Ave).  Since this is a double loop course, this hill would likely be much harder when it was at mile 15.  The first aid station was about 3 miles from the start.  It was indicated on the website that "pit stops" would be every 2-3 miles but gave no indication as to where they would be.  I suspect they were that distance apart but some intervals seemed long.  It was a warm day with temperatures between 63-73 degrees with high humidity but reasonable for South Carolina.  After turning right on Spring street at Darlington High School, the course flattened out.  Then we did this short out 'n' back on Medford drive.  The odd thing about this is that during the first loop there was one turn-around and for marathoners during the second loop, a different turn-around farther down the street.  You had to read the instructions from the handwritten course map we were given at pickup or try to read the notes taped to the cones to understand this.  I would suspect many marathoners did the first turn-around both times.  The guy who was running in front of me turned at the first and after he ran around it, he looked back.  I said, "I think we are supposed to go to the second turn-around" (because I am anal about reading course instructions) and we both went to the second turn-around.  The next course highlight was running through Williamson Park - Woodland Reserve, a shaded traffic-free road with short little hills - a pretty run.  We then ventured into downtown Darlington for about 5 miles running through the square and making a lot of turns.  All the intersections were well managed by Police or volunteers.  Once we got out onto the main highway at about mile 9.5, there was a long stretch back to the raceway with no shade.  Since the raceway is so big, it looked close but it felt like a long way away.  Once we got back to the track, the marathoners had to do this long arduous loop south of the track.  This is where the race really seemed lonely, not as lonely as Cordova, but lonely.  This loop was about 1.75 miles and re-entered the track from the south tunnel where we would make a brief appearance under turn 4 to the infield and back out the west tunnel to do the second edition.  Cynthia is always a sight for sore eyes.  She and a newly found friend were waiting in the infield for me, both yelling "Yay Mike!"  I stopped to say hi and she offered me a banana and some water.  I always look forward to seeing her.  It just gives me a bit of a mental boost.  Of course, she took pictures as well.

R.L. Bynum from Durham and fellow Maniac

Coming out of the South Tunnel

This guy is the guy that made the wrong turn-around but went back and corrected it.

This tells the story of the second loop - me and my friends!  notice the black tire marks on the walls - hence The Lady in Black

Me escaping from prison

So, the second loop would be exactly the same except it excluded the loop south of the track.  However, it would not be the same time-wise.  Here we go again getting to the half in 2:05 right on pace and faltering the rest of the way.  Like Jackson Hole, mile 14 is way, way too early to start feeling bad and seeing the pace drop.  The sun was now out in Darlington, temperatures rising and humidity holding steady.  I slowly get up the incline on W. Smith, down Spring and Medford through 17 miles.  Mile 18 starts at Williamson Park and I hit that point in 3 hours exactly, actually not that terrible.  In my younger days and better times, I would hit mile 18 at about 2:30 or so but not anymore.  But Williamson park is where I really started my decline and at mile 20 I was at 3:25.  My goals of 4:20 and then 4:30 were being slowly erased.  The energy was gone.  It was hot and it was lonely.  I also started to feel a bit light-headed and nauseous when I was running.  The last 6.2 miles were going to be a mess.  The start of the mess occurred with my new Suacony Grid Guide 7 shoes which I had broken in but not yet ran a marathon in.  The inner sole dislodged itself and folded under my arch.  At first, due to the wet socks, I thought that my sock was slipping.  I stopped and found it to be the inner sole.  I tried to straighten it one additional time but it kept folding and remained very uncomfortable and slightly painful.  Over compensating, my right foot started hurting.  At mile 21, my slow run/walk turned into a walk and then a slower walk.  It was pretty awful.  The sun was beating down on that long highway stretch heading back to the track.  I knew that I still had to do a lap and a half around the track.  We entered through the west tunnel again to the start of the infield, turned right and head toward pit road.  Ahhhh, Cynthia was again waiting on me at the start of pit road with another newly found friend.  I now needed to "run" the entire length of pit road and then do one full lap around the track to the finish not even having a shot at a sub-5 hour marathon, ugh!  Cindy walked with me down pit road.  I didn't have to worry about breaking the speed limit on pit road!

The finish line ladies in their checkers

Dressed in racing suit - no, not Danica

Back in prison after escaping

Dejection

Loneliness heading off pit road

Heading into turn 1

OK, let's try this running thing again

I've run track before but not on a track. Its massive.

Running the lower groove

Cynthia watching from afar

Finally rounding turn 4

Coming out of turn 4 for the final home stretch

...and down the front straight-away

...and finally the finish

Glad the finish line was still open! 5:13:42 - my third worst marathon ever

All this for a medal, but a pretty cool one with the track oval

The NASCAR driver pose...I'd like to thank my sponsor...

Sitting never felt so good

Freaky Abandoned - Cynthia's photo work at an abandoned garage with an old racing car

Final Thoughts

At the end of the marathon I told Cynthia that if marathons started to become like this one and the one in Jackson Hole, that I had to reconsider why I am running them because I truly want to run them.  I know that I am getting older, slower and placing quantity over quality.  A fellow manic had a similar experience as mine at Darlington, although to a much lesser degree since he is much faster than me.  He wrote about it on his blog. Later in the evening when I could walk better, I thought about how lucky I was that God gave me the strength to put myself out there and finish marathons no matter how long it takes or how much it hurts.  I know that my fastest times are behind me and the aches and pains, lesser lung capacity are ahead of me.  Although I love running good quality marathons, I am more interested in the marathon experience than the marathon time.  I have had some great experiences in the 81 marathons that I have run, many of them unique to the area or the marathon - Darlington and Jackson Hole included.  The Darlington marathon itself was well organized, had a very cool venue and unique experience, and it really was a fair course.  There are no fans (except for my Cynthia) and with only 86 finishers, not many runners around you.  I said in my Jackson Hole post that I would continue to do marathons until I couldn't meet the cutoff times.  I was somewhat embarrassed by this one but now looking forward to Baltimore as I continue to streak it running all 14.  Could I cut back and run 1 or 2 quality marathons a year with better and more focused training?  Absolutely, but honestly, what fun is that?  I can train my butt off and still never win an age group award so I would really rather have the marathon "experience" being away with Cynthia.  I will still try to do my very best but when my best breaks down, I'm just going to put my best "experience" forward.  I've run 21 miles this week and had some very good tempo runs in cool weather.  My head is back on the course to finish up 50 states next year on my way to 100 marathon finishes in a few years.

Days 274-276: 15 miles, 2014: 1,321 miles