Ocean Drive Marathon~Post Race Thoughts (#27-NJ)

A Marathon First! (Warning: The immediate PP following may contain language and suggestions not appropriate for some audiences and may be just plain TMI)

This weekend was my New Jersey Marathon (state #27) at the Ocean Drive Marathon in Cape May, NJ. Ok so before I go into "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly" I need to address a "first time" event I had at this particular marathon. Today, I experienced... Boob chafing!!! Ok, ok I’m not going to lie (and you’ve seen picture)-- it’s definitely more of a sternum chafing-- but this is my blog so I’ll call it what I want… Deal? Ok Deal. I’ve never really had any sort of chafing, aside from the time or two I wore a textured tank top and the inside of my arms were a little tender after. This is good and bad-- Good because I’ve lost weight (I guess my controlled carb attempts are working), Bad because my sports bras are now too big.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (This is the start of the G-Rated portion of the post)
The Good…
The race is run (mostly) near or along the ocean! The course is pretty nice-- mostly flat, with a few decent hills, mostly on bridges. Other runners were very friendly and I had a “you know you run too many marathons a year” moment when I realized I recognized a LOT more faces than usual. This is one of the few Jersey marathons, so of course a lot of 50-staters and maniacs would be in attendance. The weather was decent… cold with just a little sun. Once in a while I would feel a gust of wind with a little rain, then it would go away. Kind of like a little cooling system
The Bad...
Race shuttles-- This was a one-way marathon, with shuttles available to take runners from the finish to the start. Well we made it in time for the first one, but it was full (and small). The second one didn’t come for an hour (although the website promotes shuttles every 15-minutes), and still had a 30-40 minute drive, dropping us at the start just 15 minutes before the gun was to go off. There weren’t enough port-a-johns and with the 15-minute window to the start, we had no hope of waiting in line.
Race Port-a-Johns. I noticed quite a lot of potty stops in the first half of the race, but in the middle, they seemed to have disappeared a little. Of course, this was the exact time my body decided it desperately needed a stop! I made it to one at mile 17 and from then on I saw a stop about every 1.5 miles. Just my luck!
The Ugly...
Post-race food… ugh! They had bagels, some fruit, Chicken broth and water. Seriously? Now you’ll know how I feel about my food-- Kyle often refers to me as a fat kid stuck in a little persons body-- and I probably put more emphasis on food in my “race organization” category for my race ratings. The funny part was that last night at dinner I told MB that I was excited for the post-race food and hoped they had something good. My hopes were slightly crushed
No Timing Chips-- Now, this race isn’t HUGE, but judging from the port-o-john lines, it wasn’t exactly the kind of race you could forego timing chips either. This made the long shuttle wait even worse-- if we were late, we were losing time! Also, people were trying to line up toward the front to get a more accurate time, including some slower runners that clogged up the first quarter mile of the start.
Mile Markers-- The mile markers were extremely off! Mile 2 was at approximately mile 1.6-- making mile 3 very long. Then the miles seemed to consistently be .001 to .002 off through the rest of the race, then the last “mile” (as they had marked on the course) made up about a tenth of that. I was happy I had my garmin!

Overall: This 12-years of experience running this race, did not shine through in organization. If you’re looking for a quieter marathon with a subdued atmosphere near a beach (albeit too cold to jump in) then this race is decent, at best.

More information to come with my Ocean Drive Marathon~ Race Ratings!!!