State #27 -- Ocean City, New Jersey
The 50 States Half Marathon Club decided to have their annual event in conjunction with the OCNJ Half this year in Ocean City. Every year the club members get together and enjoy some like-minded company, have a nice pre-race meal, and give out awards to all the award recipients for the year, that is, those individuals who have completed a challenge. One of the challenges is running 50 half marathons in 50 states. They do have other challenges, such as the 100 half marathon challenge, the 7 continents challenge, the Canadian province challenge... and a few others. There are plaques and trophies and cups, etc. I am only concentrating on the 50 half marathons in 50 states challenge, and this race marked the 27th state. One of the ladies in the club received an award for completing 500 half marathons. Oh my.
Valerie thought it would be fun to go to The Shore, so she "volunteered' to go with me and be my social butterfly. OK... so here is the truth about how this worked out. We went to the informal Friday night meet-up, looked around mostly at the food, took a lap around and decided to go elsewhere. We did not talk to one person. When we left to go eat, the restaurant we chose had a 90 min wait, so we went to a diner across the street and had a fairly decent meal, then back to the hotel, still not speaking to one member of the club. All day Saturday we spent with a friend and playing tourist, and still did not speak to one club member. The formal dinner was Saturday night. We went and checked in, sat down, talked to about 5 people... total, ate our dinner, watched the awards ceremony and then left. So, my social butterfly did not do a whole lot to help me, but we had our own little bit of fun as we enjoy each other's company. She is very kind and sweet to me and I make her laugh. What more do we need? Every day is a party.
OK... so, the race. The race started just off the boardwalk. It was yet another free-for-all start... but actually a bit worse. All of the 50 states half marathon club were there and there was a pre-race photo at the start... so, all of them/us took this picture right in front of the start line.
So, when it was time to line up for the start, all of these people and several more were all milling around the start area. You can see the START flag signifying the starting line. I was a bit concerned about how this would work. I was afraid that if I started in the pack somewhere, I would waste a lot of energy maneuvering around people. I was also afraid that if I wet all the way up to the front, I would start out too fast and struggle mid to late race. Valerie was adamant that I move up to the front so that I did not get trapped in and frustrated.... so, I moved up to the front, which turned out to be the right thing to do, because I started out fairly fast and was very comfortable at that pace.... for the first several miles.
There was a bridge at mile 2.5 that we ran over and around the area on the other side, then turned around and ran over the bridge again. This picture shows the bridge. I did not take this picture, but pilfered it from one of the Facebook posts of one of the other members. To repeat... we ran over this thing twice.
After the bridge running, the rest of the course was pretty flat. We made our way back around to the boardwalk. I thought it was pretty interesting running on the boardwalk, mostly for the scenery. The boardwalk was open for business and the general public was out enjoying the beautiful day. There were cones and ropes and volunteers, and honestly it was pretty well managed, but there were a bunch of people and interesting things going on. Much more interesting than the typical race where there is only asphalt in front of you... and pot holes and slanted streets and gutters, etc...
We ran past several of the places that Valerie and I visited the day before... There was Bob's grill where we had a nice breakfast. 
There were candy stores and Ferris wheels and arcades and put put golf courses and laser tag places and restaurants, lots of food, lots of fun. Mile 7 was on the boardwalk right about where the finish line was, so we ran past the finish and then 3 miles and the turned around and ran back another 3 miles. Valerie was able to watch me start and then catch me again at mile 7 and then see me finish and all from about the same spot. She just hung out, got some coffee, read her Bible study, hung out at the beach. Ok, she did not hang out at the beach, this was the day before... and as I understand it, they do not call it the beach, they call it The Shore!!
There was plenty of race support. Not much entertainment, but plenty of volunteers and groups of cheerers. I believe they were all volunteering, but instead of passing out waters, they were simply cheering and encouraging the runners. There were two places where they were handing out iced cold towels. That was nice on the back of my neck.
I was running pretty well for the first 9 or so miles. In fact, mile 1 was 6:55. Miles 2-8 were low 7:00 to around 7:40. Miles 9, 10, 11 or 8,9,10... I can't remember, were about 8:00-8:09. Then I picked it back up to finish. This kind-of hurt my time though. I was on track for a PR, but missed it by a few seconds. I am happy with my time. I finished 1:39:52. Not quite a PR, but close. I only wish I had not slowed so much those few miles.
Some of you may remember in Alaska when the guy I was talking with on the course called me a "big guy". He was there. I passed him at about mile 2, then he passed me back going over the bridge, then I passed him coming down the bridge. We talked a bit around mile 5-6. Then he passed me and I only saw him at the turn around. He was picking up speed as I was slowing down. He was very nice though. He cheered me on at the finish. Super nice guy, just faster than me...and we are the same age... he is just 30 pounds lighter than me... the lighter me. ugh!!! He placed 2nd in our age group and I placed 4th.
In all it was a nice race and a nice place. I enjoyed having Valerie with me and seeing our friend, Captain, Dr, Corrie Crowe.
After the race, Valerie and I had to drive back to Philly to the airport. We had already schemed to get ourselves a "treat" of an authentic Philly Cheesesteak. We found a hole-in-the-wall place Joe's Fabulous Steaks. and gorged ourselves. Over-indulged is an understatement.
It was a tiny little place, but it was oh so good. I, personally ate WAY TOO MUCH. But it was a treat. I recommend the steak with the American cheese and pour the cheese wiz over it too. AMAZING.
Next race, assuming I am able to waddle to it after this gluttonous act is... well, it was today, this morning, but one week after this race, in Newport, Rhode Island.
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