Finishing the Miami 2013 marathon

Ton van Zutphen

Finishing the Miami full marathon in Florida, the sunshine state, on 27th Jan. 2013


One prime reason to participate in a Miami half or full marathon is that the weather in January is practically a 'guaranteed mild and sunny' experience. And so it was this time...starting at 06.15 hours with the elite runners. Interestingly the course is not a fast one, not as fast as Vienna or Eindhoven. It took the Guatamalan winner over 2 hours 26 minutes for the 26 miles plus. In Eindhoven, my town of birth, the winner finished last year October in 2 hours 6 minutes....  I am telling myself that this is why my time was perhaps not that good either...in Rome last year I racewalked the marathon in 2 hours 34 minutes, with plenty of cobble stones... and now in Miami it took me 1 minute more! Fact is I did not train much, and there were circumstances I had not expected to face. Here are they: along the course are thousands of volunteers with water and gatorade....but really nothing substantial to eat..except for these energy gels...I was raised on bread, milk and peanut butter so really the gels don't do it for me...they result into an energy blast of a couple of hundred meteres...but are not filling up my stomach and actually at one stage I thought I may have to 'puke' which I saw many runners do.....Secondly at mile 22 we had to run up and down the Rickenbacker Causeway that leads to the bridge to Key Biscayne...lots of wind, no shade for 2 miles (still 3,1 kms...). I arrived at the finish with a crust of salt on my arms, face and legs...
And it all started so well and fast....sun's coming up and the 26,000 runners go off. We cross the bridge to Miami Beach and see the huge holiday cruising ships moored at port, their numerous lights welcoming the crowd of runners. First 4 miles simply jogging and it felt good. Then along Ocean Drive direction Lincoln Avenue and upto the picturesque Venetian Causeway with its Italian named man made small islands...At mile 9 on the Lido island I suddenly  hear someone calling 'papa' and my daughter Kesso overtakes me..I had by then settled in a steady racewalking cadence pacing under under 12 minutes a mile.....
I could not keep up with Kesso and dreaded to be overtaken soon by yet another fast runner of our small group..Rachel or Annette. Well, I kept pushing and where the half marathon splits from the full marathon course, close to mile 13, I believed (wrongly) I was going for a fast one this time....Well friends, 6 long miles to go before Coconut Grove is long way.  Arriving at mile 19 I had nothing really to eat...and I did not want to mix the beef jerky/dried meat with the energybar for risk of an upset tummy and throwing up...No food like dried fruit or nuts on offer; no bananas either. So I slowed down a bit knowing I had a few difficult miles ahead of me. The Rickenbacker Causeway 'did me in'. And many of us: the combination of sun, salt, wind around 11 o'clock created havoc. Many runners started to walk. Finally I was glad I had not experienced the pain in my left upper leg (still there occasionally dating back from the Madeira-levada walking) but when one of the policeman shouted at me and encouraged me to run the last 2 miles...I couldn't do it. Anyway participating is more important than scoring a personal best. For next year I know what to do different: take good and enough food with me...and my own brew of tea, honey and lime!  And a bit of extra training in the last two weeks before the event.
We all finished from our group. Only ladies this time. The 3 men that had committed earlier gave all a no-show. I won't name them here.... 
It was in the end all great: everybody enjoyed the run; nobody got sick, all of us received a beautiful, big and heavy  'bling bling' medal and nobody felt any serious pain.

Some stats:

I jogged/racewalked on a pair of Brooks Racer ST5 / the perfect racemonster for me!
Also tried one of these compression socks and felt very comfortable in them. The fact that I could not walk/run faster had less to do with my legs..more with my stomach and fear of getting sick during the race
In my category of 60-64 I came in 54 out of 74 participants (fastest was 3 hours 39 minutes, slowest took 6 hours 32 minutes); so I have a long way to improve. The wish is once to get under the 5 hours....maybe this coming October in Eindhoven!  
Then our World Vision group did well:
Jenafir House, a PB half marathon at 2 hours 3 minutes: bravissimo!!
Kesso van Zutphen, first half marathon in 2 hours 31 minutes
Rachel Mikanagu and Annette Emiko Taylor both their first half marathon in same time of 3 hours 28 minutes
Dona Nicole Peter's second half marathon in 2 hours 46 minutes

And the evening was spent at the 'Larios' Cuban restaurant on Sunset Drive, great stories and reminiscing. Wonderful to be with Nicole's family as well. Friends, this is now the second Miami marathon in which the Haiti colleagues took part. Next year again. I registered for 2014 this morning!
We should be at least 10 runners next year on 2nd February 2014.

Hasta la proxima!

tonvanzutphen@gmail.com