Avoiding Alligators in Alabama's Big Beach Marathon

I have to admit when I read reviews about the race, I hesitated to register for it but I am so glad I did. I registered soon after I ran the Mississippi Gulf Coast Marathon (in December) and thought why not squeeze in another marathon this winter. I analyzed the logistics and could get there fairly easily and I would check off another state in the process. Although I am not in a hurry to complete marathons in all 50 states, I enjoy the experience of it. I thought I recovered fairly quickly but the truth is, retrospectively, I realized during the Big Beach Marathon that I was not really fully rested but I still enjoyed it - if that makes any logical sense?

To begin our journey, Pat and I left on a Friday afternoon to ensure we didn't run into any winter flight delays and although there was no bad weather, we did have an hour or so delay on our connecting flight to Pensacola. In the DC airport, we met other runners going to this race too. This is what makes our journey so fun. You meet people just like you! So the hour delay at least had some positives! However the late flights pushed me off my biorhythms as we arrived in Gulf Shores, Alabama around 11:30pm central time and I often go to sleep between 8-9pm EST! I really don't like being off my schedule in any way, but you do what you have to do. We finally went to sleep around 12:15am, which felt like 1:15am to us and tomorrow was another day. We spent the following day relaxing at the hotel and walking around the Gulf State Park. We spent hours on the 5th floor balcony getting a tan and talking to some awesome people from the south. Both couples were newly retired and they were just enjoying their lives with traveling and visiting new places. I was thinking how much I liked these people because they understand what is important in life. They have worked hard and now it was time for them to fully enjoy their time and that is exactly what they were doing. I loved hearing their stories and although we are fully enjoying our lives right now too (because why wait, we have worked hard too), we still have a couple of younger kids to raise. (We are almost there!!) Overall, we find that the southerners are very laid-back and pleasant and it's such a stark contrast to the northeast where everyone is yelling at you and flipping you off on the roadways. I wish everyone would just chill out sometimes! Besides a little bit of sightseeing, we didn't do much. We put our feet up, relaxed and ate an early dinner (by 5pm). We knew we wanted to go to sleep early and sure enough my watch tells me I was asleep by 7:56 and awake at 4:16. Not bad for the night before a marathon. We got ready and were shuttled to The Hangout until the start of the race. It was raining and chilly (45 degrees but 90% humidity) and I didn't want to be too cold on the course. I wore my daughter's "Snuggie" that she no longer cared about as a throwaway and chucked it at mile 1.5. The race was mostly flat with some slight inclines here and there, but I really would not call them hills in any way. Pat and I ran together the entire way. He always stayed a little bit in front of me (like as if he was my pacer LOL)! It didn't bother me that he did that. His legs are longer than mine and I need my personal space!! I don't really like it if someone runs right next to me anyway - even him! We kept a decent pace throughout the race. Around mile 3-4, I noticed Pat was chatting with someone, but I had my headphones on and you know for him to run with ME, he can breathe easier and have a conversation, so I didn't try to interfere. He had on his NH shirt and then I noticed the woman had on a shirt with a NH company logo on the back too. I thought they are probably from NH too! I thought it was cute they were a husband and wife running together too. So we kept waving to them the rest of the way whenever we saw them again. As we approached mile 8, we went down a road and back so we could see the faster runners on the other side of the road. These people were waving to us and giving us high fives. It was so awesome. I love runners. We all cheer each other on. We passed the 8.5 mile mark at 1:12 which is pretty good. We intentionally started this race much slower than normal. Other recent marathons, my first 2 miles were in the 7's and we had a strategy to start decent but not extremely fast so potentially we would feel stronger later. I am NOT so sure that worked though!! Our pace for the first 10 miles was in the 8's so that was normal for us. There was not a clock at the half marathon split but I know we were at 1:52 and change at mile 13 and my watch tells me we crossed 13.1 miles in 1:54:25. That is slower than what we usually do but again, we were HOPING that discipline to hold back would help us later on. The course was mostly on the paved trails and wooden boardwalks in Gulf State Park. I actually loved running on the boardwalks. It helped to break up the course and some of the boardwalks were very long. There were a lot of turns in this race (see map below) and the course was a bit confusing however there were plenty of signs. There was one point though where runners went the wrong way and Pat almost did too but I told him to follow me. We took a bathroom break around mile 16-17, just to empty out and feel like we could drink more again (extra if we had to). Our pace slowed into the 9's from miles 10-20 and then we dipped into the 10's for the last 6 miles. This is mostly due to significant leg fatigue. I had to pull over a few times to stretch my legs. My hamstrings ached and I thought if could stretch a bit, it might help. I felt a little frustrated because this happened in Mississippi too but I figured I was just tired then and the heat was too much. At one water stop, I drank 2 cups of Gatorade and that seemed to help speed me up, so I thought maybe I was dehydrated? But I didn't think so because I was drinking all along, but I was going with the fact that my legs felt better again so I was just trying to push through it as much as I could. I have to admit, I don't always feel like this for my last 6 miles. Just the last 2 races. I mean sure, I get tired and my legs ache a bit but not to the point that I am signif