After a successful half marathon at the Salisbury Half Marathon the previous weekend, I headed to Rehoboth Beach the morning of April 14 to pace the 2:45 half marathon group at the Coastal Delaware Running Festival Half Marathon. This Sunday morning race marked my 16th time pacing a half marathon and my fifth time pacing this race.
I enjoy pacing flat courses that I know well, and I felt like I knew exactly what to expect going into this race. It went well!
Because this race weekend also marked three weeks out from the REVEL White Mountains Marathon, I decided to do a short warm-up run beforehand and then finish out 20 miles after the race. I picked up April, who had picked up my race packet, at her hotel on the drive to the start, and we met up with the other Beast Pacing pacers at 6:20 a.m. The marathon would start at 7 a.m., with the half starting at 7:40 a.m. Parking in Rehoboth Beach in the offseason is always easy if you get to the race early enough — and it’s free, too.
I did a 1.75-mile easy-paced warm-up and then headed back to my car, grabbed my 2:45 pace sign and entered the starting corral. There were several runners near me at the start, and one of them, Melinda, would be near me for most of the race.
The race starts on the Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk, and then runners go into a residential area before heading north alongside the ocean and into Cape Henlopen State Park. My strategy for pacing is always to run a consistent pace and walk the water stops, both for myself and my group. If someone is doing run-walk intervals, which I also enjoy when running on my own, we’ll hopefully go back and forth throughout the race.
As I got to each mile marker, I checked my pace band and announced that we were just a bit ahead of pace. As a pacer, I could come in between 2:44:00-2:45:00, but not over by even a second.
As I ran, I felt confident and wasn’t worried about not being able to make the pace, but my legs did feel a bit heavy. It wasn’t too challenging of a pace for me, but I also wouldn’t consider my pacing pace “easy” for me — it’s faster and more consistent than I’d usually run on a long training run by myself. And, of course, as a pacer, you know people are counting on you.
I always enjoy running on the Gordons Pond Trail, which is a crushed stone trail with a bridge portion. The bridge is depicted on the medal. Other race swag included a nice shirt and pint glass, plus a BOCO Gear hat upon crossing the finish line, and free race photos.
After the first neighborhood portion, the course is “lollipop” style — out-and-back with a loop at the end. At some point, maybe around Mile 8, I came up behind Melinda, who was happy to see me as she thought I had passed her.
During the last three miles, it seemed windier, and I had to hold my pacer sign a little differently. People always ask about running with the sign, and usually, it doesn’t bother me all that much, but it was getting a little frustrating in those last few miles.
The end of the race always takes some extra thinking as a pacer. If I’m running a race for my own speed, I try to give it whatever I have left. But as a pacer, you can’t come in too fast or too slow. One year at this race, I made the mistake of slowing down a little bit because the finish line seemed close, but then I had to speed up because it was further than it seemed. This year, things worked out well. As I neared the finish line, I saw Jill, who got some cool action shots of me.
I crossed the finish line with a time of 2:44:41 — right on time!
After handing off the pacer signs to the next pacer to come in, I ran another 5.15 miles to finish the morning with 20 miles. It had gotten warmer (Garmin logged 52 degrees for my half marathon run vs. 66 degrees for the post-race run), and I did not have much energy left, and most importantly, no one relying on me for a certain pace. Without motivation left to hit a certain pace, I completed this run-walk in a 15:47 pace and ran new-to-me roads in Rehoboth Beach. I’ve run almost all of the roads in the city of Rehoboth Beach — I’ve run 90.91 percent according to CityStrides and can probably finish the rest with one more run.
After finishing my 20 miles, I headed over to Grotto Pizza for the post-race party, where there was a full buffet with pizza, baked ziti, chicken tender bites and salad, along with beer. I had a beer and a full plate of food and chatted for a while with one of the other pacers, Jana, who paced the marathon. We also met another runner, Sarah, who ran the marathon and would also be running the REVEL White Mountains Marathon in a few weeks.
This was a fun, well-organized race and I hope to return next year to pace it for a sixth time! I am also planning to pace 2:45 at the Rehoboth Seashore Half Marathon in December.
Splits
Mile 1: 12:14
Mile 2: 12:19
Mile 3: 12:27
Mile 4: 12:31
Mile 5: 12:19
Mile 6: 12:21
Mile 7: 12:55
Mile 8: 12:18
Mile 9: 12:51
Mile 10: 12:10
Mile 11: 12:13
Mile 12: 12:50
Mile 13: 12:38
Last part (watch had .23): 2:36 (11:28/mile pace)
Time on results: 2:44:41 / 12:34 pace ; time on watch: 2:44:48 / 12:27 pace
She Runs by the Seashore 