The WTF Marathon

The origins of this blog lie in the 2009 Antitrust Marathon IV, where Spencer, Phil, Max and I each ran the Dublin Marathon, and, the next day participated in an excellent conference sponsored by the Spencer's Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies, Phil's British Institute of International and Comparative Law and the Irish Competition Authority.  I've been hoping for another such event ever since, but so far the gang has not reconvened.  Spencer and I, however, continue to conspire, and last Fall Spencer announced his intention to run the Hamptons Marathon in late September.  I initially thought I'd run it with him, but then I got into the New York Marathon, so my plans changed.

We continued chatting, however, and when the time came, it occurred to me that a 20 miler was on my training schedule, and what better way to run 20 than to pace Spencer for part of the Marathon.  Spencer and I have done this before.  When Spencer ran NYC a few years back, I met him at mile 7 and ran with him to Mile 18.  It was great fun, and, when I got tired,  pulled off, walked to the subway and went home.  Why not just do the same thing again? I thought.

So, I got in the car Friday afternoon, drove out to Easthampton, met Spencer, and looked at the course map.   When I looked at the map, I realized there was a problem.  The eastern edge of Long Island does not have a subway system.  Also, the way the course was laid out, if I ran 20 with Spencer, I'd still have to walk 4 miles to get back to the start.  What to do?  Well, of course, there was only one answer, sign up on race day and run the whole thing.

This was a first on lots of levels.  I've never run a small marathon.  I've never run a marathon with somebody else.  It was great fun.  Spencer and I chatted the whole way, made bunches of friends, walked the water stops, ate snacks, and generally had a great time until about mile 19.  At that point Spencer decided that he needed to focus on getting to the finish, so he banished me to my own final push.

I have always bought into the orthodoxy that marathoners should not run marathons as training runs.   Now I'm not so sure.  Hamptons was six weeks before NYC, and I felt no ill effects.  Indeed, I think it helped.

I also enjoyed running a small race.  I've never been a big fan of crowd scenes, and big races are, well, big crowd scenes.  We just took a shuttle from the hotel to the start, ran the race, shuttled back to the hotel, and voila.   Also, I have to give Spencer credit for finding accommodations.  The hotel had a great pool and hot tub overlooking the ocean.  We took an hour or so to recover, and then went out for lobster rolls.

Below are two photos from the race.  In this one, you can see Spencer on my left.  We had a great time!

And I was still smiling at the end!!

I've never thought of myself as somebody who casually got up in the morning to run a marathon.  Who knew?  I'd happily do it again, at least if I had Spencer to keep me company!