Earlier this month, I finished the Atlantic City Marathon. It was my 20th marathon and my slowest one to date.

What on earth happened?

Backing up a bit– I had an amazing race at the Wicked Fast Poconos Marathon 5 weeks earlier, running a PR of 3:17:41. So I’m sure you’re thinking, did you really expect to crush another marathon so soon?

Well…. yes? I ran the Chicago Marathon in 2022 in a then-PR of 3:18, then followed that up with a strong 3:24 in Philly 6 weeks later. In 2024, I ran Boston in 3:24 and the Ohiopyle Marathon in PA 3 weeks later in 3:29 (though I wouldn’t call that a strong race; I bonked badly at the end and felt pretty terrible.)

So yeah, I didn’t expect to be an entire 47 minutes slower than my PR from Wicked Fast. (Is this perimenopause catching up with me? I fear it may be.)

Let’s get into the dirty details!

After Wicked Fast, I took a week off running as I usually do. But I felt pretty recovered almost immediately and my coach asked me if I could handle 10 easy miles a week after the marathon. I said yep, I feel good. She tailored my workouts to build me up slowly after Wicked Fast, then taper again for AC. Then I had a horrible tempo run 10 days after Wicked Fast that I blamed on the oppressive humidity that day. I think I probably just wasn’t as recovered as I thought. My coach adjusted my next long run, cutting the distance and the marathon pace miles, and that went better. The following week, I was right back on track, even smashing an 18 miler with 8 miles of marathon pace (and that’s a tough long run workout.) So I was optimistic Atlantic City would go well, though I thought running another PR was likely out of the question. In any event, I was really looking forward to the race, which coincided with a planned girls weekend in nearby Cape May.

The day before the race, which was held Sunday, was a perfect fall day in Cape May. My girlfriends and I visited a fall festival, went shopping, took a trolley tour to learn about the history of the town, and ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Mexican is definitely not my first choice the night before a marathon, but I got a big ass rice bowl with a side of…. more rice, plus I ate more than my fair share of tortilla chips, so I felt adequately carbed up.

I also slept decently the night before the race. I was super nervous about parking in Atlantic City, so I left extra early and got there with an hour and a half to spare. I packed a bagel and two hard boiled eggs, which I ate the morning of Wicked Fast, and ate that in the car.

The race begins and ends on the boardwalk in front of Bally’s Casino, and the great thing about that was we could use the bathrooms in there ahead of time. Side note, the smell of weed was everywhere. No judgment– I partake in gummies from time to time myself– but Jesus people, it was 6:30 in the morning. Wake and bake, I guess.

The marathon and half marathon started promptly at 8 am, and I lined up with the 3:25 pacer. Given that I had just run a 3:17, and this marathon was pretty much pancake flat, I felt like that should feel like a comfortable pace. Oh boy, how wrong I was!

If you’ve ever run a marathon, certainly if you’ve run a few, you know how it feels when your race goes to hell. I was feeling good until I wasn’t, and I stopped feeling good pretty early on. I knew it wasn’t going to be my day pretty much as soon as we turned back onto the boardwalk around mile 8. The headwind was AWFUL. I mentioned the 2022 Philly Marathon earlier, which had insane wind gusts. This was so much worse, and it was unseasonably warm and humid. By mile 10, the 3:25 pacers had slipped ahead and I wondered how on earth I was going to run another 16 miles.

We were on the boardwalk until probably close to the halfway point, and I was still holding onto paces in the high 7s/low 8s. Then everything really went off a cliff. I noticed other people struggling, too, much sooner than I normally do in a marathon. I passed a guy around mile 12 who said “good job, how are you feeling?” “Not good,” I said with a chuckle. “Yeah, same,” he said. I really blame the wind for that. God, it sucked.

At mile 15, I started to walk and I called Micah.

“Hey, I’m having a really bad day out here!”

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Are you sick?”

“No…. I just don’t want to do this!”

And that was the crux of it– my body just didn’t want to run 26.2 miles. Nothing was really wrong. I wasn’t injured, I wasn’t cramping, and I didn’t have any stomach issues.

Once the 3:35 group passed me, things deteriorated rapidly. The 3:45 pace group left me in the dust around mile 18 and I realized, wow, you probably won’t even qualify for Boston today. I already have my 2027 BQ thanks to Wicked Fast, but this would be my first time not BQing in 5 years. So that was a blow to the old ego.

I spent a good portion of the back half of the race alternating between running slowly and walking, texting my family and Micah, and posting stories to Instagram to let everyone know I was having a shit day. I passed a bar at some point and seriously contemplated just stopping in.

Then the 3:55 group passed me and I knew it would be a fight just to finish in under 4 hours. I’ve gone sub-4 in all of my other marathons, usually by quite a lot. As cocky as it sounds, I basically took it for granted that I would always be under 4. But the marathon will humble you, that’s for damn sure.

Once we hit mile 23, we were back on the boardwalk and FINALLY had a tailwind, but I was so done at that point it didn’t even matter. Then the 4:00 pacer passed me and I knew I was officially running my slowest marathon time ever. My previous “worst” was my first marathon 10 years ago, and I ran a 3:56. I walked most of the last mile and then picked it up through the final 400 meters and across the finish line, crossing in 4:04:23. I’ve never been so happy to finish a marathon. I can’t even say it was a party pace marathon because there was no party involved. It was a fight to the finish.

I got a free beer with my race bib, but I wasn’t even in the mood for it and was just eager to leave town. I left shortly after collecting my medal and stopped for a crispy Diet Coke and Taco Bell, the recovery meal of champions, on the way back to Maryland.

I’m probably more disappointed than I should be. Yes, I ran my slowest marathon, and that’s never fun, but I had honestly been really looking forward to this race and I’m sad that it wasn’t a better experience. I’m also regretful that I didn’t just stick to the half marathon, which is what I was originally signed up for until I had the brilliant idea to knock out two marathons in one training cycle. Seriously, never again, even though it’s worked for me in the past. I need more recovery time, especially after running a PR.

I do want to clarify that I don’t think a 4:04 is a bad marathon time! No marathon finish time is a bad one and I certainly am proud of myself for gutting it out on a tough day. After I shared my experience with friends and on social media, several said a 4:04 was still faster than they had ever run. But it’s all relative. My 3:17 PR would be “slow” for some runners, for example. But a 4:04 is now my Personal Worst.

So what’s next? Aside from the annual Turkey Trot in my hometown on Thanksgiving, I’m running the Rehoboth Half Marathon as I always do the first weekend in December. No real time goals for that one. Then Boston Marathon training starts in January, which will be here before I know it! I also made the highly questionable decision to run the Algonquin 50K in February, but that will be at a very, very easy pace. It’s supposedly the last year for it, and I wanted to run it one more time.

I received a free entry to the Atlantic City Marathon as part of a partnership with The Vibe: A BibRave Network. Thank you so much for this opportunity!