Ocean City Running Festival

The Ocean City Running Festival Marathon: I puked, I rallied, I BQ’d

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I am really disappointed in how the Ocean City Marathon went. At the same time, I am also very proud of myself. Both things can be true! 

In summary, the marathon at the Ocean City Running Festival was a flaming dumpster fire. I went into the race, my 17th marathon, feeling really confident. I had nailed my training and thought if I had a great day, I could PR with a time of around 3:16-3:17. I thought if I had a good day, I could break 3:20. And if the day was just OK? Surely sub-3:25 was totally reasonable. 

Except I had a crap day where I puked my guts out and crossed the finish line in 3:32:34, my first time not breaking 3:30 in four years. It sucked, but I never gave up and kept on pushing when my entire body was telling me to quit. 

Here is my recap of the Ocean City Running Festival marathon! 

Micah, my sister Catherine, and I got to OC late afternoon the day before the race, hit the expo to get my bib, and headed to Shenanigans on the boardwalk for dinner so I could get my usual veggie burger, fries and beer. Last year before I ran (and won!) the half marathon, Shannon and I went there and I had 2 beers, so I decided to do the same this year! Everything felt fine. I didn’t feel weird or nauseous.

I woke up on race day just before my alarm went off, had my usual coffee, liquid IV, bagel and peanut butter. Got to the OC Inlet by 7 and saw Vanessa of She Runs By the Seashore, who was running the half. The weather was decent — around 50 at the start — but so windy, and I wasn’t a fan of that! Before I knew it, it was time to line up and we were off!

The marathon is an out and back, starting at the Inlet, going into Assateague State Park, and then back into Ocean City. I told myself I wouldn’t run faster than 7:40-7:45 splits for the first half, with plans to crank up the pace in the second half. And I stuck to that. I also took a 160-calorie Maurten gel at the start, plus I planned to take gels at miles 4, 8, 12, 16, and 21. I had two of the new 160 calorie Maurten gels with me, plus four 100 calorie gels.

I saw my husband and sister around the 10K mark, and I told them I was probably going to have to stop and pee, ha. I did dart quickly into a porta potty at mile 8, where I also had a little diarrhea seemingly out of nowhere (TMI, but it was a harbinger of what was to come!)

Overall, though, I was still feeling strong as we headed into Assateague. We passed the half marathon starting line, I saw some wild horses as well as some horse poop on the running path (I did not step in it) and I took my 4th Maurten gel (the second 160 cal gel) of the race at mile 12.

The turnaround point was at mile 12.5, and as soon as we turned, we were running smack into a fierce headwind. I knew that was going to get old real quick.

When the marathoners turned left to go back over the Verrazano Bridge out of Assateague, it was brutal. And it didn’t really let up— the next 9 miles of the race were back up 611 into the wind.

On top of that, this part of the race was where the marathon mixed in with the half marathon, a point-to-point race that began at Assateague. This led to a bottleneck and I got mixed in with runners who were running a slower pace than I was trying to go, so I was doing a lot of weaving around them.

Right around mile 14-15 is when I started to feel barfy, and I wondered if I’d be able to take a gel at mile 16 as planned. I decided to hold off, and then managed to choke one down at mile 18, figuring I needed the fuel because I could see my pace slipping. At mile 19 I saw my sis and husband again. Catherine asked me how I was feeling. “Like shit!” I yelled back.

I think it was around mile 20 or 21 that I stopped on the side of the road to see if I could puke, but nothing came out, so I soldiered on. Right before mile 23, I stopped again and that’s when I got sick. First time that’s ever happened to me in a race! A few runners stopped to see if I was OK, and I said I was. I felt better after I threw up, but of course my body was super depleted by then and I was just in survival mode. The last 3 miles were a shuffle back into Ocean City, down the boardwalk and back to the inlet. (I did not love the smell of the Dough Roller right there around mile 25.5, woof!!) 

At that point, I didn’t really care what my time was, because I knew I was nowhere near my goal anyway and I just wanted to finish. When I stopped my watch and saw 3:32, I was sort of pleasantly surprised because those last miles felt like a death march. I still managed to qualify for Boston! We’re currently in the 2026 qualifying window, and I’ll be 45 for Boston 2026, meaning my BQ time under the standards that were updated this fall is now 3:45. So I actually BQ’d with a really solid cushion. Yay for aging up! Getting older is not so bad! 

I found out later I won my age group, too. So, I guess maybe it wasn’t a total trainwreck, even if it felt like it! 

Micah and Catherine met me just after I crossed the finish and Catherine said I looked super pale and insisted I go to the medical tent. The kind volunteers gave me chips and water and I felt pretty good after that.

Good enough to get my life together and spend the afternoon shopping in Rehoboth, and I even made it out to Seacrets that night to celebrate! Since it was two days after Halloween, Catherine and I decided to dress up, but we were the only ones who did. What is up with that, Ocean City? That phallic-shaped thing on my sister’s head is a shark fin, in case you are wondering. And yes, I wore my finisher’s medal out proudly.

What the hell happened? 

Ugh. The million dollar question! Sure wish I knew. 

I did wake up feeling really dehydrated the day before the race, which I blamed on the two Pumking beers I drank the previous night on Halloween. But I made sure to drink tons of water and Liquid IV throughout the day, and it’s not like I was hungover or anything. As I mentioned above, I usually love to have a beer or two the night before a race (carb loading!) So it wasn’t like I did anything that crazy for me. 

Maybe it was the heavier Maurten gels. I usually take five 100 calorie gels throughout a marathon (sometimes four if my stomach is being funky and I can’t get the fifth one down.) This has always worked well for me. In fact, I ran Boston 2023 on only three Maurten gels when mine fell out of my flipbelt, and I finished in 3:19! I have been reading a lot online about how more fuel is better, and for the most part I agree, but…. Maybe I overdid it here? 

Or hell, maybe I just had a bad day! 

As for what’s next, I am running my hometown Turkey Trot next week (5Ks, yuck) and then two half marathons, the Rehoboth Seashore Half on Dec. 7 that I run every year and then the Naptown Half in Annapolis two weeks later. I don’t really have any time goals for any of these races aside from just doing the best I can. I’m back to running a few times a week, all easy runs, no workouts. Long runs on the weekends will be 10-12 miles at the most. Last year in Rehoboth, I finished the half in 1:31 and was bummed about it! I’ll be thrilled to finish in 1:35-1:37 this year, but hey, maybe I will still have some marathon training fitness that will help me.

And then of course, Boston again in April – but I won’t start seriously training for that until January. Currently debating how hard I want to train for it. Part of me wants to go balls to the wall and try to redeem myself after Ocean City, and part of me wants to follow a lower level Pfitz plan and just have a fun time in Boston. I’ve run 3:26 and 3:27 marathons off the 12 week Pfitz plan that peaks at 55 miles per week, so I could still run a strong for me race.

Anyway, I have time to decide! For now, I am relaxing a bit! 


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

I won the Ocean City Half Marathon in Ocean City, Maryland!

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I won the Ocean City Half Marathon at the inaugural Ocean City Running Festival last month! 

No, I did not break 90 minutes, but I did break that finish line tape. It was an amazing moment and easily the highlight of 2023 for me. 

My official time was 1:32:03, which was a PR by 1 minute and 16 seconds. I thought I could run faster that day, but then again, I also thought it would be a lot cooler. 

It was 84 degrees by the time I finished the half marathon. On October 28 in Maryland! 

I’ve been living here long enough to know that you really never know what fall is going to be like. It’s not uncommon to have summer-like days into November, especially these days. That said, 80+ degrees at the end of October is certainly not the norm. When I checked the forecast a few days before the race and saw meteorologists were calling for possibly record-breaking temperatures, I just rolled my eyes. Of course. I knew sub-90 was going to be a challenge on the best of days, and really freaking hard on an unseasonably hot day. The half wasn’t starting until 9:15 am, either! 

But what can you do? I was still planning to run the best race I could. And that’s what I did. 

My friend Shannon and I left work early on Friday and made the 2.5 hour drive from Anne Arundel County to Ocean City. Packet pickup was at the convention center, and we were staying at a hotel on the boardwalk, within walking distance of where we needed to board the buses to get to the start line on Assateague Island. We had dinner at Shenanigans and I got my standard veggie burger and fries, plus two beers. I joked afterwards that the extra beer was the reason I won.

The Ocean City Running Festival included a marathon, a half marathon, an 8K and a 5K, and the half was a point-to-point race that began on Assateague and ended at the inlet on the Ocean City boardwalk. I was wearing a sports bra and shorts to walk to the buses, and I wasn’t remotely cold at 7:30 in the morning, so I knew I was in for a steamy one. Once we got to Assateague – my first time there, which is kind of crazy! I didn’t see any wild horses, though – we used the bathroom, hung out with other runners, and then lined up at the start around 9. There were no pace groups, but there were signs that directed runners to line up by their expected pace per mile. The fastest was 7:00/mile, so I lined up there. They played the Whitney Houston recording of the National Anthem, which is always a good sign – I’ve run a PR literally every time I have heard that at the start of the race! Before I knew it, it was go time. 

I ran the first mile in 7:05, then 6:50 and 6:54 for miles 2 and 3. Then I got into a really good rhythm, clicking off a 6:47, 6:50, and 6:53 for miles 4 through 6. I’m not going to sugarcoat it – the race course wasn’t the most interesting. It’s almost entirely flat except for the Verrazano Bridge that connects Assateague to the mainland, and you spend the first 8 miles, I think, on Route 611. It’s a long straightaway and there isn’t much shade, which was especially brutal on such a hot day. It was mentally tough– and did I mention it was hot? I was grabbing water from every aid station, not just to drink but to dump on my head! 

I ran mile 7 in 6:58 and passed a guy who was taking a walk break. “Come on, stay with me,” I urged him. “You know you’re the first female,” he said. I told him that couldn’t be right. I was positive there were some women up ahead of me. He insisted I was in the lead. By the way, I wish I had been able to hang with him – I saw him after the race and he finished in just under 90 minutes! 

I clocked a 6:47 mile for mile 8, and then I think that’s when we finally made a right turn off 611 and toward Ocean City. The race was definitely starting to get tougher then. We ran through some random park and ride and then over another bridge. There was a lot of traffic stopped on the bridge and people inside the cars were cheering the runners on. I ran mile 9 in 7:01. At this point, I think someone told me I was in second place. 

When we got into Ocean City, I heard someone calling out “Shortstack!” (This is my nickname in kickboxing class – long story!) It was my friend Jessica and I was so excited to see her. If she hadn’t been on the other side of the road, I would have given her a big hug. Seeing her was a huge pick me up! I was surprised to see that I ran a 6:51 mile for mile 10, because I was definitely feeling like I was on the struggle bus.   

The last few miles were on the boardwalk, and quite frankly, they were brutal. Because it was so warm out, a ton of people were at the beach for the weekend, and the boardwalk of course was open, so there was a lot of dodging people/yelling out “on your left!” That said, a lot of people were enthusiastically cheering the runners on, so that was nice! And again, zero shade on the boardwalk. It was also a looooong out and back. We entered the boardwalk at the inlet and basically ran past where the finish line was (mean), then ran way down the boardwalk, then turned around and headed back to the finish.

My pace definitely tanked here, but not too bad: Mile 11, 7:11; Mile 12: 7:18. What’s that saying? Positive splits for positive people! Someone around this point called out to me that I was the fourth female, so I really had no idea how I was doing. I just knew I was ready to be done with the race! 

I hit mile 13 in 7:10. As I was coming down the last stretch, I heard the announcers say, “here comes our female champion in the half marathon!” 

And then I turned the corner and they were holding up the finish line tape for me! 

It was WILD. I just kept saying, “What? Oh my God. I can’t believe it!” With around 800 total participants, 500 of whom were women, this is the biggest race I’ve won.

After I collected myself, I went to find water– I was so dehydrated! And then I came back to the finish line area to see Shannon finish her first half marathon in 12 years! She crushed it, but said the heat was really tough (and she loves warm weather!) She also completed the Chessie Challenge, meaning she ran in the Annapolis Running Festival, the Baltimore Running Festival, and the Ocean City Running Festival.

My award is made out of wood from the boardwalk – pretty cool! 

So my sub-90 dream lives to see another day. But tomorrow I am running the Richmond Half Marathon and I am going to see what I can do there. I will have a 1:30 pacer, which always helps a lot, and it’s going to be around 38 degrees at the start, warming up to 46 by the end. SO much better running weather than what we got in OC. I can’t wait to see how it goes!

Running lately: 2 10Ks and a 10 mile race

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All of a sudden, it’s September and I am signed up for a race every single weekend.

I started training for the Ocean City Half Marathon the second week of August, with a goal of breaking 90 minutes. (Current PR from Rehoboth last year is 1:33.) One thing about me is that doing speedwork – which is absolutely necessary for me if I want to run a sub-90 half – is not my favorite. So, I signed up for a bunch of races because I’d so much rather run fast in a race than on my own around my neighborhood or the track! 

Here’s what I have been up to, and what is coming up next! 

Dreaded Druid Hills 10K: 46:32

Remember when I said in a recent post that the Firecracker 10K was my slowest in a few years? Ha, well, this race now holds that distinction. It definitely lives up to its name! I had run it before, in 2019, and to be honest never really planned to run it again. But then my friend Kree asked me to run it with her and I said OK. Four years ago, I ran the race in 50:06, and this year I was significantly faster – yet it was somehow so much harder than I remembered! Maybe I was pushing harder. The hills in Druid Hill Park in Baltimore are STEEP and there are also a lot of switchbacks. It is easily the hardest 10K I have ever run. I even stopped to walk a few times – no shame. Somehow I managed to win my age group and come in 5th female. I won a $10 gift card to Falls Road Running, and the swag for the race was on point – I got a pint glass and a really nice Nike tank top. So I suppose it was worth the suffering. Kree and I joked afterwards that maybe this is an “every four years” race.

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