Marathon #41: 2026 Big Beach Marathon, Gulf Shores, Alabama

I'm excited to share that I have just finished my 41st Marathon: the 2026 Big Beach Marathon in Gulf Shores, Alabama. A place usually known for its bright and sunny weather!

As I write, a massive winter storm is rocking Central and Eastern United States, bringing tons of rain, snow, strong winds, and freezing temperatures to states from Texas to Maine and all in between. To be honest, I wasn't sure this race was going to even start, with the winter storm hitting the Alabama Coast literally during the marathon race window. I was comforted to hear that the only way they would cancel it was if there were lightning strikes in the area, which thankfully did not occur.

When I went to bed last night, the forecast had a 95% chance of rain throughout the entire race. But something shifted overnight, and this morning was dry! The temperature was still quite warm and unpleasant though, starting off at 70°F, with 94% humidity. Made me wish for a bit of rain to release some of that humidity!

Coming from training in freezing temperatures and low humidity throughout the New York City winter, The drastic change in weather conditions was a bit tough for me to adjust to, and I felt it immediately during my warm up mile before the race. I had a rough training cycle for this race, due to falling ill with a rough flu for 3 weeks late December. I missed, or was forced to cut short, my 3 longest long runs of the cycle, so I knew today would be a little rougher than most races, especially in the latter half. I didn't adjust my plan though, but I could already feel it was going to be unlikely to meet even before the race started.

• C Goal: Finish
• B Goal: sub 3:15:00
• A Goal: sub 3:07:00
• Stretch Goal: sub 3:05:00

I ended up hitting my C Goal today, which I can still say I'm proud of given the conditions and my training levels. But I started off pacing towards my A Goal, locking in a 7:08 pace in my watch. I maintained that steady pace (give-or-take a few seconds per mile) for the first 13 miles.

Around the halfway point, my legs started feeling like lead, and I found it harder to breath with the humidity, surely starving my muscles of oxygen. I found myself needing to walk every so often just to catch my breath a little. So the second half saw my pace steadily decrease, all the way up to miles 20 and 21. A nice guy who was running with me for several miles initiated a conversation and while talking, both of us picked up the pace a little. Funny how taking your mind off of the pain is a way to power through it. When he dropped off to walk a bit more, I ended up slowing down too without the distractions.

The last 5 miles for me were brutal. Facing a strong headwind from the incoming storm, and still dealing with the high humidity, I really struggled. I got into a cycle of running about 1/4 mile, then walking, then running another 1/4 mile, then walking again, repeat, repeat. I totally hit the wall. Metaphorically with my will to keep going, but also literally as the wall of wind pushing me back as I tried to run forward.

I persevered though, and despite being my slowest miles of any recent race, I made it through, and crossed that finish line with a final time of 3:25:05, meeting my C Goal of simply finishing the race.

I think a lot of other runners struggled with the weather too, because despite not being anywhere near one of my fastest times, I still finished in 25th place out of 445 runners. Not bad!

While walking back to the hotel, the sky opened up and the storm dumped a TON of water on the region, with extremely high winds. There was even a tornado watch alert broadcast to the area. I am pretty lucky to have finished before all of that happened, as I think with my mental state in the last 5 miles, I might have given up and had a DNF.

After cleaning up and refueling, I incremented my tally!

Next up, we have marathon number #42 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in early March. Stay tuned!