Marathon #122, 20th Florida marathon, at the Marathon of The Treasure Coast in Stuart, Florida. A breezy day that mitigated temps in the 70s. Started out up front to say “hey” to Aaron Braunstein, who was pacing the 4:00 group. I decide to drop back but a mile in we all take a wrong turn and I’m back up with Aaron until 8 miles in I drop back for realsies. About 17 miles in I see a kid in long pants who seems to be struggling, so I chat him up. His name is Ben. He’s 18 years old, and enlisting in the Navy soon. He decided he wanted to run his first marathon. So I spent the last about 9 miles with him playing “pacer of one”. The last .2 he laid down the hammer and left me in the dust to earn his first marathon PR. Nice kid; I did advise at the finish that most people attempt a run of longer than 12 miles before they do their first marathon. Fun fact: Stuart is known as the sailfish capital of the world.
