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It’s been a couple of days since the Kiawah Island Marathon, and my legs have mostly stopped hurting.

There’s a lot to like about the race: it’s very well-organized, with a high-quality shirt, ample opportunities for number pickup, and very clear communication across the board. The course was staffed with lots of volunteers and fluid stations, and, given the number of turns, was exceptionally well-marked. It was flat and the food and beer options at the end of the race were generous.

On the downside, it’s quite an expensive race for a local, non-urban race – registration was $225 when I signed up and spiked as high as $300 near race day (though it did sell out early). Kiawah isn’t particularly easy to get to, and the nearest hotels are a minimum of 30 minutes away unless you’re able to stay on the island. Because the island doesn’t really have any street lights, the race doesn’t start until 8 a.m., well after dawn, meaning the sun will be high in the sky by the time you finish, leaving you susceptible to temperature swings.

It was probably that last bit that got me.

There’s only one road that gets you to the start, and at 6 a.m. there were two lanes of cars backed up more than a mile long down Betsy Kerrison Parkway. It moved quickly, but the two lanes collapse into a zipper merge right before a roundabout, so there’s a natural bottleneck that keeps traffic from being able to flow very well. Parking is a large open field, kind of like a fairground, about a half mile from the start, and there were ample charter buses to take runners and spectators. I was at the start corral by 7.

After a brief line at the porta-potties, we kicked off the race, first the high-performance corral, then full and half-marathoners all in one group, self-organized by pace. I started off cruising, averaging just under 8-minute miles for the first half. I was feeling great. The morning was cool, if humid, and the roads were nice and wide so there was very little sense of being crowded out.

There were fluid stations every two miles or so, and most of them had food of some kind: orange slices, bananas, Twizzlers, jelly beans and pretzels. Every station had both water and Gatorade and, unlike some races I’ve run, it was always clear who had what.

I ran about a 1:44 first-half, but around mile 14 things just started to go wrong. Some combination of humidity or something I ate (surely not the Twizzlers) gave me a wicked side cramp, and I had to slow down, first a little, then a lot. The Wall hit me early and hard.

My heart rate felt weirdly elevated the whole day, which I’m attributing to the humidity. In training, I usually stayed in the 150 range, but looking at my heart rate, I spent most of the race in the high 160s, and that always slows me down. I’d walk for a few seconds, it would drop back into zone 4, then spike back up as soon as I started running again. Long day.

I walk-ran most of the latter half of the race, finally hobbling across the finish line in just over four hours, 4:04:05. It wasn’t exactly hot, but the temperature had swung significantly from the cool early morning, and the humidity had been high all day. Right as I came through the finish line, they wheeled a guy past me on a gurney, and a young woman in the gear pickup line was yacking into a hospital vomit sleeve. I was clearly not alone. I tried to have a beer — they give you three, which felt borderline reckless — and felt like I might be sick as well, so I just pulled myself together and headed home.

All things considered, it was a disappointing showing. I had a good shot at being fifth in my age group, but fell back to eighth. I trained with more miles than I had in several years, and I came in well-rested and ready to go, but the Force just wasn’t with me. It’s possible I went out too fast, but it was some combination of bad nutrition during the race or weather effects. And, if I’m being honest, too little speedwork in training.

Final take on the Kiawah Marathon: very nice people, well-organized, on the expensive side, and the course is pleasant and flat but very monotonous. Worth it if you’re looking for a South Carolina race or a race day very late in the calendar year.