Race Recap: 2014 Florida Beach Halfathon

I'm taking a little break from running right now.  My long distance race season is over (because summer in Florida is freaking HOT, 'member?!) so it's a good opportunity to take some time to let things heal and recover.  Which I thought would translate into oodles of free time... nope. Life's been hectic!  So, yeah - I'm a little behind on blogging.  I have LOTS of ideas and several un-typed blog posts running circles in my head... I'm sure they'll come out eventually. 

Meanwhile, how 'bout a little recap of my final long-distance race of the season?!

On March 23, I ran the 2014 Florida Beach Halfathon - a 13.1-mile race over paved paths and roadways at the famous Ft. De Soto Beach.  This was basically a "local" race for me, albeit almost an hour form my home.  But with a 7am start, it was soooo nice to "sleep in" for a race instead of waking at Stupid-Early!

The Beach Halfathon is one of several annual races put on by Florida Gulf Beaches Road Races and I'll spare you some suspense: race director Chris Lauber puts on a mighty fine race!  Starting with packet pickup - we were given several different dates and locations over the two weeks before race day from which to pick up our bibs and swag.  That was so nice!  I was able to get my things from the St. Petersburg Fit2Run on a day that worked for my schedule, had a lovely chat with Chris about race day planning for meet-ups and spectators, and bought a handful of Clif Shots* for race day fueling.

Lotsa nice swag!

Race day arrived with a forecast of no rain, a high temp near 80, and a start temp of 65, with humidity around 85%... in other words, ideal Florida conditions!  I wish now that I'd thought to grab some pics of the race staging area - it was a nice set-up, with the start/finish line clearly marked, ample porta-potties available, and lots of tents with merchandise and food offerings.  An announcer provided us all with info on where to go and when, and I had ample time to meet up with a friend from my running group and make sure my mother (Gramma) and Leo were all set.  Yep, I actually managed to get my family to come cheer!  

I really had no idea what to expect of myself going into this race.  I felt good - really good, in fact - but hadn't run many miles since my #ALLtheraces Triple Crown weekend four weeks prior.  In fact, my longest distance between the Princess Half and Beach Halfathon was a whopping seven miles.  So I lined up toward the back of the pack, planned to do lots of walking over the first few miles, and see how things went.

My first few miles flew by, in part due to the lack of crowding and bottlenecking thanks to a total race field of around 1800 - less than the number of runners in just my corral at the Princess Half Marathon - and in part thanks to the lovely company of my running group friend. 

The first 3.1 miles of the course took us through a loop of old-growth oak trees, palmetto scrub, and past a small inlet of Tampa Bay.  This was also the course for the day's accompanying 5K race, which started 30 minutes after the half.  Given the slow pace I was keeping, I got to see the leaders of the 5K come whipping past at breakneck speed as we all looped back to the Start/Finish, at which the 5K folks ran through the Finish chute, and we halfathoners passed on by.  I'm not gonna lie - that's a little painful, running past the Finish, knowing you still have 10 miles to go.  But I knew the miles ahead would be pretty, so there was added motivation to keep going.  Plus, I saw Gramma and Leo there and got a nice high-5 from my boy!

I started adding more running to my miles and dropped my pace about half a minute per mile through mile seven.  I was still feeling great: strong, good energy, not at all overheated, thanks to the cloud cover.  And... well-fueled.  

(*This was my first race using Clif Shots as fuel.  After dealing with the heavy, bulky, mushy, crumbly mess a waist pack full of Fig Newtons made during the Princess Half, I decided to try some gel-based fuel and see if it would be better.  Know what?  It was!  MUCH better.  Clif Shots are tiny and lightweight; I easily stuffed four of 'em in my waist pouch, one in the little elastic loop of my Fitletic phone armband, plus one Hammer gel in the back pocket of my running skirt.  It's virtually impossible for me to store glucose - in response to sugar in its system, my body overproduces insulin, which "eats" the sugars and leaves me hypoglycemic.  So I pretty much have to fuel constantly through a long run to keep things stable.   A Clif Shot every 45 minutes was just about perfect to keep me going, and the chocolate flavor was tasty!  The Hammer gel in banana flavor?  Worked just as well... but BLECH!  Not tasty.  At all.  I'll stick with Clif Shots, TYVM.)

Feeling pretty darned good at the halfway point, I decided to see what I could do about a PR.

While taking pics.  

My view, miles 5 through 11...

The Sunshine Skyway off in the distance...

The Fort... of Fort De Soto.

The course was essentially a giant out-and-back job, so the view didn't change much; the water just shifted from my right side to my left.  What did change was the cloud cover - long about mile 9 or 10, the sun came out.  And I quickly realized the path we were running had no shade.  It was rough - I was tiring by that point and the sun didn't help.  But I looked at my Garmin and did some quick math (okay, not so quick - it may or may not have taken me a mile and a half to figure this...) and saw that I was well within reach of meeting my goal of a sub-3:15:00 finish... and it was quite possible, if I stayed on pace, I could turn out my fantasy goal of a sub-3:00:00 finish.  

HOLY CRAP!

So I dug deep, ate another gel, and picked up the pace.  And it was great!  Until mile 12.  When the tell-tale stabbing pain of IT Band syndrome showed up in my left knee.  And... my right.  Both freaking sides?!  Yes, both freaking sides.  Knowing I had no further long races to get through after that one, I tried to run through it as much as I could, but - man!  There's just no running through that kind of pain.  I walked as fast as I could, ran a few steps here and there, and...

BIG, HUGE, GIGANTIC PR!!!

My official time?  3:02:28.  Missed my fantasy goal by two minutes, 28 seconds.  I'm not remotely sad about that, though.  Firstly, because I never expected to even come close.  Secondly, because knocking more than 20 minutes off my previous best half-marathon time is pretty damned exciting.

And thirdly... because it turns out I'm not as into my finish times as I once thought.  Sure, it's always great to get a new PR; it shows that all of your hard work and effort accomplished something concrete.  But what it doesn't show is the joy I experience through the simple act of running.  A finish time doesn't begin to represent the times spent talking with fellow runners about our training, our gear, our goals.  And it sure doesn't illustrate the mega-balancing act performed by a single parent trying to keep up with work, parenting and training.  

Yet, those were the things foremost in my mind as I crossed the Finish and ran over to Leo and Gramma for big hugs.  Though I remembered to stop my Garmin, I didn't even look at my time for quite a while.  I knew it was a PR of some sort, and I was just fine with that knowledge.

After cheering my friend through the Finish, I grabbed some water, a Coke, a bagel, a little pasta, and a beer (seriously - FL Road Races puts on quite a spread!), and reveled in the glory of having finished my third half-marathon in three months.  Later, we explored the fort before heading home.

View from the roof of Fort De Soto

I highly recommend the Florida Beach Halfathon - or any of the other races offered by Florida Gulf Beaches Road Races!  It was so well-organized, well-run and very, very fun, while also feeling very relaxed.  It was a great race for the speedsters and the slow folks alike, with plenty of pre-race, on-course, and post-race resources available to all.  And the location was just gorgeous, as you can see.  I'll be back, for sure!

Tower of Terror 10-Miler Recap, Part Three

To conclude this very log-winded race recap, I want to offer my thoughts about the race from a personal perspective, as well as a list of pros and cons that may help others considering a future Twilight Zone Tower ofTerror 10-Miler race.

If you read my recap and its follow-up from the 2012 Tower 10-Miler, you know that the 2013 race carried a lot of emotional baggage, through no real fault of its own.  I wanted redemption this year, and I wanted it badly.  So, did I get it?

Yes!  Kind of.  My fantasy goal was to run this in two hours or less, but I knew with a bum hip that was highly unlikely.  My wish goal was to run it in less than two hours, fifteen minutes.  I didn’t quite make that, officially… but Disney’s timing chip and my Garmin have different ideas of how much time it took me to finish the race: my Garmin reported 2:14:48. That’s despite turning it on just before crossing the Start line, and turning it off at least 30 seconds after crossing the Finish.  So, while my official time may say otherwise, I know that I did, in fact, make my wish goal.  And I beat my base goal of sub-2:30:00 in any case.  So redemption?  Yeah, baybee!

I've had my eye on a Hollywood Tower Hotel bell for years - I got one for my work desk
to celebrate this year's race finish!

I’m so glad I opted to run this race again.  In addition to feeling like I got a second chance at running it more like I know I can, I also got a first-hand look at the changes runDisney implemented after receiving feedback last year.  More on that below, but they got an awful lot very, very RIGHT this year.  I absolutely recommend this race going forward!

That said, I have no plans to run it again next year.  I think the race itself was great, but the late start combined with my pre-race anxiety and early-to-rise schedule, plus my body’s total breakdown in the face of too little sleep, is a bad mix for me.  I don’t love the super-early start races, either, but I can at least take a nap after those and recover pretty quickly.  I also don’t want to train hard through another Florida summer.  I’m convinced that the heat takes a major toll on my body and makes me more susceptible to injury.  I look forward to scaling back both the distance and intensity next summer to give my body the break it deserves.

But for those thinking of running the 2014 Tower 10-Miler, here are my Best and Worst parts of the race this year...

Best

• Photo opps: Disney listened and added a TON of photo stops to the course.  I don't stop for character photos in the parks, let alone in a race, but I was glad to see they stepped it up, anyway.  
• New corral system: Breaking up the field into more, smaller corrals really seemed to help with course congestion.  Nancy and Peter reported that they had ample room to run without much weaving in corral D.  Starting from G, I encountered some congestion, but less than last year, and MUCH less than I found starting in C for the Princess Half-Marathon this year.
• Bag check: As with last year, dropping off my bag pre-race was quick and easy.  Unlike last year, picking it up was also a breeze this year!  Instead of going through the park and then down and back up entirely too many stairs at the Indiana Jones amphitheater, this year we passed through a backstage finish chute right into the amphitheater's floor, where a super-efficient crew retrieved our bags.  Brilliant!
• Post-race snack box:  Okay, I'm still not a fan of the box format, but this year?  The boxes had HANDLES!!  Much easier to hang on to, along with water, a banana, a medal, etc., as we made our way through the finish chute.

Worst

• New corral system: Yeah, I just listed this as a best, and it was... but Disney let me down by not having porta-potties in every corral, as they did last year.  I guess they really couldn't make them smaller and keep banks of potties in each, but it was a really nice feature and I was bummed to see it gone.  
• Weather: This is beyond Disney's control, unless they change the time of year they hold this race.  But it was still a negative to me.  The weather just changed down here in FL - finally! - and I'm getting a taste of what 5-10 degrees cooler plus lower humidity does for my running experience... it's nice.  Really, really nice.  I never want to run in TOT 10-Miler conditions again.
• Gear bag:  Disney cheaped out on gear bags this year.  They look the same - clear plastic with a nylon drawstring - but they were nowhere near as sturdy.  Peter's tore almost immediately after he got it.  Nancy's not long after.  Mine survived the race, but tore all down the side as I walked away from bag pick-up.  Fortunately, I had all of my things inside a backpack, inside the gear bag, so I just tossed the gear bag and carried on.  But it would suck to lose all of your stuff if it was loose in there.
• Loudness: I think this is probably just my hang-up.  But the sound level of pre-race festivities did a number on me; I was battling a fierce headache by the time the race started.

I think my "bests" far outweigh my "worsts," even if I have no interest in running this one again.  Angry Running Mickey agrees.  If you ran it, what was your Best and Worst?

The Need for Speed

"I feel the need... the need for speed!"

If you are of a certain age – and I am – you don’t just know this quote and its context.  Oh no.  You’ve repeated it a few hundred dozen times.  You’ve performed the accompanying ‘round-the-world-over-the-shoulder high five.  You’ve also referred to your good buddy as your “wingman.”  And, chances are, you can sing every word of You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling.”  You know – with feeling.

I digress.

I’ve been feeling the need for speed, now that my stupid IT Band seems to more or less have accepted that it’s going to run, whether it likes it or not.  Thanks to my piss-poor lungs, I’ll probably never be a fast runner, but I’d sure like to be faster.  So my training plan for the Tower of Terror10-Miler and Halloween Halfathon includes some speed training stints on my non-long run weeks.  And I got started on them recently.

First up was a session taken straight from Jeff Galloway’s Time Improvement plan for the runDisney Tower of Terror 10-Miler: run 800 meters at a pace 15 seconds faster than race goal pace, walk 3 minutes to recover, repeat for a total of four times.   Now, as I’ve mentioned before, I am a sprinter by nature.  Not a super fast sprinter, mind you, but a sprinter – I love to run at top speed for short stretches.  Distance training has been sort of a downer in that regard; I’ve been so busy building base mileage and nursing injuries, I haven’t had an opportunity to go fast in over a year.  So I was pretty psyched to tackle my first speed training task.

I have this awesome little outdoor, paved track near home.  It circles a pretty lake surrounded by trees, so much of the track is shaded – a huge plus this time of year in Florida.  I took a trip around to warm up properly and started in.  I’d set up my Runkeeper iPhone app to four interval sets of 800 meters followed by three minutes walking and wore my Garmin 10 to pause during recoveries and check my pace on the fly. 

So how’d it go?

No, no – I’ll tell you… it was GREAT!!!  Really amazing.  I don’t know when I’ve felt better in a run.  Forget 15 seconds faster than my 12:00/mile goal pace – I ran 800 meter splits of 11:05, 10:33, 10:44 and 10:42.  Up to a whopping 1:27 under goal pace!  Pretty comfortably, too; I really felt like I could’ve pushed harder, but didn’t want to invite problems unnecessarily.

Two weeks later, it was time for hill repeats.  Now, if you’ve followed my blog for a while, or if you live in the southern half of Florida, you know that there is a distinct lack of hills in the area.  But here in coastal Florida, we have many bridges connecting the mainland with our barrier islands.  Since my knee had been acting up the previous week, I opted for the lower of the two bridges near me and vowed to kill it.

I started out on the flat beach road, turning in a mile warm-up before getting to the bridge.  I then ran up, walked down the other side, turned around and repeated that the other direction.  Twice, for a total of four ascents and descents.  Going up a fifth time, the bells began to ring, alerting all that the draw bridge was being raised to allow a sailboat to pass underneath.  I took it as some weird sign to pick up the pace and beat a couple of teenaged girls to the top before turning around.  And I did.  Pass them. 

Once more I ascended and turned around, then finished with an easy, flat mile for recovery.

I must say that I’m loving these speed workouts!  Which is really making me think about next year’s race schedule… perhaps a bit less distance and more 5Ks?  We’ll see.  For now…

Running Route Review: Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort

Hi again!  I’m freshly back from our long summer vacation at Disney World…

… our worst Disney vacation ever.

 So bad, we sought refuge in the Tiki Room.  The TIKI ROOM, people!  It doesn’t get much worse.

(See that middle guy up top – with the drum?  That’s what I looked like for nine days.)

It was HOT.  And CROWDED.  And RAINY.  And there was a whole lotta Magic missing. 

Seriously- Worst. Disney trip. EVER.

I have many thoughts about what went wrong, what was within and outside of Disney’s ability to control and how things could be vastly improved… but, frankly, I’m sick of wasting any more energy on such a crappy vacation.  I just want to move on, y’know?  Truth is, we’re local, WDW is a cheap getaway, and I’m already invested thanks to DVC and annual passes; we’ll go back and Mickey knows it. 

Instead of griping about what went so spectacularly wrong, I want to share what went RIGHT – the couple of training runs I put in!

It’s crazy, I know, but morning temps in central FL are more pleasant than at my home on Florida’s Gulf coast.  Still humid, but cooler and with some movement to the air.  So, despite that fact that it was, indeed, a HOT trip, my morning runs were almost refreshing.  If by “refreshing” one means temps in the mid-70s and 100% humidity.  Trust V – that trumps high-80s and 100% humidity!

Run 1: short run at Saratoga Springs Resort

I went into this one with absolutely dead legs and feet that hurt from the start; speed was not going to happen.  I decided I’d settle for 35 minutes of whatever type of forward motion I could muster and set out just after sunrise, around 6:40am.

I'd gotten a jogging map from the front desk, but didn’t need it; I know my way around pretty well at this point and I was just planning to run loops until I hit my time goal.

Our room was in the Grandstand section of Saratoga Springs Resort (SSR), so I walked a bit from there and then took a loop through the Treehouse Villas, thinking it would make for a shaded and scenic first mile or so.  Meh.  It is shaded, but not so scenic; mostly road and tall pine trees.  No sidewalks and a fairly narrow roadway, so I paid close attention to buses coming and going.

Leaving the Treehouses behind, I ran back past the Grandstand and over to the Springs, which houses the main pool, restaurants, golf shop, front desk, spa and DVC preview center.  There were a few sleepy folks there getting coffee and the maintenance team was setting up the pool deck, but I had plenty of room to run at that early hour.

Crossing back behind the Springs, I looped around Congress Park, which features a lovely view across the water of Downtown Disney.

From there, I crossed the main street and made a partial loop through the Paddock.  I really liked that section – plenty of shade, a nice breeze off the lake and these super-cute markers that measure distance in furlongs!

 

I made it through 35 minutes, 11 seconds for a total distance of 2.75 miles.  Yeah, that’s a 12:48 average pace. Bleh.  But I was happy to have gotten it done.  I was happy right up until I faced the first set of stairs at Typhoon Lagoon an hour or so later.  I do not recommend a water park after running.  Trust V.

Run 2: 6 miles through SSR and Downtown Disney

My training plan called for 6 miles at the tail end of my vacation.  I considered saving it for when I got home, but I was tense and irritated from the aforementioned issues at WDW and thought a good, long run was just what I needed.  I was right.

This time, I ran my SSR loop in reverse, partially looping the Grandstand, up to the Springs, over around the Paddock and Willow Lake, and down the lake side of Congress Park.  From there, I continued on the path instead of circling back and landed at the far end of Downtown Disney's Marketplace.  As I neared the Marketplace, I heard my iSmoothRun app’s voice tell me I’d hit 2 miles.  I planned to do my Galloway Magic Mile in mile 3, so I focused on that instead of pausing for pictures as I continued down through the Marketplace, Pleasure Island and into Downtown Disney’s Westside.  Sorry.

FYI - Downtown Disney?  Hilly.  I feel pretty sure there are no natural hills there, but Disney placed all sorts of ups and downs, including one torturous climb up to Pleasure Island, in the landscape.  Had I known this, I’d have done my Magic Mile elsewhere.  But once I’d committed, I pushed hard and produced a pace of 11:21 for mile 3.  That’s 11 seconds faster than my previous Magic Mile – but with hills!  And on deaddeaddead Disney legs!  Yeah, I’m pretty happy with that.

Wiped out, I finished the rest of my run at an easy pace, reversing my course back through Congress Park and the Paddock, around the Grandstand, through a partial loop of the Treehouse Villas, and back to the Grandstand, where I filled a laundry bag with ice and gave my legs a good cool down in an ice bath.

In the end, I cut the run to 5.56 miles in 1:10:04.  Add in my warm-up and cool-down walks, not to mention the couple miles walked later in the day, and I’m totally fine with five and a half instead of six.

We moved to Port Orleans Riverside (POR) that morning, which was, admittedly a little rough – hauling luggage up and down stairs after running was not fun.  But then I crashed at the POR pool for a few hours, which I HIGHLY recommend!  Getting off my feet in a lounge chair or floating weightlessly in the cool pool water made for a great recovery.  I was tired that night, but woke the next day feeling up to tackling Blizzard Beach and its many, many stairs.

I had a third run planned for our final morning at POR, but I bailed on it.  We stayed out late the night before and sometimes sleep trumps a run; that was one of those times.

But… we’re still planning to go back to POR over July 4^th.  And I’ve got a short run planned while there.  So you can bet I’ll be back with another Disney running route review!

Make a New Plan, Stan... er, V.

So, having registered for the Glass Slipper Challenge… which comes on the heels of the WDW Half-Marathon… which is preceded by a late October Halloween Halfathon… which immediately follows the Tower of Terror 10-Miler…

I need a PLAN.

Not just any plan.  A Plan that’ll get me through these races without injury.  A Plan that’ll prevent physical and mental burnout.  A Plan that helps me improve my pace.  A Plan that also allows for a social life outside of convening with pavement.  (Not that I have one of those – a social life – but I’d settle for some nap time in its place…)  In short, I need a Plan with the strength and precision of a D-Day invasion.

I got to work on creating said Plan before I even registered for the Glass Slipper Challenge (GSC).  I started with Jeff Galloway’s Time Improvement Plan for the Wine & DineHalf-Marathon (I’m not racing that one, but it’s near the date of my October half, so it seemed like a good pick), and cross-pollinated it with his Tower10-Miler Time Improvement Plan.  Then, I added a layer of his Dumbo Double Dare Plan (because there isn’t a plan yet for the GSC), and filled in the small gap between it and the Wine & Dine Plan with Galloway’s WDW Half-Marathon Time Improvement Plan.  Finally, I sprinkled on top a bit of Hal Higdon’s distance training plans and filled in my own cross-training/strength training regimen.  And…

Voila!

Note how I’ve pre-scheduled myself at the ER every other week.  That’s pro-active, baybee.

No, no, I’m not really planning on being in the ER!  Not that often, anyway.

ER = Easy Recovery run

ST = Strength Training

Hills = bridge repeats… we don’t have hills here in coastal Florida

MM = Galloway’s “Magic Mile”

I’ll make the final call as I get to that time, but my thought is to race the 10-Miler for time, spend a couple weeks recovering well, race the Halloween Halfathon hard for time, recover and build up again to race the WDW Half for time, recover and build again to race the Enchanted 10K hard for time and go easy on the Princess Half the next day.  We’ll see.

Anyone else getting their Plans in order? 

Race Recap: Partners for Life Police Appreciation 10K

So, I’m still on the fence about this whole Glass SlipperChallenge thing.  On the one hand, I really want to do it.  On the other hand, it’s FREAKING expensive.  runDisney hasn’t actually released pricing info yet… but trust V – it’ll be FREAKING expensive, no matter how Fuzzy the math.  And there’s this other “little” race series going on the same weekend – the Gasparilla Distance Classic.  Located just on the other side of Tampa Bay from me.  Gasparilla ain’t cheap… but it’s not as FREAKING expensive as the Glass Slipper Challenge. 

Also…

There are medals.  Cute, Disney-themed ones for Princess weekend, most likely featuring a way-cool shoe on the mac daddy (RIP Chris Kelly) Glass Slipper medal.  Gasparilla, though, features pirate medals.  Four different races’ worth of pirates. I like pirates.

Meanwhile, in the midst of my indecisiveness… I finally ran a 10K race!  This is a pretty big deal because 10Ks are few and far between ‘round here.  I only came across a couple options last year, none of which fit into my schedule.  So I had no proof of time to submit for any runDisney races.  Which, if you’ve been reading along, you know didn’t much matter – I’ve had insanely good luck with corral placement.  Seems runDisney uses some Fuzzy brand of pace estimate math.

Anyway, knowing that luck must, eventually, run out, I figured I’d best get an official 10K time on record for my upcoming races and ran Florida Gulf Beaches Road Races’ Partners for Life Police Appreciation 10K.  In a word, it was FANTASTIC!

I’ve heard many good things about Florida Road Races and the most excellent events they put on and I can now add my own positive review.  From start to finish, this was an incredibly well organized affair.  Even if we did all run the wrong direction… more on that in a bit.

I went to packet pick-up at Fit2Run in St. Petersburg the day before the race – what a great shop they’ve got there!  I purposely went straight to the race table and did not detour to look at anything because I’m on a tight budget and not in need of anything… but I’ll definitely go back when I’m once again solvent!  Grabbing my bib and swag was quick, easy and pleasant.  I love a great swag bag and I was not let down with this one:

The next morning, I got up and out the door on time and made it to the St. Petersburg waterfront about 45 minutes before start time.  This wound up being perfect, as I got a nice warm-up walk from my car to the start area, grabbed my timing chip, hit the restroom and still had time to stretch and jog a little.  And take some pictures, natch.

Sunrise at the soon-to-be-demolished Pier

 

Boston-strong

There were almost 500 of us doing the 10K (there were also 5K and 1 mile races to follow), which felt big enough to be a “real” race but small enough that there was never any overcrowding.  I’m never sure where to place myself in these un-corralled races; I’m not a walker, though I do run/walk intervals, but I’m certainly not a fast runner, either.  I opted to start just forward of what looked like the walkers, who were asked to start in the far back.  It seemed to work well – I mostly stayed with the same small group of folks through most of the race.

The course was really, really nice – we started in Demens Landing park, beside the Police Memorial, took a jog down the famous Pier, cruised along St. Petersburg’s gorgeous waterfront, ran down Beach Drive, went past the marina, and back to Demens Landing for the finish.  

It was a superbly beautiful morning: sunny, but cool.  I had a time goal in mind of sub-1:20:00.  I have to admit, it was hard to stay focused on that because it was just soooo nice out there – I could easily have fallen into a lengthy walk, just to take it all in.  I stuck to my intervals, though, and stayed on pace, though I did make sure to thank each and every police officer on race course duty.  Many of us did.  I think the bombings in Boston were still fresh in all of our minds and we were all a lot more aware of and thankful for the fine folks in uniform.

Around the 4 mile mark, I started losing steam.  Totally normal; miles 4-6 are always the hardest for me in any long run.  I tend toward hypoglycemia to start and running causes my blood sugar to drop fast; I may be the only person out there digging into some Honey Stinger chews on a 10K course, but man – what a difference some glucose makes.  By mile 5, I was feeling strong again and started skipping as many walk intervals as I could without over-doing it.  I really, really wanted to empty the tank completely and give it my all… but I still had a ¾ mile walk to my car… and groceries to buy… and laundry to do… and Leo’s science project to supervise… Running ‘til I dropped simply wasn’t a viable option.  Such is the life of a Mother Runner.  It was about the time that I was debating whether or not to go all out that I realized I’d been running alongside the same woman near whom I’d ended up running in several other local races.  I introduced myself and vice-versa and we chatted for a bit before focusing our efforts on the finish line.

In the end, I finished with a chip time of 1:16:24 – beating my goal by more than three and a half minutes!  My new race pal had finished just before me and we chatted some more as we walked and cooled off.  I really enjoyed chatting with you, Karen, and look forward to seeing you again!

As an added bonus, I randomly ran into an old friend while waiting in the timing chip line.  We caught up some after the race and are back in touch after many years.  Yay!

I wasn’t able to stay long after the race, as Leo was home alone and that list of Mom-duties was awaiting my return.  But as I headed back to my car, I overheard this from the award announcements:

“Show of hands – how many of you saw the fronts of the mile marker signs?”

No hands.

“And how many of you saw the backs of the mile marker signs?”

Many, many hands.

“That’s because you guys ran the race BACKWARDS!”

Oops. 

Oh well – it was the same distance, regardless!  But a pretty entertaining end to a very fun race. :)

Final thoughts?  I’m very much looking forward to my next Florida Road Races event, the HalloweenHalfathon in late October.  I don’t love the 10K distance; just as I hit my distance groove, the race is over.  But since this was my first, I’m not ruling out future 10Ks.  Which brings me back to that Glass Slipper Challenge…

My Fake-Africa Run: Route Review, Animal Kingdom Lodge

Everyone has a fantasy run, right?  Maybe it’s a race of special significance.  Or hitting a super-fast personal record. Or, perhaps most often, a picturesque location far from home.

My fantasy run falls into that last category – and it looks like this:

“If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?” 
- Isak Dineson, Out of Africa

Yes, I dream of running in Africa.  So, when a quick weekend trip to Walt Disney World landed Leo and I at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for our lodging, there was no question that I’d put in my scheduled Saturday run.

For those who’ve not yet been, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge and Villas includes two large buildings constructed and detailed in a meticulously rendered African theme, Jambo House and Kidani Village.  Both are nothing less than stunning.  (For a full array of photos, I highly recommend a visit to allears.net’s Animal Kingdom Lodge and Kidani Village pages.)  The public spaces, rooms and eateries are all gorgeous in their own rights.  But.  The outdoor space is what really sets Animal Kingdom Lodge apart from other resorts – how’s about an African savanna right outside your window?  In Central Florida?!

Okay, okay – this is not a trip report and it’s not an advertisement for a hotel; it’s a running route review, right? On with it already…

Now I knew I wouldn’t be running with the giraffes.  And I’ve stayed at both Kidani and Jambo House often enough that I don’t need a map to get around.  But I’ve never before run there.  And I might have been a teensy bit excited about the prospect of doing so.  Remember – my African running dream?

My convoluted route - Jambo House on the far right, Kidani Village to its left, illicit trespassing on the far left.

I began in the porte-cochere of Jambo House and followed the paved path from there to Kidani Village.  This seemed like a loooong walk when Leo and I shuffled back from Jambo to Kidani after our Expedition Everest Challenge, but it fell far short of “long” while running – only a quarter-mile before I hit the Kidani parking garage.  Knowing that the garage traveled a decent distance under the Kidani building, I ducked into the garage and ran its length and back.

Not real exciting.  Certainly not Africa-like. Hmph.

Emerging form the parking garage, I hadn’t yet hit a mile, so I followed a path leading to the pool and circled back, outdoors, to a sign that pointed to the barbeque and sports courts across the drive from Kidani.  And I still hadn’t hit a mile.  And it still wasn’t feeling very Africa-ish.

But… a road leads to the sports courts.  And… it keeps going beyond them.  Okay, there’s a sign warning that only WDW vehicles are allowed past that point… but I wasn’t in a vehicle, was I?  So it didn’t apply to me.  I kept going.

Hey, this is kinda Africa-like!

MUCH better!  It was silent back there, apart from the tweets and twitters of birds and the occasional splash of a fish or turtle in that small pond.  The road was “paved” in the sense that there had once been a layer of asphalt poured down, but is now sun-bleached to light gray, beleaguered with pot holes and dusted with dirt.  It felt more like “trail” than “road” especially coupled with the wooded area to my left.  A truck full of hay bales passed me as I reached a fork in the road, but it didn’t stop and no one admonished me for being there.

At the fork, the truck entered a fenced-in area while I turned left, deeper into the woods.  Or so I thought.  Bleh.  A big, dirt patch with a handful of truck trailers in the middle.  Time to turn around.

I followed the road back to Kidani, took another loop around the pool, and then followed the path back to Jambo.  Just over two miles.  My goal was four. GAH!

Down to the bus stops, back up to the Jambo lobby.  Through the lobby (walking, not running – though I powered down the stairs…), around the pool deck, out to the savanna overlooks, back around the pool, through the lobby…

Three miles.

I thought about heading back down to Kidani, but opted to run a few speed laps up and down the parking lot.  When I finally made it to 3.75, I called it good and did another walking lap of the lobby and pool to cool down.

My feeling about running Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge?  Meh.  There just isn’t enough prime real estate to make more than a mile or so happen easily.  I really enjoyed the road away from the buildings… but I wasn’t supposed to be there, right?  Guess I’ll continue to fantasize of a run in real-Africa; fake-Africa just didn’t cut it.

However, never before have I had such a nice post-run snack/rest period.

View from our studio villa's balcony!

Motivation Monday

I have to admit it – my motivation was waning a bit this past weekend.  I’ve been dealing with the aftermath of a chest cold for weeks, Leo wasn’t feeling well, and pollen counts are off the charts around here… the right combination to make me want to hole up inside and skip a long run.

But, just as I was ready to bag my planned six-miler, I saw this from Run Chat:

Game on. Time for the #RunChat Scavenger Hunt

March 14, 2013 By David 31 Comments

Get your camera (or phone) ready, put on your running gear and start searching. It’s time for the first ever #RunChat Scavenger Hunt.

In early March we took your submissions on what to find, then took your votes to narrow down the list. We’ve taken the top 10 items for you to find to snap photos of and post them to Twitter to show off all in the name of fun … and some great prizes.

The #RunChat Scavenger Hunt will run through 9 p.m. ET March 31 to give you plenty of time to find these items in case you need more than one run to do complete the search.

Here’s how it will work: you run, you take photos of the items below, you post them to Twitter with the hashtag #RunChatHunt and you’ll be entered to win our prizes.

Here are the items to search for (in order of your No. 1 choice to No. 10 in last week’s voting):

A running sticker (13.1, 26.2, etc.)

Bridge (bonus for covered)
A giant hill you’re going to run
Christmas decorations still up
Historical marker/sign
Letters from signs to create #runchat
“Welcome to” state/city/county sign
Water (lake/river/pond)
Trail marker or mile marker
A scene from your favorite place to run

I love photography. I especially love photo scavenger hunts.  And I needed more motivation to go run.  It was the Perfect Storm of incentives.  Minus the George Clooney.  And.  Marky Mark.  Though I did choose INKS Kick and Shriekback Oil & Gold as my albums for my previously mentioned album run experiment.  So I totally had the 80s music covered.  Yo.

Ahem.  I digress…

It was a gorgeous spring day here in west-central Florida, so I headed out to the beach and started running and shooting.

Not just "a" running sticker - three of 'em! Four if runDisney counts.

We don't have big hills in coastal Florida. But we do have bridges - this covers both!

Mile marker. D'uh.

Welcome sign - and to my very favorite beach, no less.

Water: a turtle pond at McGough Nature Park.

Does 1990 count as "historical"? It was  the previous century...

Last, but certainly not least, my favorite place to run! Bliss.

So, how'd it go?  Beautifully!  Literally and figuratively.  Taking time to stop for photos forced me  out of my run-data-filled head and into the world around me.  Paying close attention to the sights so as not to miss a potential photo made me more aware of my truly awesome surroundings; I'm darned lucky to run in such an amazing place.  And having a running goal that really had nothing to do with the act of running was just plain fun.  And... I finished my six miles feeling great.

Many thanks to Run Chat for posting the challenge; I may not win a prize in the contest, but I kinda feel like I already won big!  :)