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!

Change of Plans. Again.

With the Tower of Terror 10-Miler behind me, it’s time to look toward my next race.  Which was supposed to be the Halloween Halfathon on Oct. 27.  It’s not anymore.  The race is still happening… but without me.  

After training hard through the HOT summer for the 10-Miler and dealing with my recent hip problems, I felt beat-up and tired.  Bone-deep exhaustion.  I felt physically ill at the prospect of tackling a half-marathon three weeks out from the 10-Miler.  I knew what I needed most was a rest, for both my body and my mind.  Fortunately, Florida Gulf Beaches Road Races offers a stellar refund/transfer policy and, while I’m a little bummed to miss the Halloween event, I am pleased to say that I’ve transferred my registration to the Beach Halfathon in late March.  A mere four weeks after the Glass Slipper Challenge and its cumulative 19.3 miles.  Whatever; I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

So now my next race is the Walt Disney World Half-Marathon in early January.  That little change gave me a few weeks to scale back mileage and recover from the summer.

And…

To develop a new training plan.

Yep, another one.

My last plan was entirely too ambitious for the summer heat and got scrapped a while ago.  Add in my change of race plans, and the rest needed some tweaking, too.  Also, I listened to an awesome Another Mother Runner podcast interview with Greg McMillan, in which he explained the ins and outs of his training approach.  What really struck me was the conversation about how important the need is for slower-paced runs in one’s training program.  That’s something to which I’ve never before subscribed, other than when hobbled by impending heat stroke; on the contrary, I’ve spent the past year and a half thinking every run needed to be run at the fastest pace I had in me in order to get faster.  Well Mr. McMillan?  You talked some serious sense into this lady.

I spent some quality time on www.mcmillanrunning.com, where I first used McMillan’s world-famous calculator to find my best training paces.  It works like this: enter your best time at a certain distance, preferably a distance as close as possible to the distance for which you wish to train, and then enter the distance you plan to race and the time in which you hope to finish it.  I entered my last 10K finish time of 1:16:23 and a hopeful 2:31:12 finish for the upcoming WDW Half, identified myself as a “Speedster” (easily able to go short and fast, but challenged by endurance) and got this list:

Pretty nifty, no?!  But… what do I do with it???

First, each type of pace – Steady State, Long Run, Tempo, etc. – has a video explanation here: www.mcmillanrunning.com/tips.  I took a few notes on each, to have as a handy reference when my mom-brain stalls next week and I can’t remember what in tarnation heck I’m supposed to do with "Tempo Intervals."  Then, I moved on to McMillan’s detailed explanation on how to create a training plan.

Okay, let me say this: it’s intense.  And complicated.  And riddled with ~shudder~ math.  Of the non-Fuzzy variety.  But as I read on (and glossed over the math, as I realized it wasn’t really imperative that I understand the numbers, only that I trust them to work), things started sliding into place in my mind. 

1. Figure out my weakness – stamina, for sure.  And make strengthening that the core of my training plan. 
2. Add in some speed because A. that’s my area of some talent and B. increasing speed can only be beneficial in the long run.
3. Figure out how many weeks I have until race day and create a spread sheet listing each week; include columns for long runs, main workout short runs, secondary short runs, and, for the Glass Slipper Challenge, back-to-back runs later in my schedule.
4. Assign each week’s training runs, based on a couple weeks of base-building, a larger portion of stamina-building weeks, a small chunk of speed-building weeks, and a couple weeks to taper.

At the end, BOOM!  I’ve got a plan that looks very do-able, is very specific to my individual needs, will fit in nicely with my cross-training days, and just may lead me to a nice PR.

McMillan also offers training plans for purchase, which I imagine takes out a lot of the work, and I’ve heard very, very good things about those paid plans… but I’m broke. And I really think my customized plan will be good for me.  I started using it already and I can’t say enough good things about knowing what pace range I’m aiming for before each run, depending on what type of run it is.  Knowing that an expert says to aim for a certain pace removes from the equation the mental anxiety of worrying that I'm not doing enough.

Last Saturday, for instance, was a 6 mile long run; I checked my chart before heading out and knew I should aim for a pace between 13:17 and 14:17/mile.  It was hot and humid, so I aimed to hit the slow end of that range… and I did!  Before, I’d have tried hard to push my pace down to where I hope to race in January, and would have spent those 6 miles courting heat exhaustion.  This time, I felt like I was putting in some effort, but comfortably so; no gasping for breath, no muscle cramping, no dizziness.  It was a tough run, thanks to some overgrown trails and scorching sun, but I recovered from it quickly and was able to spend the rest of my day getting non-running things done and enjoying some quality time with my son.  This new methodology may make me a better distance runner… and a better Mother runner!

Time to Fly! A review of the Hoka One One Kailua Tarmac

Remember how I said I never wanted to run a full marathon?

I take that back.

Maybe.

And it’s because of these beauties…

"Time to Fly! reads the insole's slogan - it's true!

The Hoka One One KailuaTarmac.

~SWOON!~

The Hoka One One running shoe concept is one created by and for ultra-marathoners.  Far from minimalist, Hoka has somehow managed to combine a distinct lack of fancy foot movement management tricks with a great, big sole and low heel-to-toe drop to create shoes that allows one to “run more relaxed.”  Hoka says its shoes are designed to be lightweight, while offering midsoles that are “30 percent softer than the material used in traditional running shoes.”  With a fairly large outsole, the seemingly bulky shoes promise to grip and stabilize in both trail and road models.  Many ultra-marathoners swear by the Hoka brand to take them comfortably through challenging 100-mile races.

In my search for the Perfect Shoe, I tried the HokaBondi-B model some time ago.  It wasn’t right for me.  The technology of it was great – I could absolutely see how the gigantic sole would cushion well – but I had the same issue with the Bondi-B I have with 95% of the running shoes on the market: the heel was too roomy.  Thanks to freakishly narrow heels and a bum Achilles, I need a LOT of support around my heel and lower ankle.  And the Bondi-B fell short of my needs.  Bummer.

Now, I did find the Perfect Shoe late last year – the BrooksPureFlow.  It’s really been a fantastic shoe for me – minimal stability, lots of cushion, a little arch support, low heel-to-toe drop, and the best heel hug I’ve found yet in a running shoe.  The PureFlow took me through IT Band recovery and saw me through my first half-marathon.  It’s been so good to me, I bought two more pairs when they were on sale, so I have back-ups.  And that was a good call – because my original PureFlows wore out after a measly 225 miles.

But.  (Yes, there’s a “but”.)  I’ve been finding my body craving a slightly different shoe for recovery runs.  Something a bit more substantial.  With a little more support and cushion.  But not too much.   

Enter the Hoka Kailua.

I stumbled upon the Kailua while shopping RunningWarehouse online.  It’s a new shoe and, I’ve read, the first Hoka built specifically for women.  Running Warehouse’s awesome Shoefitter gadget showed that the Kailua should fit me very similarly to my PureFlows.  Read: a much smaller, tighter heel cup than the Bondi-B.  Armed with a discount code, I ordered a pair and crossed my fingers.

First Impressions – out of the box

Taking the Kailuas out of the box, I was first struck by how light they felt.  It’s a bit odd, really, because my eyes were telling me this was a bulky, heavy shoe, but holding them felt no different than the weight of my PureFlows.  Pink was the only color available and it’s okay; I’m kind of over the whole pink thing, but it’s a soft pink and not too awful.  The Kailua’s laces have a cord-like feel to them, unlike any other running shoe laces I’ve experienced, and I wasn’t sure how well they’d feel in motion.

First Impressions – on the treadmill

Lacing up, I found that the shoes are, indeed, far more huggy in the heels and have a nice, high back that gives me terrific support at the base of my Achilles.  The cord-like laces turn out to be great for cinching things up nice and tight where needed, and keeping other spots looser without slipping out of place.  The arch support is just right for my medium but very flexible arches; no sense of running with a hard-boiled egg beneath my arches (I'm talking to you, Asics.)  The toe box is roomy enough that my foot isn’t forced into any unnatural position, but snug enough that I’m not sliding around in there, either.

In case they wound up not working, I first took my Kailuas on a short walk on the treadmill.  And I was immediately impressed.  These may be made for ultras, but they are positively dreamy for a brisk walk!  That’s the one thing I don’t love about my PureFlows; they’re not ideal for a walking motion.  The Kailuas ARE, by golly.  The heel is cushiony enough to absorb impact nicely and the roll to forefoot felt seamless.  I found myself taking slightly longer strides than with my PureFlows, but with no additional stress in my feet, ankles, knees or hips.  Moving into a jog, I was blown away… the energy return in the Kailua is incredible!  I’m a mid- to forefoot striker (I aim for mid-foot, but naturally seem to land toe-ball-heel if I stop paying attention – I totally blame years in the ballet for that) and it’s been tough to find shoes that give enough cushion and spring in the forefoot… the Kailua does, in spades.  It felt a bit like landing on a very small springboard with each step – I felt the cushioned midsole absorb impact as I landed, and then felt that energy power me back up on toe-off.  Pretty nifty stuff!

First Impressions – on the road

Simply put, the Kailuas felt goooood.  At the end of that week, I had a six-miler planned – with lots of walking and some running, as I was still babying my earlier injury.  Since I wasn’t planning on running too much, and the Kailuas had felt so nice walking, I decided to use them.  Six miles.  Practically right out of the box.  How was it?  Magical.  I only ran one out of every five minutes for the first three miles and felt fantastic at the halfway mark.  My heels were stable, my toes weren’t cramped, my calves weren't tightening, and my crabby knee wasn’t crabbing.  So I took it up a notch: 1:00walk/1:00run intervals.  I felt like I flew through the next two miles!  The run felt so springy, wingy, super-good, it was very hard to make myself slow to a walk.  So, for the last mile, I didn’t.  Walk.  Okay, a couple times as I had to wait for a street light or car turning into a driveway, but mostly, I ran.  I can’t fathom how a pair of shoes can magically make me overcome the exercise-induced asthma that requires regular walk breaks so that I may breathe, but I simply did not seem to need them in my Kailuas.  What’s more, my feet usually let me know by around mile five or six that they are about as impressed with my desire to run long as McKayla was with her silver medal. 

Not. Impressed.

But in the Kailuas?  My feet were perfectly happy after six miles.  And the thought flew through my mind too fast to block it: “I could totally finish a marathon in these.”

Say WHAT?!?!

So, now what?

I’ve taken a few more short runs in the Kailuas and I fall more in love with them every time.  I bought them as a recovery shoe, not a distance shoe.  I have an 11 to 12-mile training run this weekend, and a 12 to 13-miler two weeks after that.  And then the Tower of Terror10-Miler two weeks later, followed by the Halloween Halfathon three weeks after that.  My knee still isn’t 100% and I’m terrified of developing IT Band Syndrome again.  I’m quite tempted to take the Kailuas out for some true distance this weekend, but a nagging voice keeps saying “nothing new this close to your races!”

I just don’t know.  Is a six-mile test enough to predict how I’ll hold up in my Hokas in double digit mileage?  Or should I wait until these races are done before putting in more mileage in them?

Stay tuned…

UPDATE:  Sadly, I had to return the Hokas.  It wasn't easy - I had to think long and hard on the decision.  They really are amazing shoes!  But the heel was just too loose and continued getting looser over time.  Cinching the laces tighter wasn't an option, as that dug into the front of my ankle, causing bruising.  It's such a shame, because they were fantastic in every other way!

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…

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…