What a race!
The morning started off rainy with thunder and lightning. We were not sure if they would cancel the race, but decided to drive up anyway. The race was at Fort Desoto park, an island out in the Tampa bay. Not a lot of protection out there, but on a good day, it’s very pretty. Got there about 7 am, picked up our shirt, bib, chip and headed back to the dry car. I was glad I had my flip flops on, because when we got out of the car, both of us put our feet in deep puddles! I decided to wear the Garmin, but leave the Ipod and waist pack in the car. We headed to the race start at about 5 minutes before 8 am. There was a light rain, so we had on our garbage bags, to try and keep dry. Both of our shoes were already full of water with just the walk across the parking lot.
Everyone was in groups on dry patches of the road. But when the race started we all merged and splashed through ankle deep water until we got out of the parking lot. Of course just as we started, the rain came down harder. The first 2 miles we ran in the rain. I kept up a good pace.
The rains stopped for about a mile, but started up very strong as the 5k runners headed home and we split from them. Then the thunder and lightning started. One strike was very near to us off to the left, which was pretty scary. But thankfully that was the only close one, it was a light rain for the next few miles. I started having my usual stomach/breathing issues by mile 6. What a drag. I wasn’t planning on a fast race because of the conditions, but I didn’t want to have to walk. Ended up taking short walking breaks during the last 4 miles. The only plus side here was that it was no longer raining.
This race had a lot of fast runners. I only had 4 runners behind me at the turn around! I was just happy to not come in last.
Time – 1:49:00. About 9 minutes slower than I had hoped. Not more racing for me until I figure out what is going on with my back pain that prevents me from breathing deeply.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
St. Patty's 8k in Tempe, AZ
I ran the st patty's 8k this morning in Tempe, AZ. We are in Scottsdale for a week, so thought, why not! :) I did make the mistake of eating to much mexican food last night, ug. I was feeling it this morning.
Nice and cool this morning. Low 50s and very low humidity!!
This was a small race, a great change after last week's big race. I started out good. Keeping a mid 9 min. pace. Right off the bat there were some hills. At about .6 of a mile we went off road and ran on a dirt/rocky road. That lasted almost a mile. The course took us through and around this large park with a lake in the middle. Very pretty, but lots of rolling hills, which are tough for this florida gal! We had one more short section on that dirt path in the last mile. And just before the finish there was one last tough hill. Finished in 48:49. garmin showed 4.98 miles, though I thought an 8k was 4.8 oh well. :) No PR for me. Just had fun and enjoyed a new course. Loved the no humidity!
Time: 48:49, Pace: 9:50, 135 out of 203 total runners.
Nice and cool this morning. Low 50s and very low humidity!!
This was a small race, a great change after last week's big race. I started out good. Keeping a mid 9 min. pace. Right off the bat there were some hills. At about .6 of a mile we went off road and ran on a dirt/rocky road. That lasted almost a mile. The course took us through and around this large park with a lake in the middle. Very pretty, but lots of rolling hills, which are tough for this florida gal! We had one more short section on that dirt path in the last mile. And just before the finish there was one last tough hill. Finished in 48:49. garmin showed 4.98 miles, though I thought an 8k was 4.8 oh well. :) No PR for me. Just had fun and enjoyed a new course. Loved the no humidity!
Time: 48:49, Pace: 9:50, 135 out of 203 total runners.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Princess Half Marathon
I drove over to Orlando Saturday, arriving at the expo place at 2pm. Got my bib and then went to get my t-shirt. I got a large, tried it on and it was tight! So I tried to exchange it, but all they had were smalls and mediums. So I walked around and ended up buying a shirt that says "I need my beauty sleep." and on the back has the race name and date. I also got a 13.1 charm and a couple of water bottles. Headed to the hotel next, checked in, then went to the outlet mall just down the road. Went to the Nike store and got a new top and light weight dry tech running pants to wear the next day.
That night I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. Once I got to sleep, around 10ish, I just kept waking up every half hour or so. Got up at 4:15, but because we lost an hour due to the time change, it felt like 3:30. I was out of there by 4:40 and made it to the parking lot at Epcot just before 5 a.m. I gave Brenda a call. She had just pulled into the parking lot too. We planned on hanging in our cars for a little bit then meeting up. Around 5:15 we met by my car, found someone to take a photo of us, then headed over to the porta potties. Got in pretty quick. I decided not to check a bag, so we walked back to my car, which wasn't far, to drop it off. We saw that people were walking to the start already, so started heading in that direction with them. It was a bit of a walk, I don't know, a quarter to half a mile. Stopped at the porta potties again then headed to our corral. We were both surprised that we were in the first one, but it was great to be so close to the start. There were 3 corrals. Any men running in the race were placed in the 2nd or 3rd area.
It was really great to have someone with me to talk to while waiting there for the hour before the race. The temps were in the mid 50s and it was dark and foggy.
The race had a very quiet start. I was surprised there were no fireworks like they have for the January race. I wished Brenda a good race, then we parted ways.
I started out good. There were a couple of hills early in the first mile, made it through those just fine. I was keeping a good pace through mile 5, but then started to feel the slow down. At this point we started running through the Magic Kingdom. That was fun. Lots of crowd support. I ran through the castle, noticed lots of photographers, but it was pretty crowded, so not sure they got a shot of me. When we got to the front of the Castle, there were a couple of photographers taking photos if you wanted to stop. So I ran over, stood for 2 seconds while they got the shot, then ran on. :)
splits, mile 1 to 5: 9:23, 9:36, 9:51, 9:53, 9:55
At this point I really wanted my sport beans and water. I didn't carry a bottle of water with me this race, so had to wait til I got to the water stop. Just after mile 6 I got there. I ate half a bag of sport beans and drank water while walking through the stop.
Splits, miles 6 to 9: 10:25, 11:30, 10:26, 11:06
I was slowing down alot, but just wanted to keep going. My toe that had a major blister on it from the marathon really hurt. At the next water stop just past mile 8, I walked for a bit and then again at mile 10. The last 2 hills were tough, and had to walk those two. At the 12 mile water stop, I looked behind me and saw Brenda not to far back. That motivated me to keep going! :)
Splits, miles 10 to 13: 11:29, 11:30, 11:59, 10:50
The last mile was the longest ever! I felt like I was going to throw up! But I made it to the finish line. Finished in 2:20:12. This is not a great time for me, but not my worst and at 3 weeks post marathon, I'll take it.
Got my very pretty finishers medal, a banana, water and poweraide, then headed on out of there. I just wanted to get back to the hotel for a shower. I was very sweaty!
I would love to run this race again next year. The water stops were great. They had about 3 different kinds of fuels at the mile 8 stop. Lots of food and drink at the finish. At the most of the water stops after mile 5 there were volunteers with vaseline and Biofreeze. The only downside was the shirt. But now I know they run very small.
That night I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. Once I got to sleep, around 10ish, I just kept waking up every half hour or so. Got up at 4:15, but because we lost an hour due to the time change, it felt like 3:30. I was out of there by 4:40 and made it to the parking lot at Epcot just before 5 a.m. I gave Brenda a call. She had just pulled into the parking lot too. We planned on hanging in our cars for a little bit then meeting up. Around 5:15 we met by my car, found someone to take a photo of us, then headed over to the porta potties. Got in pretty quick. I decided not to check a bag, so we walked back to my car, which wasn't far, to drop it off. We saw that people were walking to the start already, so started heading in that direction with them. It was a bit of a walk, I don't know, a quarter to half a mile. Stopped at the porta potties again then headed to our corral. We were both surprised that we were in the first one, but it was great to be so close to the start. There were 3 corrals. Any men running in the race were placed in the 2nd or 3rd area.
It was really great to have someone with me to talk to while waiting there for the hour before the race. The temps were in the mid 50s and it was dark and foggy.
The race had a very quiet start. I was surprised there were no fireworks like they have for the January race. I wished Brenda a good race, then we parted ways.
I started out good. There were a couple of hills early in the first mile, made it through those just fine. I was keeping a good pace through mile 5, but then started to feel the slow down. At this point we started running through the Magic Kingdom. That was fun. Lots of crowd support. I ran through the castle, noticed lots of photographers, but it was pretty crowded, so not sure they got a shot of me. When we got to the front of the Castle, there were a couple of photographers taking photos if you wanted to stop. So I ran over, stood for 2 seconds while they got the shot, then ran on. :)
splits, mile 1 to 5: 9:23, 9:36, 9:51, 9:53, 9:55
At this point I really wanted my sport beans and water. I didn't carry a bottle of water with me this race, so had to wait til I got to the water stop. Just after mile 6 I got there. I ate half a bag of sport beans and drank water while walking through the stop.
Splits, miles 6 to 9: 10:25, 11:30, 10:26, 11:06
I was slowing down alot, but just wanted to keep going. My toe that had a major blister on it from the marathon really hurt. At the next water stop just past mile 8, I walked for a bit and then again at mile 10. The last 2 hills were tough, and had to walk those two. At the 12 mile water stop, I looked behind me and saw Brenda not to far back. That motivated me to keep going! :)
Splits, miles 10 to 13: 11:29, 11:30, 11:59, 10:50
The last mile was the longest ever! I felt like I was going to throw up! But I made it to the finish line. Finished in 2:20:12. This is not a great time for me, but not my worst and at 3 weeks post marathon, I'll take it.
Got my very pretty finishers medal, a banana, water and poweraide, then headed on out of there. I just wanted to get back to the hotel for a shower. I was very sweaty!
I would love to run this race again next year. The water stops were great. They had about 3 different kinds of fuels at the mile 8 stop. Lots of food and drink at the finish. At the most of the water stops after mile 5 there were volunteers with vaseline and Biofreeze. The only downside was the shirt. But now I know they run very small.
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