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.
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