Women’s Half Marathon

November 21, 2010
I got up at 4 am race morning to have a cup of coffee and watch a little TV before the drive up to St. Pete. The weather channel showed that the temp was already 69! It was going to be another hot run in Florida.

I made good time on the interstate and found a parking spot right away in the lot closest to the start. For some reason they had no one there charging for parking! Score! I made a call to Brenda and we decided to meet near the start line. She had parked quite a few blocks north of me. We ended up meeting near the porta poties because I couldn’t wait any longer for her! We got our photo taken a couple of times then headed over to the corrals. I decided to stay in the third one with Brenda instead of going up to the second corral. I planned on taking it easy. I just wanted to finish this race without injuring myself anymore than I already was. For the past week, my left hip was out of alignment, which caused pain all down my leg. Two visits to the chiropractor helped a lot.

We got started right at 7 am. Not even a quarter of a mile down the road, I saw my friend Gina. I made my way over to her to say hi and wish her luck, then I ran back to the middle of the road. I wanted to stay on the flattest surface I could find, so my plan was to stay near the middle. The first 3 miles were good, though I had a little pain in my leg.

Mile 1 - 9:20
Mile 2 - 9:13
Mile 3 - 9:37

Around mile 4.5 I stopped at the water station to eat my cliff blocks and swallow 2 advil and 2 endurolytes. That stop added to my mile by more than a minute, but it was worth it. Taking those endurolytes helped me keep the dehydration feeling away until the last mile. This was a beautiful part of the course near the water. The only downside was the road made of brick (I ran on the sidewalk) and low tide, which made it kind of stinky.

Mile 4 - 9:41
Mile 5 - 11:09
Mile 6 - 9:41
Mile 7 - 9:52

By mile 8 I could defiantly feel myself slowing down, but the pace felt good, so I didn’t push it. We ran down towards the Pier and back. There were a lot of people cheering us on for the next few miles. We then headed away from the water. This was a slight uphill. I didn’t mind to much because we now had a great breeze and I knew the downhill on the way back would feel great.

Mile 8 - 10:09
Mile 9 - 10:37
Mile 10 - 10:34

During mile 11 we ran through the parking lot of the Tropicana stadium. We then ran into the stadium and ran around the outside of the baseball field. Such a nice and cushiony surface! It felt great to be out of the sun for a short while also. By the time we headed out of the stadium, I was starting to feel dehydrated and in need of water. I was happy that I had made it so far in the race before getting this feeling though. Usually on a hot race day, this feeling hits much sooner. I had two more cliff blocks at the water stop just past mile 12. It was just what I needed to pick up the pace for the last mile. The slight downhill towards the waterfront helped a lot too. The last little bit to the finish line took forever! A woman pulled ahead of me with just a little bit left to the finish, so I picked up the pace and beat her just as we crossed the finish line. :) I grabbed a bottle of water and my finishers medal. Had my photo taken with it, grabbed a banana and yogurt then headed right to my car. I wanted to get home as soon as possible to spend a little time with my family before going in to work at noon.

Mile 11 - 10:25
Mile 12 - 11:10
Mile 13 - 10:28
Mile .16 - 1:29
Finish time: 2:13:29 (Chip)

I am very happy with my finish time. It’s over 6 minutes faster than last year at this race! So happy that my leg wasn’t too much of an issue. Looking forward to next year.

Stats: place: 1303/4746; Division: 234/793