Florida International Triathlon
Siesta Beach, May 12, 2012

Leah, Susan, Clare, Ken, Me and Gina before the race!

Finally it is the day I’ve been preparing for. This is the triathlon that was supposed to be my first, but is now my second because I was tired of waiting and completed one 3 weeks ago. J We had a good sized group of people from my runners club, the Sarasota Road Runners Club, doing this event. For most, it was their first triathlon. A windy and warm morning greeted us as we arrived at Siesta Beach Saturday morning. Gina and I got our chips and had our bib numbers marked on both our arms before heading over to the transition area to get our bikes and gear set up for the race. We had photos taken with members of our group before getting kicked out of the area at 6:45 am. A whole hour before our swim wave was to go. We headed over to the bathrooms and then onto the beach to watch the first waves of swimmers doing the longer swim distance. I was so happy I wasn’t swimming the longer distance. It looked like way to much swimming. Soon enough, Gina, Susan, Clare, Carol, Carolyn and I were getting into the start area as we were the next wave of swimmers to go!

Swim: I ran out into the water and kept running as far as I could before I started to swim. I only had to swim a little bit before we hit the sand bar, where I was able to touch the ground and run/swim a little bit and pass the first of four buoys. Now it was very deep. The water was pretty choppy. There were a few women around me, so I had to keep an eye out for legs and arms. I didn’t want to get hit. I did my side swimming thing again. It was hard to get into a rhythm with so many people around me. At one point, a volunteer on her surfboard asked if I was OK. Yes, I’m OK, this is just what I look like when I swim! J I made it to the second buoy, which is where we turned left and into the current and waves. Small 3 foot waves rolling right into my face. This was the toughest part of the swim. I used breast stroke, side swimming and some free style to get through it. I still had a couple of women near me that I had to keep an eye out for. One kept hitting me with her foot. I didn’t have the strength to pass her and I really didn’t want to hold back until she pulled ahead, so I just had to deal with it. Finally we turned back to the beach at the third buoy. Just as we turned the corner, the guys who were in the wave behind us, caught up. Thankfully they were spread out, so It wasn’t a mass of them trying to swim by me. I tried to get out of their way as best as I could. Once we hit that last buoy, and the sand bar, I knew I had this. I ran/swam while I could and then finished the swim strong. As soon as I could touch the bottom again, I started running it in. The run across the beach is long. Once we got to the parking lot, we had to run down and around the transition area before entering, it had to be about a quarter of a mile of running to the transition. I see Gina getting her gear on and yell out to her. As I reach my bike, I see Carolyn running out with her bike and yell out to her. I reach my bike, wipe off my face, put my tank top on, squirt water on my feet to get the sand off, dry them a bit before getting socks and shoes on, put my sunglasses and helmet on and then grab my bike and head out of transition. Swim - 14:33. Transition 1 - 2:25   

Bike: It took me a little while to get my breathing under control once I was out on the bike. I passed a few people right away and then settled into a nice pace. It wasn’t as fast as it could be, but I wanted to save my legs for the beach run. I was worried about how the beach would be when we got back. It was high tide and last year during this race, we ran all of the race on soft sand because of the high tide. At about mile 3.5, I caught up and then passed, Clare and Gina. We reached the end of the road and started heading back towards the beach. Just before reaching the beach, we take a right onto Midnight Pass Rd. This is a nice stretch of road that provides some shade. I am being passed by lots of fast riders, but I am still able to pass a few people two. We make our way into Siesta Village, which is a hassle, because there are lots of cars sharing the road with us. There also seems to be a lot of riders near me as we get closer to the transition area. I try to keep the 3 bike length distance while passing, but it’s not easy. Soon enough I am making the turn into the beach parking area. I get off my bike and run it over to my spot in transition. I quickly take off my helmet, grab my visor and water bottle and head out of transition. Bike - 47:18, Transition 2 - 1:24. 

After seeing my bike time, I really wish I would have pushed the pace more. I had a faster time last year.

Run: We make our way across a grassy area and come up to a split in the course. The international distance goes to the left and the sprint goes to the right. So happy I’m not going left! I make my way towards the water, over the very soft, deep sand. I take a few endurolytes because it is hot, and I only took one drink of water on the bike ride. Thankfully, the sand near the water’s edge is still pretty hard packed. I know I am not going as fast as I normally would during a 5K, but I decide to keep a nice steady pace and save a little for the end. We are heading right into the wind, so I don’t want to waste too much energy so early. The beach is very crowded with people and kids. I am having to weave my way through them and around them. I see Carolyn  and Carol up ahead and concentrate on catching up to them. I do catch up and pass after saying hi. Just past the water stop, I see the turn around sign. Hurray! So happy to see that. I run around it and head home. The wind is behind me now, which makes it easier to run, but also means I feel hotter.  I see more friendly faces and call out greetings. It’s so motivating to see my friends out there competing with me. Soon I am making the turn to head back over the beach and to the finish. I pass another woman and decide my goal right then was to finish ahead of her. I pick up the pace a bit once I hit the pathway that leads to the finish area. I make the sharp turn to the right and see no one behind me, and then sprint it in to the finish. Run – 28:58

Finish: 1:34:35

We did it! 

I find out, once results are posted, that I have come in first place in the Athena division. Last year there were 5 women in my age group for the Athena division. This year? Just me! So, yes, I got first place, but I feel kinda strange bragging about it since I had no competition! J

Ron Jon Cocoa Beach Triathlon
April 22, 2012

Dawn and I drove over to Cocoa Beach very early Sunday morning. We had picked up our packets the day before (1.5 hours of waiting in line!!), so we didn’t have to worry about that race morning. We got our bikes and gear set up before heading over to check out were we would be swimming. The water didn’t look too bad, considering how windy it was. A storm had moved through Saturday during the day and evening, but left the wind behind for us. We learned that the swim was now “wetsuit legal” since the temperature of the water had cooled down. Didn’t factor into our plans much as we didn’t have any wetsuits! We did learn, from chatting with others, that wearing a wetsuit helps keep you buoyant, which helps you swim better. I might have to invest in one if I keep up doing these triathlons. J

Swim (quarter mile): We got started just after 7:30 am. The race was delayed by half an hour to make sure the earlier storms and lightning had a chance to be well away from us. Dawn and I started in the 4^th wave. The water felt pretty good considering it was supposed to be cold. We stood in the waist deep water for a few minutes before we heard the “Go” shouted. I ran a few steps in the water before putting on my nose plug. Unfortunately, my nose plug broke as I went to put it on! Not a good start. I have a problem swimming without it. I had water running down my nose and throat within minutes. I stopped trying to freestyle swim and went with a breast stroke for a few minutes. Soon I was near one of the volunteers on his paddle board. He asked if I needed to grab on and rest, so I did. I told him what was going on. He told me I need to exhale through my nose while in the water and that should help. I let most of the next wave of swimmers pass by me before getting back to the swim. I made a wide turn around the buoy so that I wouldn’t get hit by the other swimmers. Half way done! I used all methods of swimming to get myself back to the shore. As I was finishing, I had women from two waves after mine, swimming by me! I climbed out of the water and ran towards the transition. Race organizers had set up a plastic baby pool with water, for us to run through, so I did that before running to my bike. I dried off my face, put on my sunglasses and top, then went to put on socks and shoes. At this point I noticed the bottom of my foot was bleeding. Not much I could do about it, so I put on my socks and shoes, grabbed my bike and headed out of the transition. Swim- 16:03 (ouch! Almost twice as long as it should have been) Transition 1 – 1:57.

Bike (12.5 miles): I headed out on my bike and within minutes I saw Dawn up ahead. She should have been much further ahead, since she is such a good swimmer. When I caught up to her, she told me she had had a problem with her bike, which took about 8 minutes to fix. She was feeling pretty mad about it. I told her I would see her later before passing and riding along. Once we turned south, we were riding into very strong winds. It was pretty rough going for the next 5.5 miles until the turn around. We were riding on a two lane, one way road, were we had the right side to ourselves. I managed to pass a few people, but for the most part, I was passed by people on their fancy tri bikes. Once we hit the turnaround, I was able to get some speed going. It felt awesome! Soon enough, I was making the turn to the left that would bring us back to the transition. That last mile was rough. The winds were pretty strong here too. I had to change gears again and just keep peddling. On the last little stretch of the ride, we shared the road with the runners. There were people already running into the finish before I had even finished my bike! I was so happy to get my bike back on the rack! I changed out my helmet for a visor, pulled on my skirt cover-up and grabbed my water bottle, before heading out of the transition. Bike – 44:12. Transition 2 – 0:54.

Back of the event shirt.

Run (5k): It took my legs a couple of minutes to feel normal after the bike, but once we hit the entrance to the golf course, I was feeling good. We ran a good portion of the 5K on the paved sidewalks of the golf course. I started passing other runners right away. I could tell from the number on the back of their legs, which swim wave they had started in. It felt really good to catch up to, and pass, people who had passed me in the swim and bike. I felt really strong the entire run.  About 2 miles into the run, we exited the golf course, turned left and ran through the neighborhood next to the golf course. After passing the last water stop, I heard a volunteer say we had about 1.25 miles to go. I was so happy to hear it! I ran the last quarter mile strong, passing a couple of guys just before the finish line. J Run - 26:28.

Finish – 1:29:36. Good enough for 2^nd in age group (first timers). There were a lot of first timers. I finished 34^th overall in first timers. Which was right in the middle of 68 first timers for this race. J

I am so happy to have completed my first triathlon! I look forward to doing another one next month. 

Me and Dawn after the race!

Double race weekend March 17 and 18, 2012
St Patty's Day 8K and Florida Beach Halfathon

Saturday's race was an 8K St. Patty's day run down in Venice. We arrived in plenty of time, around 7am, to pick up our packets and use the bathroom a couple of times before the 8am start. I wasn't sure how I was going to run this race. I had the half marathon the next day. Once I got running though, I felt pretty good, so I decided to push it for this race.

The first mile was great. We ran north, from Sharky's restaurant, turned right, at the edge of the airport and headed towards the canal. At the end of that road, we get onto the Venice trail system that runs along the water front. It's a nice, wide, paved trail. We head south on that to the end then turn to the right. The course is basically a big circle. By mile 2 I am feeling a little slow down. I catch up to a young boy who has been running hard. He sees me to his left and then speeds up again. I guess he didn't want this old lady beating him! :)

I started slowing down a little by mile 3. I could feel the fatigue of racing the past few weeks and I think my bad eating habits over the past week didn't help either. The last mile was run near the beach, heading back towards Sharky's Restaurant. When I saw the turn off the main road that lead to the finish, I pushed it hard and passed this woman that had been ahead of me for a little while. :)

Finished with my best 8K time. 42:07! The 8K was just under 5 miles (4.96). I was off my best 5 mile race pace by over a minute. Need to get used to the humidity again.
Splits: 8:13/8:22/8:35/8:44/8:10

Sunday's race

This was my 39th half marathon. I'm happy I ran it, but not happy with my time. I knew by mile 2 that my legs were toast. Too many races over the past few weeks. I decided to treat it as a fun run and just take it easy. I ran walked using 4/1, then 3/1 and finally 2/1 intervals. It was just so hot! The best part of the run was getting a few photos of me were you can see air under both feet! I've been trying to get some photos like that for a while.

Finish: 2:15:24

First Watch Sarasota Half Marathon
March 11, 2012

It's all about this bling!

Race morning, once again, started off early. Saturday night was the night to set our clocks forward, so we lost an hour of sleep. Brenda and I decided we were going to have a 4:30 wake up, which would feel like 3:30. I woke up on my own at 4:20 and decided to just get up. I reached over to turn off my alarm, only to discover that I had never set it to go off! Wow, I'm lucky! :) Brenda and I hit the road around 5:30, arriving at the Players Theater parking lot about 10 minutes later. We pulled in right next to Gina and Charlotte and when we got out of our car, we saw Dawn parked just a few spots away. This parking area was just across the street from the main parking area and the race start. Much easier to get in to and more importantly, would be much easier to get out of later! We met up with Jake, Summer, Brett and Jeff and just hung out for a while waiting for the half fanatic photo time. Eventually everyone showed up, we got our photo taken and then headed over to the corral. It was packed! We entered at the 10 min mile spot, but wanted to make our way up to the 8 min mile spot. We weaved our way through the crowd, finally getting as close as we could. They really need to change the way they do this! We only had to wait a few minutes before we were off!

Me and Brenda before the race.

Jake was going to try and lead us all to an under 2 hour race. We started off very fast and used 4/1 intervals right away. The first mile was great, then we hit the bridge. Normally, the bridge is no big deal for me, but today, trying to run it and an 8 min mile pace, I was struggling up that thing! I fell back a little from the group but caught up with them on the down side. There was a water stop at the bottom of the bridge, so I decided to take 2 endurolytes while I was there. I had forgotten to take them before the race and it was already pretty hot out.

Miles 1 through 3: 8:39/ 8:57/ 9:05

Best photo of the day!

I kept up with the group until we got to St Armand's Circle, but then fell back. The pace was just to much for me in the heat. The 2 hour pace group was there, so I decided to hang with them a bit even though they were not walking at all. The pace felt better. Dawn was running with them too. I held on to that pace until we hit the bridge, but once again, they all pulled ahead and I never caught them. I did see my group of runners ahead, so when I saw them walk, I would walk. My legs were feeling pretty good. I only had to stop a couple of times to stretch so far.

Miles 4 through 6: 9:14/ 9:39/ 9:37

I caught up to Jake and Gina around mile 8. Dawn was much further ahead and Brett and Summer were behind me. The heat was really getting to us all. This stretch of the race is on a major road. We were running north and had the far left side of the road for the runners. Unfortunately it was pretty slanted. I kept to the right as much as I could, but that was near the cars, who were driving south. I was so happy when we turned to the left and started our run through the nice neighborhood that is south of the Ringling Museum of Art. Just before the museum, volunteers were handing out cold, lemon scented washcloths. So wonderful! The best thing ever! :)

Miles 7 through 10: 10:00/ 9:07/ 10:04/ 9:58

Focused on the finish line! The
woman in blue is who I passed! :)

Around mile 11, Jake asked if it was OK for him to take off. Of course! We had really slowed him down. The last couple of miles were pretty slow for us. Gina told me to go ahead a couple of times, but there was no way I had the energy to push it any harder than I was. The only good thing was that my legs were feeling pretty good. I didn't need to stretch at all for the last few miles. Around mile 12, we caught up to Dawn. It was so wonderful to know that we were almost done! We took one last walking break around mile 12.5, then got down to finishing this thing. We ran past the relay exchange area, were runners were waiting for their partners so that they could run it in together. That gave me a nice little boost. We turned right just past the crowd and up ahead was the finish line banner. I was just behind this other woman, who had been running near us the past few miles. I pushed myself to the limit, running past her and finishing strong.

Miles 11 through 13.1: 9:47/ 10:03/ 9:26
Finish: 2:04:35

It wasn't the PR I had hoped for, but it is 1:15 faster than last week's half marathon and is now my second best half marathon time! I need to find a flat half marathon with cold temps so that I can get that PR! :)

Gasparilla Half Marathon 2012

The Sarasota gang before the race.

Race morning started off early again. I got up at 3 am! I checked the weather to see if the cold front had moved through earlier. Nope. It was 70, humid and very windy. I picked up Renee at 3:45 and then we were on our way to the Tampa Convention Center. I missed our exit, so I had to try to remember how to get there from another direction. Only added a few minutes to our time. We had a very short wait in traffic to get into the parking garage. $10 later (ouch) we were parked and meeting Gina and Stephanie right on time at 5 am. We waited for a few other friends before checking our bags and heading out into the crazy wind. It started raining just before we got out side. We took a group photo, then started the walk over towards the start. We stopped by the Publix, to see if there were any Fanatics still hanging around. We were past the time of the group photo. They were all still there, so we got a couple more group photos and then headed over to the start. They had a line of porta potties down a side street, next to the corrals, so I decided to use them. Thankfully the lines were not long here. I found one with 4 guys in it. Score! They always go faster than the women. J I think I was there for only 5 minutes. Met up with Gina and Vicky and the we headed over to our corral. We got in at the back of the first corral (no one looked at bibs. We made our way up a little then hung out. There was a light rain. I was very happy to have my garbage bag rain coat on.  Just before 6am, We all tossed off our garbage bags to get ready for the start. After the national anthem, without any blast of an airhorn or fireworks, we were off! 

Half Fanatics before the race!

Gina and I decided to run the first 3 miles and then start 4/1 intervals.  The streets were pretty wide and it was easy to get around people until we hit the ramp going up to the bridge. We slowed down quite a bit running through that tight space. It didn’t last long and soon we were at our brisk pace again. Around mile 2, we got to the first water stop. I grabbed a cup, pinched it and then tried to sip it while still running. Some got in my mouth and some got in my nose! Yuck. I decided I would just slow down and take a few seconds to drink at the rest of the water stops. At about mile 2.75, we decided to go ahead with the intervals. We are occasionally blown to the side by a wind gust, but really the wind isn’t too bad so far.

Miles 1 through 3: 9:37, 8:45, 9:17

By now my left leg is hurting. The IT band and hamstrings are tight. I start stretching for a few seconds at every other walking break. The stretching does help, but the benefits don’t last long. Around mile 6, we run back over the bridge, off of Davis Island, and start our long run on Bayshore Blvd.  It is beautiful here. Great views of the water and of the fantastic houses facing the water. There are lots of race photographers just after the bridge. One right after the other. I pose and pose for each of them. Do they get any shots of me? No!! Geesh. We can really feel the wind now, but it still isn’t too bad. Gusts every once in a while that blow us to the side, but other than that, the wind wasn’t so bad. We catch up to Summer during the 8^th mile. She ran both races the day before and is running both on this day. She decides to add intervals and run with us for a while.

Miles 4 through 9: 9:39, 9:46, 9:41, 9:34, 9:39, 10;02

This was the best photo of me on
on the course! 

Soon we are curving to the left and now running on the other side of BayShore Blvd. There is a grassy area with trees and bushes that break up the right and left sides of the road. We keep an eye out for friends that may be behind us.  Looking for friendly faces on the other side of the road helps to distract me from the IT band pain. By now I am stopping to stretch at every walk break!  After a couple of miles, Summer drops back and it is just me and Gina again, trying to keep up the pace. She has pulled ahead of me a little, but I am not far behind. With about a mile to go, we are side by side, looking forward to getting to the finish. We take one more walking break then decide to just run it in. I am pushing as hard as I can. Gina is very encouraging, which helps me to keep pushing. We finally see the finish line banner just ahead of us. I am at my max as I run it across the finish line!

Miles 10 through 13.18: 9:51, 9:56, 9:39, 8:56 (Wow!!), 1:23 (last little .18)

Finish: 2:05:50. 

This is my third fastest time and my best half marathon time in over 10 years! Very happy with it. J

Ken, Gina and me after the race!

Juli, Becki, Lori, Shannon, Dave, Me and Laura with Elastic Girl!

Me and Brenda before the race!

February 26, 2012.
Race weekend started on Thursday, when I drove up with Renee to set up the Fit2Run booth with other employees. Thursday involved lots of heaving lifting and then unpacking merchandise.It was a long day. We were back at the expo by 7:30 to set up a little more before the 9 a.m. opening. What a crazy day at the expo! I had a pretty good view of the Disney Merchandise booth. Those Dooney and Burke bags went fast! It was crazy! I was working the Skirt Sport booth both days. I kept pretty busy there, but did have time to wonder around the expo a few times to spend all my money. :) I got a new bracelet, silver ring, pink polka dot 26.2 and 13.1 bumper magnents, a princess tank and cup from the race merchandise area. I saw a few friends at the expo, which was great! I worked until 7:30 pm. Long day! My legs and feet were feeling sore. I still had another day of working! Saturday was a shorter day through. I got there at 8 and left at 3 pm. It was even busier and crazier at the expo that day! After work, Renee and I met up with Brenda at the hotel and then headed to downtown Disney. I picked up a special lego present for my son, before we headed to dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Cafe. We got back to the hotel and went to ask about a coffee pot. With a 3 am wakeup call, we knew we were going to need some coffee! They had no coffee pots and the restaurant wasn't going to be open that early. So, we made a quick trip to Wal Mart! We found a $8 coffee maker! Back in the hotel, we set up the coffee maker for the next day and got to bed a little after 9 pm.

I didn't sleep well that night, but I felt OK once I had a cup of coffee in me! We left the hotel a little after 3:30 am. Lots of traffic (much more than 2 years ago) heading into the parking area at Epcot. Once we parked, we had a pretty short walk to the first area for runners. We made a porta pottie break, took a photo then made our way to the corrals. Renee and I left Brenda at the porta potties on the other side of bag check. She was in corral B and we were in A, so we wouldn't have been able to hang out much longer anyway. Very hard to get to the corrals. So many people walking that way. I think it's about a mile to the corrals. Just before getting there, we made a pit stop at the potties and then made our way to the first corral. The group that I was trying to meet up with were near the stage, but it was part of the elite corral. We made our way towards the front of the corral and after a while, I was finally able to spot the group ahead. I figured once we got running, I could find them. We didn't have to wait to long in the corrals before the fireworks went off we were off and running!

Look at this crazy guy I found!

Renee was way ahead of me from the start. :) I quickly found the group I was looking for. I ran the race with Dave, Lori, Juli, Brandi and Shannon (Mrs. USA!). It took me a little while to get used to the pace. It was a little slower than my regular long run pace. Eventually I got behind them so that I wouldn't keep pulling so far ahead! I believe our first stop was with the pirates. A little past the pirates was a giant hot air balloon. After passing the balloon, we could see the Magic Kingdom sign up ahead. It was very dark in this section. All of a sudden, in my periferal vision, I see a woman fall to my right. Our group stops and goes back to check on the woman, who I later learn, is named Sherry. We ask her if she is OK and if she needs help getting up. She says she thinks she broke her shoulder and that she doesn't want to move. Shannon runs over to a security guard car that is just a little ways down the road. He takes a very long time to come over to us. Meanwhile half of us are standing in a semi circle around her to protect her from the on coming runners. Two doctors stop to check on the Sherry. One, Laura, stays with us. Finally two police cars show up and then a medical guy on a bike shows up. A bike! One of the police officers tells us to go ahead, they will look after Sherry. So we all take off again. Laura decides to join our group since she is way off of her normal race pace by now. We finally make it to the 5K timing mat. Time of 57:26! While waiting in line at the next photo spot, I text Brenda to see if she had passed by already. Then I checked my facebook page to see what my time was for the 5K. Saw that it was so slow, so I posted an update to let my friends know that I was OK. That's a 10K time for me!

Me, Juli, Brandi, Lori, Shannon,
Laura and Dave!

We made our way into Magic Kingdom, stopping for photos with all characters. Once we were in the park, there were even more stops! A couple of photos with the Castle behind us, Minnie Mouse, Princess Tiana, Jessie (Toy Story), Buzz Lightyear, Prince Charming, the cast of Sleeping Beauty and a few others. As we are leaving Magic Kingdom, we pass a medical tent with biofreeze and patrolium jelly. I get some of that patrollium jelly, go off to the side and put it on a couple of delicate spots at the top of my legs (under shorts) that feel like there might be chaffing! I quickly catch back up to the group. At the next porti pottie section, I notice there is no line, so I tell the group to go on, I'll catch up. I make a quick pit stop, then catch up to them again. It is getting harder and harder to run. By now, most of the people on the road are walkers. It's very hard to run around them. We are often off on the side of the road, running in the grass to pass them.

The last few miles are mostly running. Not as many character stops from mile 10 on. The slant on the couple of overpasses really irritates my IT Band, so I run up on the grass again, because it is flatter there! Soon it is raining on us, but thankfully, it doesn't last long. We make it into Epcot, so happy that we are getting close to the finish! We try a big "Dave Mari" jump in front of the big globe and then head towards the finish. We all link arms and run across the finish line together!

Time: 3:54:37! Almost 2 hours longer than my normal half marathon time!

We got a group photo taken with a few other half fanatics and then I said good bye. I sent a text to Brenda, who had waited over an hour for me. It started raining just before we meet up. We make it to the car and then have to wait in traffic for a bit before getting on the road.

I had a wonderful time running this race! Hope to make it to the finish a bit faster next weekend at Gasparilla half. :)

Sherry update: I found her on facebook! Her friend said she has a fractured humerus between shoulder and elbow. She said recovery will be 8 weeks. Good to hear she is doing fine!   

Rock n Roll St. Pete Half Marathon

February 12, 2012

Race morning started off super early and cold! I met up with Gina, Stephanie and Dawn at 4:45 am at the Starbucks by the interstate. Charlotte was supposed to be there too, but ended up over sleeping, so we went on without her.

We made it to St Pete in about half an hour and found a parking spot in the garage closer to the finish. No hassles with traffic at all! We stopped for a coffee at the Starbucks on the corner (the one we meet up with at earlier had been closed!) and then walked the 2 miles to the Tropicana Field. Once there, we met up with Brett and Ken and then huddled together to try and stay warm. Temps were in the low 40s. Wind chill made it feel like mid 30s. We are not used to these temps! I wore a tank top, with a short sleeved top on top. Arm warmers and then a toss away sweatshirt on top. Capri skirt and long compression socks kept my legs covered. I had gloves on my hands and a wide headband to cover my ears. I was ready! :) We headed towards the corrals at 7:15. I told them I would catch up with them. I had to use the porta potties one more time. The lines were very long. I waited and waited. I still had two people in front of me as the national anthem was playing. I decided to just wait it out. I was in corral 5, so I knew it would take a few minutes for my corral to get up to the start. Plus, I was planning on taking it easy this race. My congested nose and lungs were not going to let me run a fast race. And I wanted to test out how my knee would do. I finally got into the porta pottie and it was disgusting! Yuck! I did my business and was out of there fast. I made it to my corral as they were moving up to the front and about ready to start. I had enough time to get my garmin going and to turn on my music and then we were off!
Within minutes I was able to find my friends. Ken, Gina and Brett took off at a fast pace, so I ran with Dawn for a while. Within minutes we had turned two corners and were heading into the wind. That was brutal. I had various body parts that were frozen. I couldn't feel my bum at all! I kept feeling the back of my skirt to make sure it was down. It felt like nothing was back there! We kept up a pretty brisk pace for the first few miles, only stopping to walk through the first water stop. Just after mile 3, I knew I would need to get into a normal walk break schedule, so I told Dawn to just go on ahead. I then started walk breaks at about every half mile.

Miles 1 through 4: 8:58, 9:01, 9:09, 9:26.

Just after mile 4, I decided I was warm enough to toss of the sweatshirt. It was a little cold at first, but soon I was feeling fine with the temps. I kept the gloves on for another mile. When I did pull them off, I held on to them. I worried that I might get stronger wind later in the race. I wish I would have studied where the water stops were. I took my Peanut Butter Gu just after the 10K mark, thinking there would be water soon. Next water stop was after mile 7.I think it was this water stop that I noticed the big plastic garbage bin, with a liner, filled with water. The volunteers, who had plastic gloves on, were dipping cups in the water bin and placing them on the table. Gross. I had heard this was done, just never saw it before at a race!.

Once we hit the water, I was so happy to have my gloves. The wind was much stronger near the water. I was still getting in a longer walk break about every half mile, sometimes it was longer then a half mile. I was feeling pretty good through. Just feeling the congestion. Once we hit the pier, we could see runners to our left who were running in the opposite direction. I kept a look out for familiar faces. About halfway down the pier I saw Dawn running strong. I yelled out to her, cheering her on. I got to the end and walked the whole way around. Knee was feeling a little achy, but not bad. I just didn't want to push it. Once around the end loop, I started running again. Mile 10 was a longer mile. I took a much longer walking break here. It was hard passing the finish area. You couldn't see it. But I knew it was to our right and you could hear it.

Miles 5 through 10: 9:12, 9:56, 10:00, 10:06, 10:09, 11:10.

Once we got to the waterfront again, we had runners on our right that were heading to the finish. I think they were about half a mile away. I had a great time looking out for familar faces. I helped the last few miles go by fast. I saw Dr Jeff pass by and then just before the little bridge I saw Gina. I yelled out to her in my breaking voice (voice was almost gone). She was running strong. About a mile ahead of me! I kept a look out for Dawn, but must have just missed her as I made the loop around the park. Soon I hit mile 12 and was on my way back towards the finish! I yelled a hello to Anne and Claire as I saw them heading towards mile 11. I felt strong the last mile. I took one long break in the middle and then finished with a strong kick.

Miles 11 through finish: 10:35, 10:40, 10:48 and 1:58 for the last .22
Finish time: 2:11

Gina and Dawn were waiting just past the finish line. They had both PR'd! Gina got 2:00 and Dawn had 2:02! So proud of them. I hope to get close to those times at Gasparilla in a few weeks. Hopefully the congestion will be gone.

We hung out for a while watching Flo Rida. It was a fun concert, but it was cold, so we didn't stay for the whole thing.

Overall this was a fun race. I want to run it again next year. Hopefully I can give it my all! :)