13.1 mi Good attendance for a first year event, I tried to put out of my head the thoughts of the full marathon I did just 6 days ago. I found Sal & Suzanne at the start, looks as if 500people showed up, with the majority of them doing the half vs the 5k. The route was similar to the PB marathon, up to Currie Park on Flagler, back to the Meyer amphitheater, Flagler up to the canal south of Forest Hill Blvd, around the block on Old Dixie and back on Flagler returning home. I didn’t care what I finished with, so I purposely put myself up front for the starting picture. I ran mile #1 in 6:47, stayed under 7 min pace for the first 3-4, and started whithering at 7 miles. The race would have been better started at 6:30, the sun and humidity were out full force. I watched as my top 10 place overall slipped to 13, then more people passed me, the top 2 or three women, and finally I crept in at 18th place overall. I walked too much through water stops and on straightaways, this is the malady of starting too quickly and blowing up. I don’t usually do this as a strategy, but my free admission to the race plus hobbled chances due to A1A a week ago made me want to play with the exhausted feeling for the upcoming Palm 100. I will hopefully not ever feel that bad in Palm 100! I thought the running of the race was well done, they’ll start next year’s earlier and learned that too many Papa John’s pizzas make for good runner take aways.
Sunshine State Half marathon
drun4fun 