This one started as a 70-degree day with 90% humidity. I arrived earlier than usual in Cocoa Village, probably 4:40 am. That gave me time to do a solo warmup run and visit the restroom a few times. Dinner ran late the night before, I wanted to be sure I had no additional bathroom breaks waiting in store for me…
I arrived at the Start area and was in the group photo (above) before going to the staging area for the South Course Half Marathon. The corral wasn’t well populated until right before 6 am when we could hear the anthem played for the Marathon starters. Diana found me and said she’d like to have a sub 2-hour performance, so she was Candidate #1 in my group. My friends Mike, Grant and Maureen from my home running club said they’d be in my group to start. Mary Alice joined in as we moved to Brevard Ave for the start. The final name I grabbed was Jeff – He had an interest in staying with us as long as he could, mentioning he may not be in shape on a hot day to finish under 2 hours.
The race
Our start was on time – I activated my watch upon crossing the first timing mat, the one that was placed next to the CO2 towers that made the smoke for the rocket launch simulation. This would prove to be incorrect as my time would reflect an “early arrival” at the finish line, when I thought I had made a good effort of getting there right at my perfect pace.
I told my group that we would experience a small patch of non-paved road about 1/4-mile down River Road. I knew this from my warm up jog, there were some depressions in the middle of the street that could definitely hurt an ankle. We all ran clear of that. The first mile was crowded in contrast to the past few years where I got up to pace quickly. This saw us weaving through Galloway walkers already with “hands up,” slower people that needed to start right up near the front and groups that ran abreast of each other. Our first mile was 9:10 – easy to recover from on the way to the 6.x mile turnaround. Mary Alice and Diana were very close to me on the weave through the crowd – Maureen ran to tie a shoe and quickly visit the first portable potty she saw. I had no sighting of Grant & Mike, but others came along with me as we went through miles 2, 3, 4 towards the sunrise. We took a few seconds off each mile to get closer to where we belonged time-wise. The course thinned out and we were able to run tangents better on the curvy River Road course. Diana ran ahead of us, she was easy to see with a very bright set of pink Nike Vaporfly shoes. Bianca pulled into the group, she was wearing a cosmic-styled headpiece. She ran this race a year ago and finished in 2:08. Her goal was to beat that and the 2 hour mark. She wasn’t labored in her breathing and her stride was good.
Another guy, Steve, joined us and was running well. I had a small group as compared to previous years. We kept a good pace as we came through Miles 5 & 6. Steve commented, “We are right on it, my watch says 8:45 pace.” We saw the lead motorcycle, top runners and a few friends coming back at us now. We weren’t getting a big colorful sunrise this year, nor had any in my group seen any dolphins jumping. A small guy in a brightly colored shirt named “Ram” was with us before the turnaround. He said he was Himalayan/Tibetan and kept asking how I was able to talk the whole time while running. I told him I was just a recording and that he was doing most of the talking! He was an entertaining part of our group while he ran with us. I let him hold the pacer sign when we came to a photographer in the road, he got a nice rise out of that. The group chanted his name and smiled along. He stopped at an aid station not long after the sun came up and we didn’t have any other contact with him. I saw later in the result he finished in approximately 2:06.
Our group encountered two cars on the course, each made its way down the center of the closed course towards the southern turnaround. I thought the police would intervene, but both vehicles went by the police car with the flashing lights and no issues.
Now we headed north into a nice breeze. It was still humid but the breeze felt good! We were on our correct pace now with 6 miles left to get home. Bianca and Steve were my strongest runners. We passed and picked up 2-3 others along the way to Mile 10, but they dropped off. At the aid station just past Mile 10, Marco popped out of a porta-potty and ran next to me for about one mile. He faded and I was again solo with both Bianca and Steve within eyesight less than 100m back. I told them to keep me in sight. I believe the difference was the aid stations – they’d slow or stop to get a gel in or drink while I kept pace getting a drink. Ahead of me with less than 3 miles to go I saw Diana & the pink shoes. I was running a steady pace, and she was getting closer, she was fading.
I encouraged her to keep with me, that on any day next week she’d be able to run 2 miles with a friend at 8:45 pace, she could do this today. She stayed with me, drifted back a bit, then came back up next to me before the long straightaway and turn off River Rd at the St Mark’s Church & school. I explained that she could go ahead if she felt good. I had to finish as close as possible to my prescribed time. She went a small bit ahead, Steve and Bianca followed me in to the finish while remaining about 200m back. We came through Cocoa Village in this order, Diana in front of me, Bianca and Steve close behind. Both Bianca and Steve were surprised & happy to learn they had also done 1:55:xx times. I found Diana in the finisher’s area. She posed for a pic with me for the Marathon Photo people. She asked if I could look up her time on the official app. I looked her up and told her she had run her half in 1:54:02 – enough for the Senior Grandmaster title! She cried and said thank you many times. I asked if she had ever won this award before – She replied yes ~ but only at 5k events.
Wrap Up
My finish time was 1:54:25 – odd as I seldom roll in early. I then remembered the dual timing mat thing… Usually the second mat is for verification. That’s my guess as to how I tracked in 5 seconds before the time considered perfect.
The medals and race swag are always super from this event. I stayed awhile at the finish line area to hand over the pacer signs and wait for friends. The towels and after party are great – I recommend this event to all our local runners. It’s close with only a 2 hour drive. The food options and things to do around Cocoa Village are great. This is a great event and we are fortunate to have it conveniently nearby.
drun4fun 