Saturday morning I woke up amazed at how great I felt just 3 days after getting strep. The last time I had run was Tuesday so I wasn't expecting anything amazing to happen Sunday. We drove to South Florida Saturday morning and had a great time in Fort Lauderdale beach, at the Expo and on South Beach. We tried to get to bed by 10 p.m. but the hotel we were at was loud and a lot of party people were apparently staying there. I woke up at 3:30 a.m. and just decided to get ready. It was a bad night. I was still taking my antibiotics so I know that didn't help with the grogginess.
We got to race site on Lummus Park around 6:15 a.m. and race was at 6:45. Then we had to wait in line for the porto potty and that took forever. We heard them sing the National Anthem and begin the corrals and we were still in line. So, instead of starting in Corral 9 we were like in 12 but that was okay. We were excited, had our water ready to go and a lot of the photographers were already taking pics of us so that made us laugh because we felt like a hot mess already.
The course was pretty intense, definitely a fun one. We went up a lot of bridges, taking on the 95, A1A, US1. So, our plan quickly changed from doing 3/1 intervals to just walking up the bridges and running down them. I was concerned about Lisa because she had mostly trained on the treadmill and was having knee pain so we took it easy. I felt pretty good, was breathing great and felt like I never had Strep just 3 days before. I remember looking down at my watch around mile 5.5 and feeling like I was just getting started. We had already gone up two inclines and were keeping a pace of 12:02 which was my goal. Lisa started fading around mile 8-9. It was getting really hot, the temperature must have been up to 77 already and although the reflection of the water all around us was beautiful it was causing some heat! She also didn't want to take any Gu or electrolytes and she hates gatorade. Doing this race just with water was not a good idea. I kept eating my Gu and drinking water, then gatorade. Around mile 11 we found ourselves going up again and Lisa got calf cramps and her knees were hurting so we stopped at the beginning of thee highway to stretch and catch our breath and take a picture. It was just absolutely beautiful and I felt better than ever. I saw our pace getting slower but I was okay with that. I was happy to be there and with my sister running in Miami Beach! I then noticed the 2:45 pacer guy pass us and I was not happy about that. I didn't want to do worse than my last half marathon time in St. Petersburg. I tried to get Lisa to do intervals with me as quickly as we could but she was just not having it and told me to go ahead. I was so worried but I knew we only had about a mile left. So, I ran on and caught up with him and ran together. I kept looking back and knew that I'd really have to start running my own race someday to be able to see what I'm capable of. Either way I know I'm comfortable between 12:15 - 12:30 so I wasn't going to do anything remarkable. I know had we not stopped so many times we could have kept up with our 12:05 pace, but I was just happy to finish and Lisa finished soon after me. Another great memory and good workout with my sister that I will never forget.
I finished in 2:44:41 according to the chip time.
My watch displayed the following:
| Time: | 2:44:46 |
| Moving Time: | 2:38:39 |
| Elapsed Time: | 2:44:46 |
| Avg Pace: | 12:30 min/mi |
| Avg Moving Pace: | 12:03 min/mi |
| Best Pace: | 5:10 min/mi |
My St. Pete Half time in Feb. was 2:46:28 so not to much of a difference. I had run the St. Pete with Cristy.
My next race is 12/8 and I'm going to see what I'm capable of on my own.
