Holiday Halfathon

The Holiday Halfathon is my favorite of the halfathon series. I like the course (a point to point starting in Madeira Beach and running up to Largo), like the time of year, like the Christmas-y shirts (that is my wrinkly shirt pictured), and like the group of runners who seem to do this one every year.

Since it is point to point, to avoid having to ride in a shuttle back to the start, we had the clever idea of teaming up with Jamie and driving two cars down, leaving one at the finish line on our way (well it is not THAT clever, since lots of other people do this to). The benefit of that is we could leave stuff that we would need after the race in Jamie's car. So that is what we did. It wasn't until we were parked down at the start that we realized we had been a bit flaky and had actually left some important race things in Jamie's car. Oh. I left my Garmin and iPod, and Jamie didn't have any extra clothes (and it was kind of windy and chilly at the start). Mark gave Jamie his arm warmers, and Jamie gave me her Garmin-since she had just raced Las Vegas marathon last week (!) she didn't mind not knowing how fast she was going today. We finally got ourselves together and got to the start line. Jamie and I lined up together, she said she would just stay with me. I didn't have a super clear goal, just trying to aim around an 8:00 pace, hopefully a little faster if possible. Our first four miles were around a 7:50, then we stayed around 8:00 for a bit, but I was having a hard time keeping it there. Once we turned onto the Pinellas trail (around mile 7), I was hoping I would be able to focus better and stay on task. The only problem was that it was starting to feel hot, and the trail offered some protection from the wind, but made the air seem even warmer. I started feeling really hot and really bad a one point (like a sick kind of bad), my pace slowed. Jamie was there with me, and she suggested I take my hat off. Not sure why I hadn't thought of this, but it made a big difference. I felt a little better but was still at the slower pace for a while. I was so glad I had Jamie there with me, I am sure I would have struggled A LOT if I hadn't had her. She was a good mommy, and stayed just ahead of me, but would check back every now and then to make sure I was still with her, without putting any pressure on me to pick it up. Around mile 10.5 (or so) was a second pedestrian overpass bridge, and I was actually GLAD to see it because 1. I like those 25 foot climbs and 2. it meant we were nearing the end. Jamie made fun of me for being happy about the hill ;) The final 1.5 miles are into a park and all the way around a lake to the finish. Despite having to head into the wind for a lot of this, I actually really like the way it finishes. You can hear the loud finish line the whole time you are around the lake and it makes you excited to get there. I tried my best to pick it up but at that point I was getting so tired that my version of "picking it up" basically meant I didn't get any slower- LOL. We made it around the turn to the finish, and I was FINALLY able to catch up the 10 feet that Jamie had been ahead of me and we crossed the finish line together with a 1:45:55 clock time. But, um, actually my foot? must have been in front of her? because I ended up with third place in my age group and she got fourth, even though we had the exact same time. (sorry Jamie...) I felt kinda bad about that.

We had fun hanging out with a lot of other runners from the Striders, and we stayed for the awards (Mark also got an award- first in his age group). About 3 minutes after Mark got his award, the wind picked up awful and rain started coming in. How lucky that the rain waited until after the race!