Wow! I was very pleased with today's race. The weather was great and the course was beautiful and the race was very well run, and I met my goals and felt good. I had signed up for this race about a month ago. Jenny was going to watch the kids while I ran, but her friend and running partner Kathryn said they were coming down to watch me race - thanks Kathryn! that was above and beyond especially since you guys were up early yesterday. So, Jenny signed up for the 5 mile race because she has been itching to run again since Disney marathon last week.
The cold snap we had been having had eased up, so it was high 40's at the start. Both the half marathon and the 5 mile started at the same time - 7:05. The course started on a very slight uphill before heading over to the base of the Clearwater Memorial casuseway bridge. Base of the bridge on the way out is about 0.8 into the race with the 1st mile at the peak of the bridge. I felt good starting out which doesn't always happen, so I felt like I was going to have a good shot at a PR today. Hit the first mile in 6:53. Downhill on the bridge felt great, made the second mile in 6:35. Stayed in control but was a little bit afraid it would catch up to me later. The course flattened out and I settled into the race. Third mile was feeling a little bit hard. One of my driving goals was to run at least 8 miles at 6:52 pace since I have down that before and then hopefully get one more mile to break that record. In the early miles it continued to be a struggle. At about mile 4 was the second bridge, the Clearwater Pass bridge, about the same height as the first bridge (about 75 feet) but I think this one is longer. Held my own on the way up the bridge and then "enjoyed" the ride on the way down. The course then looped through Sand Key park for about a mile before exiting. Continued south until close to 8 miles before the turn around. I was starting to feel better about making 9 miles. It also helped that there was a man and a woman ahead of me about 150 feet who seemed to be going at the pace I wanted. I hit the 9 mile marker still doing ok, but up ahead of me was the Clearwater Pass bridge again. I focused on the man and woman ahead of me again and didn't lose too much time. Back on Clearwater beach now, starting to approach the causeway, there was a curve in the path and I almost turned too far to the right into a parking lot off of the course! (fortunately a policeman pointed me to the correct route, thanks!!). Ok, now I was feeling it and was starting to rationalize with myself with things like "you are still on track for a great PR" and "you made 10 miles at this pace" and things like that. A runner came up behind me and slowly passed me so I hung on behind him. The man and woman who I had been following had now increased the gap so I was determined to hang onto the new guy. Finally, mile 12. But shortly after that was the base of the last bridge. It was pay back time for that 6:35 mile at the start. The one nice thing about bridges is that they have light posts, which I can convince myself to at least run to the next one. Hit the top of the bridge and mile pace had slowed down to 7:23. Fortunately it was mostly downhill now, with a short flat stretch at the end. Going down the other side of the bridge, there is a helix shaped pedestrian walkway. Picked speed back up on that, then shortly after that was the 13 mile marker. At the start of the homestretch, Jenny and Kathryn were there cheering for me. I couldn't tell if I was going to make it under 1:30 or not. Then I saw the clock, 1:29:2x, kicked it in and finished at 1:29:37. Jenny had also done very well with her 5 miler, 40:01, a 5 mile race PR and also a faster pace than her fastest 5K so far. She had a dream the other night that she would get 41 minutes and I would get 1:29 something. It's nice when dreams do come true. Here are the splits: 1 - 6:53 2 - 6:35 3 - 6:44 4 - 6:53 5 - 6:51 6 - 6:50 7 - 6:51 8 - 6:48 9 - 6:45 10 - 6:50 11 - 7:01 12 - 7:04 13 - 6:50 0:41 (0.12 @ 5:48)
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