Halloween Halfathon - Fort Desoto Park Florida
I signed up for this race just a little over a week ago. There aren't many races around but a few are popping up here and there and race director Chris Lauber always puts on a good event. Even with the challenges from covid restrictions things went well.
This race was slightly off plan for me, sticking to the plan I would have done 14 miles at an easy pace.
They had neat rows marked out with spaces about 7 feet apart. They called out paces and asked people to line up, there weren't many people who came forward when they asked for 7 minute paces (anything between 7:00 and 7:59), I was looking for maybe 7:30 so I stepped up. Was in the first row. I looked behind me and asked the woman directly behind me if she wanted to switch, she said no thanks, was looking for maybe 7:45 pace.
They started each row at intervals of 10 seconds. They also had cones out for about 100 meters to form lanes so you'd stay in your own lane at least for the start.
First mile was 7:21. A couple (or maybe 3 or 4 not sure) people passed me sometime in the first mile, but after that I seeemed to be in the same spot. A guy in a red shirt passed me, pulled ahead but was never out of sight (although it looked like he might disappear at times). Next two miles were 7:23 and 7:17 as we looped around and then came back through the starting area. The announcer was calling out people's 5k paces as we passed through.
On this course, I sometimes feel like I fade on the 4th mile as we head out in a straight line parallel to the beach, but this time I held steady with mile 4 at 7:20. Ok, maybe this race would be better than expected. Then mile 5 was slightly better at 7:19 which made me feel a little more confident, but it's still early enough that the finish feels far enough away that all you can think about is getting through the next mile.
Then, the wind started getting to me, miles 6, 7, and 8 were not fun. Turnaround point was just after 7.5 miles. I plowed through but slowed down a bit, 7:39, 7:46, and 7:53 for those miles. However, mile 8 time of 7:53 was a pickup from not being about to get below 8 and slowly speeding up.
This gave me a feeling of momentum with miles 9, 10, and 11 back to better paces and consistent - 7:31, 7:31, and 7:32
I should have been feeling like homestretch after seeing the mile 11 sign, but I think I got a little bit lazy, and/or relaxed a little. Mile 12 was 7:55, not great but I was thinking well, at least I can get all the miles under 8:00.
Gained a little bit of speed and had noticed over the last couple of miles, red shirt guy was getting closer and closer. Entered into the parking lot and made the final turn around the cones to get into the homestretch. I yelled at red shirt guy to tell him to speed up, he'd been towing me the whole race and I didn't want to sneak passed him. He heard me but must have had the gas to the floor already. Passed him and finished 3 seconds ahead of him.
But, not really, he started in the second row so he was actually 7 seconds faster than me. Red shirt guy's name was Evan, he said he'd been doing his runs pushing a stroller so he was able to go a lot faster today, was hoping for about 1:45 so pretty happy.
Since it was uncertain if this race would be approved, they had "vintage" race medals from years past to choose from, but they did have really nice orange shirts.
So, while today was slower than the 1:37 back in December, it was first time since that that I've put together this many under 8:00 miles and made my goal (more or less) of 7:30 pace.
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