Clearwater Halfathon Summary 1-20-2013

Well yesterday I ran in the Clearwater Halfathon.  This race is touted as one of the most difficult half marathons in Florida because there are 4 bridge ascents.

 This was only my second half marathon, but I was excited to run a race close to home.  We picked up our race packet on Saturday afternoon so we only needed to pick up our timing chip on race morning.  When we arrived to the race on Sunday morning we went to the booth where chips were being given out, but there were no signs indicating what line we were supposed to go into.  There were actually 2 chip lines and one of them shared a shirt pickup line.  We finally got our chips and then moved to the porta potty line.  It took us 25 minutes in this line as there weren't enough available for the 1400 runners.  So far 2 strikes against the race.
The start of the race didn't have any specific pace markers so we placed ourselves about in the middle of the pack.  The race started ell and I found a good spot with some other runners at the pace that felt comfortable for me.  We quickly hit the first bridge ascent and after a mile I was running at a 10:30 pace.  I was feeling that that was a good pace for me to be starting at.  I then crested the bridge and came down the other side.  I figured I would let gravity help me and my second mile improved to a 9:50 pace... Uh oh, that's too fast.  I realized I would need to back off a little and I thought I did, but by mile 5 I was running as 9:53 mile again.  I decided at that point to just go with it and see how it goes!
Well, by mile 10 I hit the wall.  I was hoping to beat my previous time, but my last several miles were just painful.  My back was hurting and I had blisters on my foot.  For the last two ascents I had to walk most of the hills unfortunately.  This was frustrating, but my body was just not responding to me.
Thankfully the last 3/4 of a mile were downhill so I just let gravity take over and pushed hard.  My final chip time was 2:22:22, which was about 6 minutes slower than my previous half marathon.  Given the hills in the bridges I can deal with it.  I'll have to do better in two weeks when I run the Best Damn Race!

Overall I liked the race.  The course was nice and quite challenging. The course support was great with seven water stops and Gatorade at each stop and a few stops had fresh orange slices.

There were a few items that I thought could have been better.  The chip distribution could have been easier with a couple of signs.  There could have been more porta potties and I felt like the course from the Sand Key Bridge to the turn around was run in the gutter and didn't have enough level ground to run on.

December 2012 review

December was a busy month in so many ways.  I started the month off by running my first 10K at the Phinley's Holiday 10k on December 1st.  This actually went well considering it was only 6 days after my first Half Marathon.  I also won an award for finishing in the top 50 men, but since there were only 53 men in the race it was almost a gimme!

On December 3rd we went to see Eddie Vedder in a solo show.  This was an amazing show and now I really can't wait until the next Pearl Jam tour!

We then took a 3 day cruise on the Disney Dream with my mother.  It was our first cruise on the Dream, but it means we have now cruised on all of the Disney Cruise Line ships!  While on the cruise we went to Nassau for a few hours and then we spent some time relaxing on the ship.  We got to go to a Mixology seminar and had a great time with it.  On the last day of the cruise we ran the Castaway Cay 5k.  I found that   running a 5K on a cruise is difficult with all of the eating and drinking that takes place!

When we got off the cruise we spent the day at Walt Disney World looking at the Christmas decorations and experiencing the Osborne Lights.  We also were able to meet up with some of our Foolish friends from Canada and the Isle of Man!

We then had to go back to the real world for a day and then back to Disney World for a day to spend more time with our Foolish friends.  We spent the day in Epcot riding the new Test Track and drinking at the Tequila bar before having lunch in France and attending the Candlelight Processional.

On December 15th we ran two races. I ran the Say No to Drugs 10k in the morning and then the Santa's Twilight 5k in the evening.  I ran a strong 10k and just missed a PR. For the 5k I ran with Jenny as a fun run and ran in a Christmas Tree costume.

For the rest of the month we prepared for Christmas.  Jenny's parents came for Christmas and then it was onto new years.

Unfortunately I didn't get to run nearly as many miles as I wanted.  I only ran 46.4 miles.  That wrapped up the year and now I can focus on a busy 2013 and my first full year of running!