Ft De Soto Half Marathon aka Florida Beach Halfathon

This was a Half Marathon run at the Ft De Soto Park at the most southern tip of Pinellas County, Florida (Tampa Bay area).  The official name for this event is the "Florida Beach Halfathon". The park itself is mostly known for some awesome beaches – they really are spectacular.  The course ran mostly on a cement recreational trail with a little bit through a parking lot, thereby negating the need to close off streets. Best off all, it was pancake flat.

643 runners toed the starting line for the HM.  I managed to finish 190^th overall and 9^th out of 22 in my gender age group with a 1:57:54 chip time (9:00 min/mile pace).  Given some recent challenges, my goal was mostly to just cross the finish line, but I was realistically hoping for anything less than a 2:11:00 finish (that’s a 10:00 min/mile pace…). 

But I need to back up a bit….  Six months ago my doc labeled me as “pre-diabetic”, i.e. my A1c was 6.2 at my last blood draw, and I put myself on severe carb and sugar restrictions.  This of course totally whacked my ability to run; I wasn’t able to run a mile without stopping to walk. I had no juice. I dropped out of 3 HM’s that I had hoped to run this season – how could I run them if I couldn’t even go 3 miles? Long story short: I met with a nutritionist/dietitian who schooled me on my diet, particularly in consideration of my desired physical activities (I’ll probably discuss all this after my next blood draw and I have some quantifiable data as to the results or effects, if any, of my diet). In addition to my diet issue, I was also working on rehabbing a piriformis muscle pull (see earlier post – good fun!), and while much better, has continued to linger. But with the Florida running season coming to a close, I really wanted to run a HM and this particular event was the last one within a reasonable driving distance. So I signed up realizing that it may not be a memorable run, but at least I would give it a go.

When I first looked at the course I noticed that the first three miles are a loop through a picnic area and then back through the starting area again before shooting out to the extremes of the park – and I kind of grimaced at that…  I was concerned that the first three miles would crowded going through that picnic area and basically repeating parts of the course. But in reality, there was no problem, there was plenty of room to run, and I didn’t pay that much attention to the fact that I was running through the Start area again. I remember one event, the Detroit HM, going over the Ambassador Bridge, where we were so crowded that we were barely jogging 6 or 8 abreast up the bridge with no room to pass anyone. In comparison, this event was a piece of cake.  Once we finished that 3 mile loop it was about a 10 mile out-and-back shot along the very flat recreational trail.

I made an effort to properly prep for this event – I ran as many long runs as I could fit into my schedule topping out at a 14 miler. I was hoping to condition my legs (and my piriformis muscle) to the distance and train my body to run with a lower carb intake. The latter was the hardest. My legs were fine, but my energy levels sucked. As a result, my pace was nothing short of horrible. On my last 14 mile run, I averaged a 10:10min/mile pace… thus my low expectations.

The day before the event, instead of “carb loading” as I have done for previous distance events, I simply substituted fresh baked white bread for a sandwich (I’d been on whole wheat or multi-grain, i.e. complex carbs) and had pita bread with dinner… nothing crazy…  On race day morning, at 4AM I had a hardboiled egg and a peanut butter sandwich on white bread.  I got there early enough to loosen up and stretch. An hour prior to the start I took 3 Speed Legs tablets, and then 30 minutes prior, downed a 5hr Energy shot. I hit the port-a-potty, ran some sprints to warm up, did the usual shoe lace tightening – loosening thing, found a spot in the back of the starting area and sat down to wait for the start. I was ready.

This is a pic pre-start - and you can see that we are all a little chilly. I'm in this picture, but you can't see me because I'm way back plus I'm sitting on the pavement. The sun is just starting to break the horizon and it is a beautiful, clear, day. 

I anticipated that my first mile to be slow, somewhere in the 10min/mile range, but with all the hype and the perfect temperature (it was high 50’s) I ran it in 9:24. Mile 2 was 9:19. The next 10 miles were all sub 9 minute miles (8:41 to 8:57). 

The picture to the right is just before the mile 8 turnaround. Very scenic... the Sunshine Skyway Bridge is to the right, but out of view in this pic...

I think this pic (left) is around mile 10 or 11 - I'm in a good stride and feeling pretty strong. I did Gu at around mile 4.5 and again around mile 9. I tried to time it so that I could chase it with some water at an upcoming aid station, and that worked out really well. I considered sucking down another Gu around mile 11, but I was getting too much of a sugar-belly and I didn’t want more discomfort than necessary. However, at mile 12 I started to feel the twinges of a leg cramp, probably due to the fact that I should have run more miles in training (i.e. lack of conditioning) And having learned my lessons the hard way, I backed off, breathed deep, altered my gait, and loped in at a 9:something pace. I so did not want to have to come to a halt due to a debilitating leg cramp, not only because it would have cost me a bunch of time, but because it really hurts!  So I nursed myself in, even being ok with the fact that I got passed in the last few feet of the race (something I hate to have happen…), simply because I was thrilled to have run this HM much better than I ever expected. I crossed the finish line under 2:00 hrs. Totally thrilled! Legs were burning as a result of the effort, but thrilled!

Immediately after finishing I made my way to the beach (about 100 yards from the finish line), lost my shoes and socks, and walked into the cold Gulf of Mexico. What an awesome feeling!  My legs , ankles, and feet loved it! It was probably the best thing that I could have done. I don’t think that even a massage would have felt better.

Ok – that that was fun and it was great…  What’s next? With Florida summer soon upon us, distance events are rare. We have some 10K’s and I’d like to sign up for some. More importantly, I am anxiously waiting for my blood test results to see if my diet efforts have had an effect on my blood sugar levels. That is really what is next….