It's Groundhog Day, and sure enough, I've been through this before - twice, in fact. Out the door at 3:30 AM CST, drive 2 hours on dark Florida rural roads, arrive at the parking garage midway between the start and finish at 6:30 AM EST - in plenty of time to get to the start and be ready for the 7:30 start. So far, so good. Now, just walk/jog 0.6 miles on Pensacola Street, and Bob's your Uncle, the starting line will be right there. Except it isn't. I've come about a mile, and there's no starting line. In fact, this area looks an awful lot like the general vicinity of the finish. I went the wrong way. Now it's a mile back, plus that original 0.6-mile distance to the start, and it's no longer a walk/jog; it's a run. Quite a warmup.
The hilliness of the first half of the race (on city streets) always seems to astound me. But then, it's Groundhog Day; I've been here before. I reach halfway in just under 1:59, and now it's time to get serious. The second half is flat; it's around a lake and out and back on a bike trail. I would like to keep these mile splits more steady at just under nine minutes. I usually do manage to run the second half of this race fairly well.
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| Making my usual face at mile 8.5 |
The mile splits are indeed pretty good (but then, it's Groundhog Day). Until they aren't. Miles 14 through 20 were all under nine minutes as my 20-mile split is under three hours. But the weather, which had been quite nice, gets warmer, my left hip begins to ache, and I simply get very tired. Consequentially, I slow down some. It would have been nice to beat the 3:55 time that I've done here before (remember, it's Groundhog Day), but now I just want to beat four hours. Can I do it?
The wheels don't come completely off, and somehow, I do. I cross the finish line in 3:57. I win my age group as well. That's good, since this is an RRCA Championship race this year. But those last six miles were pretty darn tough. When does this get easier?
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| It feels good to finish |
Some additional thoughts. This seemed like a lot of work. I am happy with the result, but maybe it could have been a little bit better. I take what I can get these days. There were only 299 marathoners, but thousands in the half and the relay. After the half/full split occurred, it got extremely lonely. But that was okay. Volunteers and organization are as good as it gets for a race of this size. I wish it wasn't quite so far from where we stay. All in all, it's a really good race. I'll come back if I can.
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