We were on the road
by 5:00am to allow enough time to get down to the beach in the weather. I thought I would be able to sleep on the road
but the heavy rains made me too nervous.
I was thinking the cost of a hotel room might have been better than
driving through that! We only made a
couple of brief stops but still cut it very close. By the time we finally made it to Stahlman Park
I was getting really nervous because it was twenty minutes to start time and I
needed to get my packet and do all of my little pre-race things.
The half marathon was scheduled to begin at 8. Because of lightning we ended up delaying the
start until 9:20. Thank goodness packet
pick up was indoors because it gave us a dry place to wait out the lightning
storm and watch the poor marathoners who started at 7 and were running through
all that heavy rain. Roman enjoyed
eating pretzels and playing pick-up sticks with the twist ties on the chip
timing table while we waited. It was a
good time hanging out with my friends before the race and discussing how crazy
we all were to run in this. Finally it
was time to head down the ramp to the starting line. It was a mess. There were huge puddles and lots of mud. It took a bit to slosh through it all to
cross over the timing mat and then we were off.
Somehow I lost my friends so I lined up and started on my own. It wasn’t long before Kim passed me and
another minute or two until Kelly caught me. We spent the majority of the race
together. I really enjoyed having her
company. There were a few times when it
was tough to keep up with her but I think it worked out well for the most part
to have each other to pace off of. The
course is run entirely on the beach. We
headed about two and a half miles down to the first turn around. The rain had let up for this portion of the
run. It wasn’t long before I had to tie
my jacket around my waste. It began to
lightly sprinkle when we hit the turnaround point and we launched onto the six
and a half mile stretch down the beach to another turn around point. This stretch was the most challenging run I
have done in a long time. We were
heading into the wind for this stretch and the rain began to fall quite heavily
for the majority of the time. I got
really cold and was glad I had taken my jacket. At some points the sand was very soft and we
were sinking with each step so we needed to stay close to the tide where the
sand was packed the most. At first we
were dodging the tide but eventually it seemed to take more energy to run away
from it than to run through it and I just let it catch me. This, of course, kept my feet freezing for the
most part. At one point I was tempted to
take off the shoes and run barefoot but there was too much debris on the beach. In fact, I missed most of the mile markers because
I was watching the ground. The soft sand,
the dodging of beach debris, the running through water both ocean tide and many
a raging river of rain water draining down the beach coupled with the strong
resistance of the wind and heavy rains made this quite a work out. My legs were really feeling it. Finally we
reached the turnaround point and were headed back toward the finish line. In an
instant the wind was gone and I was blazing hot. I tied my jacket around my
waste again and was disappointed that I didn’t feel in assistance what I did in
resistance from the wind. By now the
rain had let up and the sun even peaked out for a little while. I really enjoyed this stretch of the
course. My legs felt great and with the
wind to our backs I felt really strong and running felt easy. It felt good to go ‘fast’ at this point. With about two miles to go Kelly fell back and
I pulled ahead. I was really surprised
because early on I thought she would be the one to pull ahead of me. Without the resistance of the wind, I was
really trying to push myself to finish under three hours. I was really feeling it but was able to push
through until the cramps set in. For
about the last mile I would run and run until the cramps were too much and then
walk them out and run and run and walk out the cramps. When I saw the finish line, I still had a
chance to finish under three so I ran as hard as I could. It was really hard to kick in at the finish
because the beach was so muddy at the finish chute that I had to slosh through
it as quickly as I could safely do. I
crossed the line with 2:58:49 on my Garmin. The race results showed 2:59:07.
After some really strong Gatorade and pictures with my
friends the ocean was looking very inviting.
The best part about running near the beach is the ocean. I took off my shoes and socks and headed in
to let the waves hit my legs. It felt
wonderful. I rinsed the sand out of my
shoes the best I could and here is where I went wrong. I put the shoes back on. This was a very painful task and I would not recommend
it. Having to point my toes to put my
feet back in the shoes was enough to tie my toes up with cramps. Flip flops next time!!! Flip flops!!
Despite the challenges this race posed, it was probably the
most fun I have had at a race so far.
The sound of crashing waves in my ears, soaked to the bone with rain,
kicking sea shells, splashing in puddles, sloshing around in the mud, fighting
the wind- carefree. There aren’t many
days like that.
|
Finally we are off |
|
Me and Kelly running into the storm |
|
You can see how strong the wind was! |
|
Sloshing to the finish line |
|
Mission accomplished |
|
Tough enough to beat that storm!!! |
|
Mother Nature's Ready Made Ice Bath |
|
Me, Marta, Kelly, Kim
Showing off our bling!! |