Best Damn Race Half Marathon - recap

On Saturday March 3rd I ran the Best Damn Race Half Marathon in downtown Orlando.  It was a crazy day ... Mason's last basketball game, Anderson's birthday party, and my mom's birthday.  Unfortunately all of that meant that I went to my race alone and didn't have my family cheering me on.  I was lucky to have friends racing the 10k who hung out with me before start time, and I had friends who watched me finish.

It was a chilly morning and I considered keeping my long sleeve shirt on for the race ... luckily I talked myself out of that and kept it at bag check. 

The race had a lot of cobblestone ... not my favorite running surface.  It's unsteady and the fear of falling is usually overwhelming.  Fortunately there were also sections of the race on asphalt/road. 

I maintained an excellent pace per mile until about mile 10-11.  I just started to get slower and slower and wanted the race to end.  Around mile 12 I saw my friend Mike and that gave me the motivation to pick up the pace and kick it into gear until the end.  With less than 1/4 mile to go I heard him and his wife Christina cheering me on and I sprinted to the finish.  They were kind enough to wander around with me while I collected my things from bag check and grabbed a beer.

 

Official time - 1:45:53, 8:05 pace

12th female 35-39 years old

42nd female out of 513 finishers

ZKS Winter Park Road Race 10k - recap

On Saturday March 24th I ran the final race in the Track Shack's Fanatics Series.  The ZKS Winter Park Road Race 10k was the 6th race of the season. 

Total Finishers: 2987
Men: 1085
Women: 1902

I placed 9th in the Women's division 35-39, with a time of 47:23 minutes. 

After the awards ceremony for the race, they did the awards ceremony for the Fanatics Series.  I placed 3rd in my age group with only 29 points (they award points for each race based on whether or not you place).  Unfortunately they only handed out awards to the first place finishers of each age group so I did not come home with any awards, boo.  I've already signed up for the series for 2018-2019 so fingers crossed I get much faster and beat out those speedy 35-39 females!