WTF Half

I got up and drove to Ft Walton beach for my first half marathon race since last October. I was really excited and hoping to have a great time. It took me about an hour and 40 minutes to get there (thanks to hardly any traffic and a lot of green lights). There was ample parking and not a whole lot of people there when I arrived, and as it turned out there wouldn't be too many more runners. I'd say there was less then 200 runners. It was a very small race and not at all what I was expecting. We ran on roads that had cars driving around us, a few small aid stations, and no port-a-potties. I found my rhythm fairly quickly and was probably running a little faster then I wanted. I started my 4:1 intervals just after 4 miles, and then at mile 7 my watch died. I was super frustrated and tried to do the intervals in my head based off of how I felt. It didn't work. My last two miles were a lot of walking. I basically got trapped in my head and kept telling myself how horrible I was doing and that I'm sure it would be my worst time ever with all the walking - which didn't help me any. When I rounded the corner to the finish there was hardly anyone there at all. No one clapped or cheered, I crossed at 2:22. I was only 2 minutes off of my best time. Turns out I wasn't doing as bad as I told myself I was, but when you're in the middle of no where surrounded by no one it's easy to tell yourself how bad you're doing and believe it. I've never ran a half marathon with that few of people before, and while my time was very normal for me, I guess for that community it was slow. When I signed up for the race a few months back I thought it would be a great training run for the marathon. I was hoping for that race atmosphere to help me control my nerves. I really, really hope that the Pensacola marathon has more support and more of a race atmosphere. It will be a very long marathon if it's just me and the road. I'll get through it, but it will be tough. It's so much better when you're surrounded by other runners who are encouraging and motivating each other. I can run alone for free all I want, when I sign up for a race I'd really like it to have that race feel. It's part of why I've enjoyed doing so many races. I guess this is part of the FL racing experience.
My team, Team RWB actually had a great representation at the race. I'd say half of the racers were in red shirts. Unfortunately, I didn't know any of them. I had met one or two back when I first moved here, but only one of them remembered me and came up to talk. I've never been very good in social situations and I have trouble approaching people; throw in a race first thing in the morning and I feel quite awkward when I don't know anyone even if I was surrounded by tons of people in the same shirt.
The Ft Walton chapter had one of the aid stations on the course and it was seriously the best one. They had about 8 people and they clapped, cheered, held signs, and took photos for us.
Here I am around mile 4.2:

 and on the way back around mile 8:

I love that I'm smiling in this picture because by this point I certainly didn't feel happy. I still had 5 miles to go, my watch had just died, and I was not feeling so hot. When I got home and took off my shoes I had a nice size blister above my toenail. I need to figure out a way to protect that toe before the marathon so it doesn't give me any trouble. It's the way I push off, I curl my toes up and then push down as I land. I'm not sure if it's something new I started, but I've definitely been noticing it more and more. It's also the same toenail that turned black on me back when I first started speed work and wore the Nike Air shoes (probably 2 years ago now). It bothers me more in my Glycerin Brooks shoe then my Ghost, so I'm leaning more towards wearing my Ghost shoes for the marathon. I might even head into the local running store this week and take a look at their shoes. I've got 2 weeks to break them in for the big day.