It's all relative

Holiday Half- Madeira Beach

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Location:

FL,United States

Member Since:

Feb 08, 2015

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

Certified course PR's:

Mile: 4:28.0 (Florida, Jan 2020)

5K: 15:12 (FL, Jan. 2020)

10K: 31:44 (FL, Feb. 2020)

15K: 49:03 (FL, Feb. 2020)

1/2 Marathon: 1:10:34 (FL, Feb. 2020)

Marathon: 2:26:57 (WA, July 2019)

100k (63.7 miles, trail): 9:11:00 (FL, Jan. 2019)

Personal:

I started running in 2010 and have (mostly) kept it a habit ever since!  

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Race: Holiday Half- Madeira Beach (13.109 Miles) 01:16:19, Place overall: 2, Place in age division: 2
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
2.5413.1115.65

Holiday Half- Madeira Beach Race Report

The race is kind of a cool one for its location.  This is a point-to-point half marathon with 3 bridges to cross over and 1 incline.  There was a headwind for the majority of it, but it wasn't terrible, probably a consistent 7-10 mph.  The weather otherwise was about as good as it gets for Florida- low 60s and no sun.  Needless to say I was pretty confident a 1:14 flat was in the cards especially with managing my pace, which I planned on doing.

The race started off the way I would have hoped it to, as a decent sized group of six plus me ran the first couple of miles together.  I was shooting for 5:40 miles the whole way and thought that'd be perfectly manageable given my fitness.  Sean was the only one in front during that time- like usual- as he likes to run out in front at the beginning of races.  He led the way for 2 miles and I caught him in mile 3 with a contingent still of about 6 other guys.  By mile 4 the group began to dwindle, and by mile 6 it was just Jonathan and myself.  I felt confident in my pace, so I kept it right in the 5:40s.  I really did feel relaxed and confident.

Mile 7 and 8 went okay with only the second of the inclines slowing me down a bit, but I wasn't really worried at this point.  Although off pace, I was  only about 35 seconds back by mile 9 and still thought I had a shot at closing the gap, but the excuses started building up in my brain.  My breathing was fine, I just lost focus on my form, staying loose, and also succombed to tired legs.  By mile 10 I was 1:15 back and felt defeated- not about the runner in front of me, but defeated that the pace had somehow become too challenging.  I sped up the last two miles simply to hold off third and fourth place... Had they not been there this time would have been in the 1:17:30s for sure.  Jonathan finished quite handily 2+ minutes in front of me.  I finished second with about a 16 second lead on the next pair of runners.

Splits- 5:41, 5:40, 5:39, 5:43, 5:41, 5:48, 5:56, 5:45, 5:49, 6:11, 6:10, 5:48, 5:55, 0:35 finish

No time to spell check, oops.

Comments
From Tom K on Wed, Dec 13, 2017 at 06:45:49 from 47.206.60.114

That Sunday morning weather was really great! Sorry things didn't work out like you planned. Good job holding off 3rd and 4th place guys!

From Jason D on Wed, Dec 13, 2017 at 13:40:49 from 73.144.91.168

Man, you whip back into shape quickly. It's important to look where you were just a few weeks ago I think. You're definitely racing yourself back into shape.

From allie on Wed, Dec 13, 2017 at 14:08:16 from 172.4.198.186

nice job. holding off those guys to maintain 2nd shows a lot of strength -- even though you felt defeated you sped up instead of giving in. you can't just will yourself to do that if you don't have the fitness to back it up. :)

no one has time for spell check these days, it's totally cool. u just say whatev u want and we'll git it

From Mike on Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 08:18:28 from 168.213.5.107

Weather was beautiful, Tom! Sad it was wasted.

@ Jason- thanks, it certainly doesn't feel like a quick process, so I appreciate the support.

@ Allie- third place would have never let me live it down! He's (on his own admittance) been averaging a pint of ice cream per week for the last month.

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