Seaside Half Marathon

What a beautiful day for a foot race!!  So glad mine was at the beach.  This is what it looked like as my sister & I headed to Seaside.

Mel (my sister) and I came down to her house in Destin on Friday and spent a wonderfully lazy day shopping, eating, and reading while it rained yesterday.  We got up bright and early and headed over to Seaside, Florida for a 7 am race start. On the drive over, Mel read Hebrews 12:1 to me several times.  I really have to commit that one to memory.  I drew on it throughout all 13.1 miles.  Spent some time around mile 5 praying for all my friends who were racing today, some here, others in New Orleans.  Hope they all had excellent, record setting runs!!

The race started okay, the first 4 miles were spent adjusting some mild wardrobe malfunctions, but I was pretty much on my target and felt great.  At mile 4(ish), I got a wonderful surprise – my man was here!!  He didn’t tell me he was coming, so I was deliriously happy to see him.  I handed off my Ipod (which will not get to race again – it annoys me during a race), my gloves and my arm warmers.  I don’t know if you can see the huge smile on my face, but Gary took this when I first saw him.  All today’s blog pics (including the sunrise beach) are courtesy of my man.

Still felt really strong until Mile 9, when my right hamstring started giving me grief and I got a stitch in my right side.  I stretched some during the 1 minute walk breaks and was able to stay on course.

That’s me in the black/purple skirt.

Stayed on pace until mile 11 when the nausea hit, then serious GI distress set in.  Not to be deterred, I slowed my pace and walked a bit.  I put my left hand on my tummy & lifted the right one to God and asked Him to take the tummy issues away until the race end.  Man, He’s faithful.  Nausea subsided, tummy settled some, had a slight side stitch, but I maintained a walking pace for most of mile 11, then picked up the run at mile 12.   Mostly ran to the end, with just a few 10 second walk breaks, but mile 11 did me in as far as time went.  Finished 2 minutes over my goal pace, but I’m putting this one in the win column.  After 2 weeks with a tummy virus, not training for as long as I needed to, then hamstring issues, I’ll take it.  Hopefully, by my next half, I’ll be properly trained and all injury issues will be distant memories.  Hey, a girl can dream, right?  It’s not until the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so I think that will give me plenty of time.  

Loved this beautiful race, it was well run, clean, lots of volunteer help.  Not much crowd support, but there were some great signs along the route.  One of my favorites:

That’s my man’s shadow, he liked the sign, too.  Unfortunately, it was pretty true for me today.  

Will certainly try to do this race next year.  They have GREAT swag:

At the finish line with my new Vera Bradley purse!

Next up: Warrior Dash in Spendora, Texas in two weeks.  The whole family is running.  Are we ready, girls?  You know Dad is going to kick butt!