Oceanside Physical Therapy Halloween Half Marathon

Wow.  What a difference race organizers make.  As you may remember, my last half marathon? Not so good.  Frusterating, tear producing, bad in fact.  But yesterday's half-marathon? Well, let me tell you. It was awesome.


I drove up to Jensen Beach at a ridiculous hour for a Sunday morning, but again all of this early morning running is perfect training for my first marathon in January.  Kimberly, my local ROTE friend was starting early with her Galloway group and as I drove in all you could see in the pitch black darkness was hundreds of bright flashing lights running along the road.  It made for the perfect fun/scary start to the race.  I parked and grabbed my timing chip and race goody bag.  I cannot tell you how excited I am by the race shirt.  It is amazing!  Long-sleeved orange tech shirt with a very cool zombie graphic. I'd compare it to a shirt you would expect to have to buy at an expo as compared to the race shirt itself. 




Race start: as usual I am happily in the back

The atmosphere of the whole race was wonderful. The volunteers were well organized and the runners were very friendly.  We headed out right at 6:30 and made our way to the first bridge.  With the remnants from Hurricane Sandy earlier in the week, it was quite blustery on that first bridge but I made it.  Now, no matter how excited I was about the race, the tech shirt or everyone's wonderful costumes I was tired and did not feel like running on this particular Sunday morning.  It is not like me to begin questioning why I chose to run this race, especially at mile 2, but on this particular day my enthusiasm was at an all time low. 
Earlier in the week I had asked several all knowing, all seeing ROTERS on how to really make run walk intervals work for you in a race context.  With my dampened spirit, I thought that a PR wasn't in the cards so why not use this as a great experiment with intervals for Wine and Dine. 

What a difference a walk interval makes.  Not only did I PR this race by over 7 minutes, but my enthusiasm came back, along with my confidence. On average, I ran 5 minutes and walked for 30 seconds- trying to keep in mind that I shouldn't come to a halt right in front of other runners and my general or I should say initial distrust of the method. I felt like I could push myself harder and faster than I would dare to try if I was just running the whole 13.1 miles and I did my best to listen to my body and ignore my watch. 


Let me tell you- I was happily crusing along thinking that I had a shot at a sub 2:10 pace, even with the wind and the sun fully up- but then I saw it.  And I thought thank goodness for the possibility of a walk break and thinking of it I will take one right now.  This beast. At mile 11.


Ouch. It looks just as much like a roller coaster in person as it does in this picture

Ouch. Add in some serious wind and a general fear of heights? No, I did not drop to my knees and crawl across the top of the bridge but it did cross my mind.  But I made it and I made it with enough "oomph" to finish strong. As we came off the bridge there was more great course support including this lovely lady.  We came back into the park with beautiful views of the intercoastal waterway, with local sports teams chEARing us on.  I had the total joy of running across the finish line with Kimberly and receiving a fabulous zombie-themed finishers medal.  For those local to South Florida, down in Palm Beach, Stuart or Vero for a vacation over the Halloween weekend I would highly recommend this race.  It was well thought out, had a beautiful and easy to remember course, wonderful on-course support and a great "feel".  For me it will become a fall tradition... that is unless I run Marine Corps Marathon next year... but that debate is for another post. :)