Race Report: Orange Blossom Half Marathon

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I finished my 8th Half Marathon this morning with my 2nd fastest finish time. I was trying to PR, but I gave it my all so I'm thrilled with my performance. Here are the stats:

• 2:30:26 finish time
• 11:29 m/m pace
• 78 out of 107 females
• 162 out of 202 overall
• 8 out of 8 in age group
• splits: http://j.mp/gwVfq6
• intervals: 2/1

I woke up at 4:30 a.m. (it amuses me that we woke earlier for the hot air balloon ride the previous day) and were on our way to Tavares by 5:15 a.m. We had an hour drive, I still had to pick up my packet, and Jason needed to register for the 5k. After we did all that, we returned to the car to stay warm until the start.

With about 10 minutes to spare, we walked to the start and found Maddy. Everyone was standing around wondering where the actual start was, and eventually everyone shuffled over to it. This being a really small race, about 260 total for both the 5k and half marathon, there was no starting mat. While waited at the start, I met a few girls also doing the Galloway method who happened to be Yolanda's friend. It wasn't long before we saw Yolanda. She and her friends were a great cheering section throughout the course. The race started about 20 minutes late, which worried me because the forecast called for thunderstorms around 9 am and I was hoping to miss most of it.

Thankfully the rain never materialized to more than a drizzle for a few minutes, but it was really windy the entire time because the course was adjacent to a lake. At one point my hat flew off, and I had to run with my head down to keep it from flying off again. When the wind was not blowing, it felt really humid. This was a really tough race because of that, but I gave it my all and that's all that matters. I pushed really hard and still negative split the race even if not by as much as usual.

This was a really small race, but it was well supported and monitored. The course was a bit weird, with two out and backs, but it was flat except for the slanted roads near curves. The 5k started after the half, and the half ran the 5K loop before going for the 2nd out and back, so it was cool to see Jason finishing as I was nearing mile 4. Speaking of Jason, he finished the 5K 2nd overall! Apparently when I saw him the 2nd time, the 1st place winner had just passed him. I'm so ridiculously proud of him! 

After I finished, I headed for the food tent but there wasn't much left. The bananas were gone and all they had was hot dogs (yuck), cookies, and mini donuts. I took a bite of a coconut covered mini donut, but it didn't taste so great, so I threw the rest out. We went to Perkins instead for some eggs and potatoes. Yum!