12th Annual Chick-fil-a Miracle Miles 15K race

12th Annual Chick-fil-a Miracle Miles 15K race

The summers here in Florida are brutal for runners.  Even if you get up at 4-6 AM it can be in the mid 80s with a ridiculous humidity.  So I decided to take the summer off running and focus on my swimming and cycling.

Saturday marked my first running race back since taking off the summer.  It was the 12th Annual Chick-fil-a Miracle Miles 15K race.  This race was run by Track Shack of Orlando so you know it is going to be a well organized race (which it was). The weather was overcast and sprinkled lightly during some of the race.  It was definitely not as hot as last year but it was still in the mid 80s. 

  

 The 15K race had over 1700 runners and the 5K had 1508 participants so it was well attended.  Several dozen vendors handed out great food.  They had crab dip with chips, ceviche, yogurt parfait, pot roast sandwiches, Asian salad, key lime pie, bananas, watermelon, water, etc.  Chick-fil-a gave you a coupon for a free spicy chicken sandwich which we got and ate after the race.  I love those!!

 This race is held right in the middle of Orlando and the course follows the roads I take every day to go home.  It even comes within a block of my house.  It is not a very scenic route and is pretty darn boring to run.  This made passing the time really hard.

The night before the race I met some friends for a few pints and got very little sleep thanks to my pets waking me up every hour for food, potty breaks and the cat just wanting to be a pain in my neck.  This caused me to start the race in a slight daze but I soon settled into the run.  I hate running along and like to find someone to pace with and kill the time.  I started off the first 3 miles talking to two local triathletes but I soon pulled away from them and met up with an Ironman.  He told me all his stories and they helped to pass the time.

I finished the race with a chip time of 1:31:05 with an average pace of 9:46:3.  I finished 71st out of 113 runners in my age group and 690th out of 1713 runners overall.  Not bad considering I have taken several months off running and was in a sleepless daze.  My race pace from last season was very close to a 9 minute pace and I think I will soon get back to that point. 

 This race was special because the whole family decided to run it.  Triston (my step-son) is training for his first half marathon.  This race was the longest run he has ever done and he did great.  He was not a rocket (neither am I) but he completed the race strong and looked great.  Soon he may be able to keep up with this old man but he will never pass me ;-) .  (Triston stop reading this blog at school and get back to paying attention to your work).  His next race is his big day, the Florida Halloween Halfathon 13.1. 

 Bonnie met up with some friends who were trying to qualify for the Washington DC race so she ran with them and she had a good race also. (She does not read my blog so she will never see this).

So another race in the books (not the record books).  Tomorrow (Sunday) I have the Ride-4-Ronald metric century ride so I need my rest.  I hope to see the Humble Triathlete there.  She said she would be in attendance doing the metric century.