Tuesday, November 2, 2010

2nd Annual Florida Halloween Halfathon 13.1 Review


2nd Annual Florida Halloween Halfathon 13.1 Review

This weekend was the 2nd Annual Florida Halloween Halfathon at Ft Desoto FL.  This event is put on by the Florida Gulf Beaches Road Races and is part of a four part race series.  This company always hosts fantastic races.

Ft Desoto Beach

This race was held at Fort Desoto Beach which is located at the southern tip of St Petersburg.  This beach is one of the best in the world.  The beach was given the honor as top beach in America by Dr Beach.  In 2008 and 2009 Fort De Soto Park was named America's Top Beach by TripAdvisor.

The Family

This was the very first time our family ran a half marathon together.  This was my stepson’s very first 13.1mile race.  He had a good time and did well for his first race. He's hooked and wants to do more. 
Triston with his bling

 My Race Results

I ran this race naked (i.e. without the assistance of my Garmin).  My Garmin watch went dead even before the race started.  As I ran I tried to team up with someone who was about my pace.  I started running with some ultra-distance runners (my first mistake).  They were hanging at a nice pace but slowly sped up to an 8:45.  I stayed with them till mile 8.  Then I had to slow down.  Later I paced off another runner who was trying to break the 2 hour mark.  My goal for the season was to break the two hour mark so I tried to hang with her.

This is an absolutely flat race.  No hills, bridges or banked roads.  It is a perfect race to PR.  Last year I sent my PR (2:06:01) at this race.  This year I blasted my PR with a 1:56:29 and an 8:55 pace.  Yippie!!



Race Review (Race Grade A)
All the races “Florida Gulf Beaches Road Races” hosts are great.

Lets start with the most important thing first. The after race food is was great.  This race they had Fig Newtons, cookies, pretzels, bananas, croissants, mini muffins, penne pasta with meatballs, water, various sodas, FREE BEER and much more.  During the race they supplied you with water and Gatoraid.

The Spread

The race is held in one of the nicest beaches in the US so the scenery is great.  It is also nice to go to the beaches after the race.  They also have a huge dog part and a gorgeous dog beach.

The medals are really cool also (see below).  They are a running Halloween starfish.  They also gave out additional medals (3 deep) for all age groups

The Cool Medal

I only have two complaints about this race.  1) Some additional water stops would have been nice.  2) There were no timers along during the race.

This is absolutely great race!! I highly recommend it to everyone!!

Below are photos of some of the costumes from the race.

Mrs Captain America

Cool Clown

The Flash

"Hot" Hooters "Girls"

Old Ladies?
Bonnie as a Bar Maid

Chewie as a squirrel

Triston as a Mad Banana (I love the pouty face)
Mr Half TRI-ing

The scariest costume...

12 comments:

  1. Nice work on the PR! It must be great running as a family -- especially with scenery like that. I am very jealous of your Floridian beaches!

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  2. Congrats again on such a great race!!!! I love that the whole family came out to run!

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  3. Congrats on the PR. Improving your half Marathon time by almost 10 minutes is a great achievement.

    I'd love to do a race where they have free beer after the race. I can't think of a better recovery drink :-).

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  4. Family matters !!! that's awesome. Great race, great time put down too.
    FREE BEER is like a special little bonus.

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  5. Looks like a fantastic race!!! The post race meal looked especially yummy.

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  6. Thanks for the comment on my blog! Congrats on your PR, too!! I love that your family ran a half marathon together. I can't convince my hubby to run but hope to get my son out there w/ me when he's old enough!

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  7. That looks like a great race - and I totally want that starfish medal!!! Maybe one day I can venture to Florida to run a race!! Congratulations on smashing your PR!!

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  8. @Everyone - Thank you for the comments

    @Morgan - It always feels special to have the famous READHEAD RUNNER post a comment on my blog. I feel super special. LOL :-) Really, thanks for the comments and help with the blog.

    @TRI714 - Free beer BUT it was Michelob Ultra so its not worth the calories. My plants don't even like it as fertilizer.

    @Stacey - That was only a portion of the spread. They also had penne pasta with meatballs.

    @Jill - The starfish medal is cool. It has a mask and pumpkin teeth for Halloween. The winter race he sports a Santa hat and the summer race he has swim trunks on.

    Kevin
    http://halftriing.blogspot.com

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  9. Nice work on the PR! *shakes fist at Garmin* I love my Garmin (310XT) too, but man, sometimes it just doesn't like to work. (And sometimes I just forget to charge it!)

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  10. Woohoo! Congrats on your race and a new PR! That is awesome! I cannot believe all of the food they had after the race! Yum!

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  11. Love the starfish bling, super cute! I could never run in costume, CHAFFING must be wicked in some of those outfits. Someday I'll break 2 hours, until then I will virutally high 5 others that do. Great job! High 5!

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  12. DUDE!!!! You had me at FREE BEER! The food looks awesome. I would’ve run 2km straight tot eh food and forgot about the rest of the race.
    This is awesome to be able to run with the family. That’s just got to be incredible.
    The ‘mad banana’ is hilarious…his face makes the costume.
    And that last costume…DAMN…yeah…what IS that? The Wolfman?
    Lol…loved this post man.

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