26.2 With Donna Marathon - 2014

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“26.2 With Donna” was supposed to be my first marathon of the season but somehow it became my 3^rd behind Jacksonville Bank and Disney.  Yes, I have a problem.  It is not hard to convince me to register for a race.



I think it's time for a new pillow.

This is an AWESOME race.  Everything about it is well run:  parking, space heaters before the race, transportation, crowd support, after party food, beautiful run on the beach, street parties, etc, neighborhoods handing out food, booze and water.  I have done over 2 dozen running races and this is by far the best run race.  This race is extremely fun and is my favorite race.

The crowd support is awesome.  Along Atlantic Avenue everyone is partying.  On Atlantic Avenue, I received three full beers, one mimosa and had six port-a-potty stops.  I was ”saving the ta-tas” while killing my liver!

A new marathon PR!!

Apparently the way to PR in a race is to visit two Jacksonville breweries the day before a race, eat ton of fried food,  drink beer during the race and stop six times for potty brakes because I PRed by about 14 minutes!!

 

Chip Time: 4:11:58

Pace: 9:36

The Marathon Bling

Strange things you see in Jacksonville, FL
Apparently, there is a market for
resale children in Jacksonville.



The world's coolest pink garbage truck

Mr Half TRIing had to sign the bump truck 

Unexpected Disney Marathon

Unexpected Disney Marathon



Dopey with TWO Grumpies

Yet again I find myself running in an unexpected marathon.  This time it was the Disney Marathon.  I will not bore you with the details but needless to say at 3 AM I found myself in Corral A.  That is “A” as in Ahh…s*** I don’t belong in this corral!!! 

For those of you who are not familiar with Disney corrals they work like this.  Corral A is for people who finish a marathon in about 02:15.  These are super fit, super human, twenty year old freaks of nature in super skimpy running outfits.  Needless to say one person in the corral did not look like the others.  There was one person sitting down in the VERY BACK of the corral trying to get over a night of too many adult beverages and too little sleep.  You guess which one I was!  I spent the next 2.5 hours being passed by everyone.

The night before the race Bonnie and I stayed with 17 friends at a Disney resort.  We had a blast.  Everyone ate and drank together.  Since I was doing a marathon the next morning I needed to “carb up” so they took me to the bar to consume far too many carbohydrate drinks. I don’t think Galloway would recommend this pre-race routine.

As you expected, I completed the Disney Marathon JUST behind all my newly discoved “Corral A” friends.  I think they were all intimated by my hangover and beer gut so they ran slower than expected times.  I did the Jacksonville Bank Marathon only two weeks before this race so I don’t believe I was fully recovered but I felt great.  I ran my normal race pace and enjoyed being alive and fit enough to complete two marathons in three weeks.  I know I am not a fast runner, I’m just thankful my body can do all that I push it to do.  Four years ago I could not run to my car so I have come a long way in a short period of time.  I'm proud of my slow self!




The view from the 15th story of the Disney resort.
(Space Mountain and the castle are in the background)

The dancing, hula Santa that was in our room.
Doesn't everyone have a dancing,
hula Santa in their hotel room?!



One of the many pre-race trips to the bar.



All 17 people having our dinner together.




The bling

Bling Close-up



Jacksonville Bank Marathon Review 2013

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Jacksonville Bank Marathon Review 2013

On Sunday, I completed my first marathon in a long time. I was not planning on doing this marathon but my wife convinced me a few days before the event that we should do it.  This meant no taper time from last weeks 24 mile run but the race is only about 5 miles from my best friend’s house in Jacksonville so it was not hard to convince me to do the race. I love visiting him.

The night before the race, I treated my friend and his wife to dinner at Culhanes Irish Pub in Atlantic Beach, FL (near Jacksonville). This place is AWESOME! It was featured on Guy Fieri’s “Diner, Drive-ins and Dives” on the food network. It was also honorable mention as the best Irish Pub in America, top 10 restaurants in Jacksonville.

I got the “Fingle Fish Pie” (Fresh cod, shrimp, salmon, diced potatoes and peas in a garlic seasoned Parmesan cream sauce, crusted with cheddar cheese) and Bonnie got the “Guinness Beef Stew” (Certified Angus Beef braised in Guinness beer and slow cooked with barley, baby portabellas, carrots and onions in savory gravy. Served over diced potatoes.). Both meals were unbelievable. We also got the bread pudding and a beer or two for desert. It was a great pre-race meal. Bonnie had to roll me out of the place but I slept like a baby.

The race started on Sunday at 7:00 am. The forecast called for a 70% change of severe thunderstorms till around 3:00 pm. Not a good sign. The race temperature was in the mid 70s with humidity through the roof.

Thirty minutes into the race the rain started. Then about 10 minutes later the monsoon rains came down!!  It rained pretty much the entire race. It varied on and off from sprinkling to monsoon throughout the entire race.

The race goes through some of the richest neighborhoods in Jacksonville, FL.  You run through multi-million dollar neighborhoods with a ton of trees.  It is an absolute gorgeous race.   

The race was well supported. Every two miles there were aid tables and porta-potties. The aid stations have water, Gatorade, Power Gels (the typical aid stations). One of the house owners came out and was handing out margarita samples. I made it a point to stop both times at this “aid-station” and get my samples. :-)

I will be doing this race again next year. It was a ton fun and it was nice to stay at my best friend’s house.

Chip Time: 4:25:21
Half Split Time: 2:04:34
Pace: 10:10



The Bling

Space Coast Half Marathon 2013

Space Coast Half Marathon 2013

 

My Canadian friend and me.
This is what racing is all ABOOT, eh!!

 

Last weekend was the Space Coast Half Marathon.  This was my first race back from my back to back half ironmans (which were about three weeks ago).    I also started training for my February marathon the week before this race.  Last week I did 18 miles with a crazy friend of mine who is doing Ultra-man Florida (a 320 mile triathlon).  Needless to say my legs are not completely back.

 

I will not bore you with a race review (see below).  I have already done three previous reviews for this race.  I will just say this is a great race!!

 

I improved my race results this year by 9 HUNDREDTHS of a second. LOL 

 

13.1 Race Results

2013 1:53:30 

2010 1:53:39 
2011 2:04:01 
2010 2:07:47 

 

Race Reviews

2012 Race Review 

2011 Race Review

2010 Race Review

 

 



The Columbia Shuttle Medal

The Bling

Ocala Half Marathon 2013 Review

Ocala Half Marathon 2013




Nice Race Numbers

* 2012 Ocala Half Marathon Race Review
* 2011 Ocala Half Marathon Race Review
* 2010 Ocala Half Marathon Race Review

Another year and another Ocala Half Marathon.  Ocala was first half marathon race I ever did.  That was back in 2010.  My race time was 2:33:23 and I had no knees left at the end of the race.  Two years later I would PR at this race with a 1:52:44 and felt great.  This year I completed the race in 1:55:17 and won 3rd place in my age group and there were 10 males in my age group!!

The race this year was warmer than normal.  Temperatures were in the 60s which is MUCH warmer than many other years.  It was prefect racing weather.

I always love this race.  It's small, homely and the horse countryside is really pretty (see the 2010 review for photos of the countryside).  The hills are always a pain.




The swag this year was really BAD this year. 
Only a shirt, laundry detergent sample and two Nuun samples



My pre-race meal: Mushy peas, mash potatoes with onion gravy,
two 8oz pork chops covered in a cranberry port sauce and a beer.
!!AWESOME meal!!



Mr Half TRIing after the race.

Awards table.
I love the horse awards. I want one bad.



Clifford the Big Red Dog is
not as big as I remember him.



Dude I actually won 3rd place in my age group.
There was ten males in my age group.
(I'm on the right)



My 3rd place plaque



My 3rd place horse ribbon

The Bling

Santa Hustle 13.1 Daytona Beach, FL

Santa Hustle 13.1 Daytona Beach, FL

!!SANTA!!

 

 

It’s been a long time since I have had to do a negative race review so I may be a little rusty.

 

Bonnie and I before the deer attack.

 

Whoever advertised this race must have been hitting Santa’s special bottle or getting into the Rudolph flying dust.

The website states:

“A large after party offering a buffet of food and plenty to drink” Hogwash!!  Granted the after party was in a huge room but other than that nothing was impressive or huge about it.  The room was almost completely empty.  There was one table with cookies and one with coffee.  Volunteers and staff were nowhere to be found.  If you finished later than me there was no coffee.  There was free beer (if you wanted to wait the 30 minutes it took for the staff to go back to the freezer).  Other than the two tables there was NOTHING else in the room.  It looked sad and pathetic.

The HUGE after party!!!
!!FAIL!!

“There will be timing clocks at each mile marker along the course and the start and finish lines.”  What mile markers.  I think I saw 1 maybe 2 the whole race.  The only timing clock I saw was on mile 6.  Pass the pixie dust please.

“(Post race) There will be breakfast and concession food available as well”  LOL  If you consider only cookies, one small tray of donuts holes and empty coffee containers “breakfast and concession food”



!!Classy race result postings!!

 

“Thousands of runners dressed like Santa”  At best they had 80 half marathoners.  More of Santa’s special bottle please.

“Festive music” and  “and music along the course “ The ONLY place having any form of music was the run start/end.  Granted in the morning there was some festive music but at the race end I don’t count “Gangnam Style” as festive.

Bonie and the Snowman

“Candy, Cookie along the course”  They did have one station with cookies and one with M&Ms but no water to drink them with. You try eating dry cookies in Florida 85 degree heat while running a 13.1 with NO WATER. 

Speaking of water…  They ran out if it when I was running the course.  Keep in mind I am a middle of the packer so that means 50% of the people did not get water later in the race.  They did still have Gatoraid.  But they took down many of the aid stations BEFORE everyone finished the race so many people did not even have aid stations at the end of the race.



The ENTIRE run was on the beach

 

Speaking of Aid Stations:  Each station had at best 2 volunteers.  Most had one volunteer.  I felt bad for them trying to do all that work by themselves.  You try handing water out to 20 people at a time with only 1 maybe 2 volunteers at the water station.

“From the Windy City to the warm beaches in the Sunshine State,”  You bet it was warm.  The race did not start to 9AM (5K at 9:30AM).  That means the outside temperate at race start was in the mid-80s.  Why would you ever start a race in FL at 9AM.  It’s too late.  It gets hot and traffic on A1A (the only road) starts to get really busy around race end.

Notice the deflating finish line.
They had to hold it up for some finishers!!
Luckily they fixed it later.

Speaking of Traffic...  The cops decided to leave BEFORE the race ended so 50 meters before the finish line you had to stop and wait for the light to change.  Nice.
“Free hat, beard and customized shirt.”  There were at least three different shirt materials floating around.  My wife got a tech shirt and I got a shirt that was apparently made from roofing insulation. Mine was hotter than heck.  The hat and beard were of VERY poor quality and would not hold up through the race so I did not wear mine.  Beard fuse was coming off as soon as I pulled it out of the race bag.  Bonnie red shirt bleed and stained her race bra red.  Those shirts went straight into the trash.  I do not want any pink underwear.

This race had HUGE potential but was a huge let down.  Maybe the 5K was better but I will not be doing the race again next year.

X-mas Florida Style

 

More Half Fanatics

 

Santa says hi

 

Age Group Awards.
I got 2:25:09 and still got 3rd place!!

 

The Race Bling

Don't be fooled



When deers attack

Martha saved Bonnie!!

Thank you Martha

Victory over the deer!!

 

I think "Marty the Moose is smiling.

OUC Half Marathon Orlando

OUC Half Marathon Orlando

2010 OUC Half Marathon Race review is located here.

Yesterday was the OUC Half Marathon in Orlando.  This is always a great race and it's pretty much in my back yard.  The race passes within on block of my house.  The course is also about 70% of the course I run every weekend for my 70.3 training (which makes it a little boring for me). Unfortunately, the race is also held on about 2 miles of old brick which loves to mess with my knees.

The race went really well for me considering how many races I have completed in the past month.  I had Rev3 70.3, and then two weeks later I had Miami Man 70.3.  The week after that was Space Coast 13.1 and this race followed seven days later.  Next week I have the Santa Run 13.1.  Needless to say I am investing in Advil lately.

I completed the race in 1:55:03 with a 8:46 pace.  Which is two minutes faster then my 2010 result.



Beautiful Downtown Orlando



Swans in Lake Eola



Orlando's sister city is Urayasu, Japan



Lake Eola' Japanese pagoda in honor of our sister city

Several drummers came from Japan to play for us at the race.
This was REALLY cool!! (see a video of them below).

Video of the Japanese drummers (really cool).



Bonnie flying past the drummers

Stupid me

Mentos, the fresh maker!

Age grouper awards

The Bling