First Watch Sarasota Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

I really enjoyed this race! The course was scenic enough to keep my mind occupied and the weather was gorgeous. No clouds and just a nice breeze to keep us cool on the way back. The very last mile was getting pretty warm and we had to run right into the sun so that was a bit intense.

I started the race running with Tom but I let him go out ahead at the 2 mile mark. This was the first race I've run with a Garmin and I found myself quite preoccupied with just exactly how fast I was running. I was hovering right around 9-9:30 min/mile until around mile 3 when I realized I was under 9 miles. I knew there was going to be a breeze on the way back so I realized I needed to slow down. My stomach had felt a bit off all morning, so I also held off on my GU- usually I have the first at 3 or 4 miles and I didn't have one until 6. It ended up being fine. The enormous bridge we went over at mile 6 helped. It was a lot like the Ambassador Bridge back in the Detroit Half- except in this course you have to make a U-turn at the other side and come back over it yet again! Ooooof. Back into the breeze and I still felt really solid so I focused on picking off "the annoying people" and kept picking up my pace each mile. My arms were pulling me forward and it felt nice to keep passing folks. From at least mile 9 through the end I didn't get passed by anyone but picked off quite a slew of other runners. The last 5k I felt like I really pushed myself and really kicked it at the end.

This is the first race that I've *raced* in over a year and a half and I felt great! I will definitely be going back under 2 hours for 13.1 later this year. :)

Garbage bag at the start. Less sausage with my pasta dinner. ;)

Found the water, food, and Tom (in that order). Stretched, caught up, and cooled down in the shade. Walked back to the car and drove home to our little son! :) (this was my first morning away from him, he's never woken up with someone else... but it was worth it!).


Nothing.


This was a really nice half. Despite the start line corrals being pointless... they did a wonderful job with the race. There were lots of friendly volunteers at the hydration stops and several medic tents filled with really friendly med student types. There was a great drum group at the base of the bridge turn around. The cops were amazing at keeping the traffic in line and not holding up the runners. The only things they could've improved was the start corrals and leaving enough space for the lead runners once they've doubled back- it seemed like they had to do a bit of swimming upstream for a while. I would do this course again if I lived locally.