Fort Lauderdale A1A Publix Marathon/Half-Marathon - RunMarathon

First marathon and first running race so did not know what to expect. Was very concerned with heat factor as all training had been done in sub 50F and knew this race would get into 80's.
First 3 miles felt heat and was already doubting myself but once we hit beach and got ocean breeze all doubts went away and started to feel good. I brought my run belt and had 2/4 bottles with me and filled with nuun and watered down juice just in case. However, there were plenty of hydration stations but only a few had Gu's so whenever I founf one I would take 2 as didnt know when next station w food would be available. This was only complaint about race. Only found one station with bannana and that was near mile 22!
Anyways, felt good and stopped for pee break at mile 3 and mile 12. Stopped again very briefly at mile 13 to say hello to family then continued on. Saw family again at mile 18 after turn around and stopped a little longer for stretch and chat. Starting to feel fatigue at this point but nothing terrible and finally found the mythical wall at mile 21. This is where I started having to walk periodically and really had to dig deep to continue on as I could not run for more than a 1/2 mile at a time. No problem as I had planned on experiencing something like this from research. Was still ok until hit the last 3 miles as all shade from condos disappeared and you felt full heat of sun and mid 80's temp. Started walking a lot more so that I could run last mile which I did. Felt releived and very happy to finish

Other than train more not much. Started conservatively and was able to keep fairly consistent pace through race so was happy with that performance. Hydration was spot on and after mile 12 never stopped again for pee break. Nutrition was also good even though had steak night before and few carbs. Lucky I have iron stomach and can eat just about anything with no GI issues.

Consisted of downing a bottled water and a Powerade bottle and one more Gu as only nutrition available. Grabbed another water and started walk back to hotel which was about 1.5 miles back on beach. Did some light stretching and skipping and lateral movement to loosen hips up some


lack of training. Prior to race had only done 3 runs over 15 with longest being 18 3 weeks before. Had lots of travel in pre-ceeding weeks so week of race only ran 15miles total and throughout training most miles I put in was 45.


Race was good but need to plan for heat and how it will affect you. Hydration is key to survive.
Lack of nutrition was disappointing. This was firat race so not sure what norm is but compared to HIM they had very little for nutrition