Rock the Parkway Half Marathon - Run

Decided the day before to run with the 1:45 group, despite only doing a couple 10+ mile runs, with the best averaged pace around 8:30/mi. I didn't know how I'd react to the 8:00 pace, but figured I'd at least try and hang on. Plus, I knew the pacers were a couple prominent local triathletes and I wanted to talk their ears off.

Race start was really congested, or it appeared to be. People were being really inconsiderate of others. I had 4 people in front of me start running, stop and adjust their iPods on their arms or gamins, and then start running. I nearly tackled them, but luckily I am agile like a fox.

The first 3 miles had a slight uphill grade. Nothing crazy, but you could feel it. It was also CRAZY humid at the start, and I thought I was going to have issues overheating during the race, as I really haven't ran outside in anything over 50 degrees all winter. Luckily, the humidity subsided as the race went on.

The remainder of the race was really standard. I felt really good sticking with the pace group. I never felt taxed or like I was starting to over do it, but instead felt nice and relaxed chatting with the pacers Scott B and Kelly D. I forgot how awesome it is to run with pacers. You just stick with them. Takes all the garmin checks out of the race.

I stopped and walked each aid station, not because i needed to walk, but because I wanted to be sure I got in plenty of water. 2 glasses at each, no issues all day. Also took a gel at mile 5 and 9.5 and felt like it worked out pretty well.

Around Mile 10, my legs were starting to feel a bit sore, but overall I was still feeling good. I ended up just sticking with the pacers till the finish, and was really content with the result!

I wasn't trying to PR this race AT ALL, and I was happy to get enough mileage in during training to finish under 1:45 without injury! That hasn't been the case in the past. BUT if I wanted to do better, I could have easily pushed harder. Again, I treated this as a nice training run. I think this would be a great race to try and PR at, and I might be doing something similar next year depending on how the race schedule shakes out.

Walked around a bit and found Rach at the finish. Also saw Jon at the finish area. We didn't stick around long, we went and headed to my sister in law's house in waldo to watch the rest of the finishers and helped with yard work the rest of the day.


My lack of interest in going faster. I still feel like I'm growing my run volume, and I didn't feel like attempting to PR this race being only a month away from the first triathlon of the year. I know I can do much better than I did, and thats enough for me right now.


The volunteers and race organizers did a great job. I had a great time, the race itself is pretty fantastic, and I'll definitely be back in the future! A great early season race!