Swamp House - Run

I was really unsure how this run was going to go as I did not feel completely recovered from last weekend's Everglades 25k. So, the plan was to start with the 1:55 pace group and see how things progressed.

The course started and ended at the Swamp House restaurant and bar which sits right on the St. John's River in Debary. Debary is a small still rural town. In fact, it is so small that the mayor was out at the race. He introduced himself to me before the race and after the race I ran into him as I got my beer and bagel :) He asked how I did and we discussed how nice the event is. He then asked a couple of us whether we would like to see the race put on 2x a year and said he was going to look into that. It is nice that a town is so supportive.

Back to the race. The race started and almost immediately we were going up a hill. Even non-Floridians would call it a hill! In fact, I found that almost the enitre race was uphill. That was either a physics trick or I am wrong :) Either way, the race was definitely Florida hilly.
Almost as quickly as we started I lost contact with the 1;55 group. I don't know why since my Garmin indicated I was right on pace. I was also feeling a lot better than I thought I was going to feel. I was definitely fatigued, but my legs did have some life.
I spent the entire race picking women ahead of me that I thought I could catch and then set out to do that. I was able to catch everyone I marked. I think that shows I know not to pick the faster people :) Somewhere around mile 6 my right knee started hurting. That is a new one on me. It's still a bit stiff. Thankfully, it never got too bad and did not seem to affect me other than me noticing it and wondering what the heck I had done to myself.
There were 10 water/gator aid stops on the course! I think I used 3 of them. The first 2 I took water, the last one gator aid. The gator aid stop was around mile 8 and almost immediately after drinking it my stomach was not happy with me. I started thinking I needed to find a porta potty and then realized I didn't remember seeing any on the course. That did not make me happy! I spent the rest of the race (and post race) going from thinking I really needed to find the porta potty to not needing it at all. I'm really not sure what that was about, but thankfully there was no embarrassing moments :). ETA: according to the website, they had 9 porta potties on the course. Somehow I didn't notice any of them!
With about 2 miles left I had gotten back onto the tail of the 1:55 pace group. I never quite made it to the pacer herself - I think she finished about 30 seconds ahead of me.
The last aid station was a hoot. They had music playing and a guy with a microphone calling out that they had water, gatoraid, donuts, twizlers and beer at their station! I was tempted to grab a beer, but decided that may prove to be a bad thing, so I sadly passed up the opportunity.
The last mile was my fastest mile -8:3x, so I think I paced myself pretty well.
After the race, I met with some friends and walked around by the river, grabbed the aforementioned beer (or maybe 2), and parts of a bagel and just enjoyed the beautiful morning.
When I saw that I placed in my AG I was going to stick around for the awards, but they didn't seem to be coming any time soon, so I left.
All in all, this was a good race - i just wish it was a week later.


Nothing really.

walked around the race site and hydrated with beer.


3 races in 4 weeks.


I really liked this race and will probably do it next year - or later this year if the mayor steps up!