Mile 1 I was with Ben, I saw I held 8:31 there and was pumped cause I have never been able to go fast and for me that's FAST. Felt great. Around mile 3 I lost sight of Ben, my hat blew off and I lost a couple seconds doubling back to get it. The wind was strong in spots but if I kept my head down it didn't blow my hat too much. Bummer to that was I didn't get to really enjoy the beach houses and scenery through the neighborhoods. I did get a beautiful view of the lighthouse on my way around one street. Realy cool.
I had a pace tattoo on my forearm so I was checking my pace whenever I saw the mile markers. Was doing great keeping my pace until somewhere towards the end of the south part of the island. I hit 6 miles (about the location of the cottage we were staying in) at 55 minutes and change. WOW! That had me pumped. Light rain at times, nothing nasty.
Miles 7-9 I don't remember too much but the wind was starting to be a huge factor, it was like running into a wall. We had so many turns through the neighborhood, every turn you wondered how the wind was going to hit you this time. Somewhere between mile 9 and 10 I saw a sign "run this mile for...." it had someones name I don't remember. I thought of my father and ran the rest of the race for him. My hip flexors were whining and my hamstrings were screaming for mercy. I saw my time as I hit mile 12 and was now 3 minutes off my goal pace. It was disappointing but I knew I had given all I could to the day so I let it go and decided to run it in knowing I had still knocked off over 5 minutes from the November half mary.

Run in a wind tunnel? There's nothing you can do to prepare for 20-25 mile per hour winds!

Ben found me at the finish, we talked a minute or so and I found my dry clothes at the finish pretty easily. Grabbed a bowl of chilli and some water.
I looked for my friends wife at the Breakfast Club cause she was supposed to meet me there, never saw her so I walked over to the convention center and grabbed a massage from the students. She could not believe how tight my hamstrins were! My feet kept cramping and she had to work them. I got off the table and my feet started cramping again, she had to re-do my feet!

I walked back up to the cottage and talked to a woman who had done the 5K event....she was a local returning from an injury.


wind


The dry clothes drop off was a PIA, could not find it!! Pick up was fantastic! They had groups of tables with the bags in numeric order.

This makes a 5:30 PR since November, that means in the past 6 months I cut off over 14 minutes from my previous half mary best.