Soggy Surf City Half Mary (But Still a PR!)

I awoke early this past Super Bowl Sunday to the sound of raindrops falling on the roof...uh oh. I've never really raced in the rain before, but there's a first time for everything. I signed up for the Surf City Half Marathon to force me to work on my run fitness and ultimately improve my run times for tri season. I was in for a very wet and windy race!

It was really pouring at the start of the race and within the first five minutes my shoes were as soggy as a wet sponge. Fortunately, the wind was at my back and the poncho I was wearing kept me mostly dry and somewhat warm for the first 8 miles or so. I paced off of my friend Scott since I knew he planned to average 8-minute miles for the first-half of the race with the intent to negative split the second-half. This plan worked well, but at mile 8 we turned south for the long straight run back to the finish and the wind was head on! I dumped the poncho and did some quick math in my head...if I pushed it the last four miles I had a very good shot at going sub 1:40:00 which was my stretch goal. I contemplated this decision for a mile or so, wondering when my soggy feet were going to start blistering and how long my legs would hold out, but decided it was worth a shot. At mile 9 I picked up the pace to around 7:20ish and felt pretty good. I held this for the last 4 miles or so and down the home stretch was motivated by the marathon winner passing me by right before I came into the finisher's chute.

My official time was 1:40:03...three tiny seconds short of my stretch goal. Nonetheless, I was quite happy with my performance as it was a Personal Record for me, averaging 7:38 over the 13.1 mile course in very crappy conditions.

I was shivering uncontrollably after the race, but fortunately my friends Anne and Seth live near the finish and invited us back to relax in their hot tub! I've never enjoyed a hot tub so much in my life!