St. Augustine Half Marathon

(Insert standard disclaimer about how long it's been since my last post. Didn't want to go all of 2018 without one).

I was looking at my running log that dates back to 2005 (!) and came to the ol' blog to see why there were serious dips in my mileage at certain times over the years. The reminiscing made me realize how convenient it was to have details from my training over time, and also miss my OG running blog friends. (Remember when we used to plan race meetups?) So thankful for the running friends I've made over the past 10 years, some of which I've been fortunate enough to meet IRL too.

About that, ten years 'chasing the kenyans'! Granted only 5 of those years were diligent blogging/training years and the latter 5 have been... less than such. I've become much less competitive over the years, only signing up for the occasional race, but I think if I get back in a training groove some of that fight will come back. I'm currently just running to run, working on getting my weekly mileage back up, and trying to convince myself to suck it up and do another marathon (still 38 states to go).

The catch up:

• Ran the Smoky Mountain Relay again with the best team. (April)

• West Coast Road Trip - Seattle to San Fran. Had a weird back pain so didn't get to run on vacation - this later turned out to be dislocated rib. (April)

• +1'd on a friend's work trip to South Africa. AMAZING. (May-June)

Victoria Falls, Zambian side

• 4th of July in Toronto (so American). Finally got to meet up with Marlene and wish we could've hung out longer! (July)

My favoUrite Canadian

• Escaped Hurricane Florence to celebrate my birthday in Bermuda. (September)
• Practiced for retirement with a river cruise from Basel to "Amsterdam". The river levels were too low so we disembarked in Strasbourg and road tripped to Amsterdam. (October)

Cologne, Germany

Selfie with the girls in the Black Forest

• Half marathon in St. Augustine. More importantly, a laughter-filled girls weekend with friends. (November)

Let's just say a bit of false-advertisement here. "The most beautiful run course in Florida". Umm the majority of it is down a 4-lane highway. It's not like you're running among beautiful historic buildings or beach landscapes for 13.1 miles. It's a fairly small event with only 1,000 runners total between the half, 10k and 5k. Overall it was a smooth, low-key event. Plenty of water/gatorade stops and at least a few of them were handing out Gu. There were limited spectators along the course and no bands (not a complaint, I don't care about either of these, but many people looking for a race do). There was one decent hill (twice) over the intracoastal and a gnarly headwind for the last 5 miles.

I didn't really train for this (of course). All of my running these days is around a 9:00/mile pace and my "long runs" were 8 miles. My goals were a sub-2 and to not poop my pants (isn't that every runner's goal?). I thought I'd start out around 9:00/mile and pick it up later if I felt good. Turns out I'm still as 'good' as starting out slow as I used to be. My first mile was an 8:36 and I knew I was going to have to hang on for dear life from there. Spoiler alert: I obtained both of my goals.

Selfie in mile 11/12

8:36 - 8:19 - 8:17 - 8:16 - 8:08 - 8:36 - 8:05 - 8:02 - 8:06 - 8:06 - 8:13 - 8:06 - 8:15