It was a nice day for running. I received an email last night titled "Heat Advisory". I thought "oh, great, here we go again". But it was just the race directors telling everyone that it was going to be a little bit warmer than usual but nothing like Chicago and to make sure to pre-hydrate. The packet pickup was busier than usual this year, there were at least a couple hundred more preregistered this year than last year, and they had chip timing this year for the first time. There were also a lot of people doing race day registration. I did about 5 or 6 minutes of warm up, nothing too fast, but not too slow. The race started a few minutes late, probably due to the registrations. My plan was to do the first four miles easy than do the rest and planned marathon pace for next week's marathon. A guy I knew said he knew someone who was going to run at about a 7:40 pace, but I didn't know what she looked like. So we ran up to catch up with her. I caught up with her and introduced myself. I guess it was a little bit awkward since we didn't know each other. She said to have a good race, so I figured I'd just keep going. The first mile was 7:19 which was a lot faster than I planned but did not feel hard at all. It usually takes me a while to build up to this pace, but not today. So, the next few miles continued on, a little bit slower than the first one but faster than my overall planned pace. At about 2.5 miles I thought I could not keep up this pace but I realized that this was just my not fully warmed up body talking. At four miles was the big bridge - well not that big. It's only 25 feet above the water, but it seems larger. It's the highest "hill" on the course (there are two other pedestrian overpasses later). I don't care for the first 4 miles as much as the rest of the course. I'm not sure why because it is a nice run past a few small beach front communities. After the bridge, it heads in land for a few miles to the Pinellas trail. It curves around past a small lake before heading onto the trail. The trail is my favorite part of the run. A little bit after getting on the trail is the second bridge, just before the 7th mile marker. **** The BEST PART OF THE RACE *****  As I was approaching 8.5 miles I could hear bells. These bells sounded familiar, I had heard them once before back in October. These were cow bells that Tyson chicken was giving away at the Chicago marathon. I could hear the bells first then I could see Jenny, Andy, and Noah along the side of the trail. They had found a cross road to the trail, parked, and were waiting with the bells. Not only did they cheer for me, but they waited as each person that they knew passed by as well as many strangers. Some of the people they saw looked a little down and tired as they approached and then fresh and happy after they passed. ***** back to the rest *******
It stays on the trail until just past 11 miles before turning off and into Taylor park where the finish line is located. The route goes along the sidewalk for a short time before hitting mile 12. Sometime around 6 miles the pace felt really easy compared to what this pace usually feels like. I didn't feel like I was overdoing it so I didn't slow down. When in the full sun it felt almost too hot but fortunately there was plenty of shade.
At 12 miles I thought I would just cruise through the last mile at about a 7:35 pace or so. I wasn't watching my pace and I suppose it was just the way that things worked out that I picked off a few runners. I had thought about just following someone in but they seemed to slow down, so I passed them. As the last mile was finishing I noticed my total time for the first time and realized this whole race was faster than planned (I was thinking I'd run between 1:40 and 1:42). Then, once I could see the finish clock I'd realized I'd be under 1:38.
The miles with parentheses show where the Garmin was short, although the 12th mile the Garmin measured long although I didn't note the time difference. If I hadn't messed with the lap button, I think mile 12 would have evened things out (it did last year). Splits were: 7:19, (7:22+:09),7:36, 7:28, (7:31+13),7:39, 7:46, 7:22, 7:20, (7:24+07), 7:24, 7:31, 6:51, .13@6:10 As I approached the finish line, I decided I would not stare and focus and the finish but enjoy the moment, look around so you can really see things. Also, I ran through the finish line and slowed down after crossing, rather than before. I felt like I had plenty left in the tank. And except for the last mile's faster pace, I felt like I could have kept up this pace for the full marathon without any problems. This run also gave me some good drinking practice. I grabbed water or gatorade at all of the stops except for one. At two of them I took water to wash down the gel that I downed just before getting to the aid stations.
*** UPDATE **** Official results are posted now. I'm actually 6th place instead of 8th place in my age group. They must be using gun time for the official results because my time is posted as 1:37:50 instead of 1:37:42 (which they posted yesterday).
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