Sarasota Half Marathon

My friends and I have been talking about doing an out of town race for a while, so when the Sarasota Special came up, my friend and I jumped on it. 

We signed up WAY in advance, but what we didn’t count on was how many other people would be signing up. We ended up waiting a little too long to get a hotel and because of that I had to leave my little man with a friend and we had to stay at her cousins house instead.

We headed Saturday afternoon, unfortunately too early for me to go to Kickboxing first, and drove out to the west coast of Florida. It was awesome. I had only been out to the west coast of Florida a handful of times, and all of them included men, and none of which I am proud of! LOL. I could tell you the stories, but I will save them for another day. I am pretty sure if you look back in my blogs, you can find something about them…anyway.  But this time was all about running and that made it the best trip out West yet! 

We got there Saturday afternoon and headed over to Fit2Run to get our packets and to meet up with this lady, I talked about her in my Miami ING blog, to pick up some hand painted running themed wine glasses (which rocked btw!). The Place was packed and we ended up walking around, checking out all the discounted products, had lunch and stopped by Total Wines (I needed something to fill up my new running wine glasses with!) and I even got a new pair of running shoes. 

**The Running Shoes SUCKED by the way, I found out a few days later, when those POS shoes gave me shin splits, Gawd I hope it goes away soon! – waste of $$ if you ask me!**

We headed over to her cousins house and he and his wife ended up being two of the coolest people I have ever meet! Both were so friendly and outgoing and made me feel at home. It was so nice of them to open up their home to me, even though they had never met me. Her cousin even cooked up an amazing spaghetti and shrimp dinner! I ate so much, but all good right…I was running 13.1 miles the next day :)

After dinner we hung out, I had some wine and we watched that movie….Life of Pi. Um…that was a horrible movie btw, do not waste your time with it. Yes it was pretty to look at but really the story line kinda sucked and I hate when they try to put a surprise twist into a movie that you get 10 minutes into it and then expect me to be surprised when it is reviled at the end. I am not a 5 year old child! Come on now!

The day of the race was an early and kinda chilly start, especially for March, but everyone kept telling me it’s colder on the west coast. Whatever, I hate being cold! We go there nice and early and we were ready to do it! I was pumped, people were walking around, photographers were taking pictures and you could just feel the air of excitement.
The course was beautiful, we got to go over a few bridges and at one of them, some guy was out filming the runners on a camera attached to an RC Helicopter. I was very proud of myself overall, but between mile 10 and 12, I was pretty sure I was going to die! I could feel my feet starting to ache and I was ready to sit down and have some water, but once I hit mile 12 and knew I only had a mile left, I got a second wave of energy and managed to finish off strong. 

Crossing that finish line felt amazing! It always does, but when I saw I had set a new PR for my half marathon times, I was ecstatic! 

We found out after we had all finished that my friends cousins wife (that’s a mouth full) actually showed up and decided last minute to run it…never run a half marathon in her life…and finished it! Talk about an accomplishment to be proud of! WHOOHOO! 

Not only did I get a bad ass medal for the Sarasota Half Marathon, but I also got a medal for completing 3 of the 5 Marathon/Half marathons in the US Road Runners Storm Series!

We headed back home shortly after the race, but it really was a good one, I am looking forward to doing it again next year! :)

My 9th Race of 2013 is going to be the Riverwalk 5K. We did it last year, so we figure we should do it again! :)