Just got home from the Beauty and the Beach Run--so much fun. I love this event. It was a little crazy pre-race. The temperature this morning was perfect for a fall run--around 40 degrees, but the wind at the beach was CRAZY!!! A few of us met at Orlando's parking lot in town to drive down together and we were meeting everyone else there.
We parked at Pier Village, where the race start has taken place the last two years (this year the start was about .25 mile North). Parking was easy and very convenient--plenty of spots. We hesitated to get out of the car--it was so COLD. When we first approached the tent to get in line to pick up our timing chips we got in a massively LONG line--this was the line for packet pick up. I was so glad I had picked up our packets the night before. It was clear that the race was not going to start on time--there were too many women in the line for pick up.
The chip pick up line was really no better--it was mayhem. We waited in line to get into the tent only to find out that once inside it was a free for all. There were many lines approaching the chip pick up table--but little did those in line realize that the chips had to be matched to your bib number and the table was separated into different numerical areas--the signage only visible when actually standing right in front of the table. So first I waited in a super long line only to realize I needed to be at the other end of the table. Finally I got the chips for me and C who was driving down alone and we were going to meet up outside the tent.
Outside the tent we realized that most of our group was not there yet or not in the meet up area, so we hit the porta potty lines--which were not too bad and the porta potties were clean (perhaps a women only race yields cleaner bathrooms). We finally assembled some of our group for a photo:
The photo did not include everyone--missing was Nikki, my running partner. We had to snag a photo separately.
Also missing was some Bosom Buddies--we grabbed a photo in the starting area.
I did find C although it was touch and go there for awhile:)
I started out faster than normal and I felt great. Nikki caught up to me within the first mile--I thought she was ahead of me--we ran close to each other the whole time. At times I lead--at times she lead. In the end, she was faster than me and I tried to keep her in sight and follow her lead. I was worrying that I was losing steam. In the last .2 mile I saw her ahead and I pushed to catch up, so I could cross the finish line with her:)---Yeah
In true Casi fashion, I forgot to turn off my Garmin, but I think my final time was 45:30. Here were my splits:
| 1 | 9:16.5 | 1.00 | 9:16.5 |
| 2 | 8:57.9 | 1.00 | 8:57.9 |
| 3 | 9:05.4 | 1.00 | 9:05.4 |
| 4 | 9:06.3 | 1.00 | 9:06.3 |
| 5 | 9:15.2 | 1.00 | 9:15.2 |
| 6 | :6.2 | 0.00 | 30:00.0 |
This was a good race for me--I ran faster than I normally do in races and in hindsight I probably could have pushed myself a little more...
