Since the Blue Moon Half Marathon last month, I did sneak in the Tamarac Turkey Trot, which of course is the race that started it all for me. This is an annual Thanksgiving Day tradition, and Rachel and I once again met up with Doug and his two daughters to run this 5K. In breaking traditions somewhat, Doug was driving to Cocoa Beach to do Thanksgiving with his sister and his parents right after the race; the post-race celebration would have to take place at a later date.
The Tom Walker Memorial Half Marathon was scheduled for a Saturday (as opposed to Sunday), so I left for Jen’s house right after work on Friday. The original plan was to meet up with Lindsey right after the race and spend the day with her, but my cousin Fern was in South Florida for business (I have not seen her in over 16 years, since she lives in L.A.). I decided to drive home right after the race, since Saturday night was probably the only time she would be free.
The start time for the race was 8am, which is kind of late for a half marathon. Since Jen lives about an hour away from Gainesville, I still had to get up at 5am to make sure we were out the door by 6. We got to the park around 7, and the temperature was 46 degrees. I knew it would warm up during the run, so I wore a short sleeve shirt with compression sleeves. There were only 236 entrants in this race, and the shirt they gave us was as ugly as it gets (you win some; you lose some).
The course itself was a paved trail that went through the park. It was pretty much an out-and-back course, with not a huge amount of scenery. There was a great deal of changes of elevation (not really hills per se), but it does kind of take you by surprise when you are used to running on flat terrain in South Florida.
I did make an astute observation during the race, which I shared with a fellow runner. During the out-and-back portion of the race where you had runners going in both directions, it appeared as if those runners who were on their way back felt a sense of entitlement to more of the road, compared to us slower folks. It was all I could do to stay out of harm’s way, even though I was all the way to the right. The guy I mentioned this to just laughed, because he said he was just thinking the same thing. Since I’m bigger than most people, the other runners would probably take more of the brunt of any contact if we were to collide.
The race itself was very pleasant and extremely peaceful. It started to get warm about three miles into the run, so I removed the compression sleeves. My back had been bothering me all week, but it felt good throughout most of the race. My finishing time was not as good as Blue Moon, but I didn’t run as hard as I did for that race. Jen’s finishing time was better than both Blue Moon and Space Coast (which she ran the week before), so she was very encouraged. We didn’t stick around for too long after the race, as I needed to hit the road, and Jen had a baby shower to go to.
In which may unfortunately become a reoccurring race theme, the battery in Jen’s car had died (Pam wasn’t around so we couldn’t blame her). Fortunately, the first people we approached had cables, and we were on the road in a matter of minutes.
I enjoyed the race, but I don’t know if I would pencil it on my calendar in the future. It was a long way to drive for a race so low budget, but I would definitely run it every year if I lived up in the area.
Next week, only a 15 minute drive to the Weston “Run for Tomorrow” Half Marathon.
KEEP TRACK OF MY RUNNING ON
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