kodi
Well-known member
I haven't posted in a while. After my bout with the staph infection and no training I was sort of down in the dumps. To make matters worse, I did something (don't know what) and ended up with a pinched nerve in the 5th vertebrae. Not fun and quite painful at times. I was scheduled to run a marathon on Feb 17, one day after my 70th birthday but instead ran the 1/2 because my daughter was running her very first 1/2 there. Here is a report of our weekend.
This has been one great long weekend. I arrived in Jacksonville 10:30 Friday morning, Judy arrived a little earlier. We had planned on having a fun filled weekend with my niece Rosalie and her husband Craig, both Pittsburgh attorneys with a second home in Ponde Vedra, on the 9th green of Sawgrass Country Club. And that we did. We took the tourist route from the airport?.that means we missed a few turns because we weren?t paying too much attention to Mapquest. Friday afternoon was just relax and get adjusted to the surroundings day. Saturday we went to the expo. Once again we took the tourist route. Incidentally the tourist route is a great way to see different areas of a new place. Expo was typical with the informational booths and apparel sales. Then came Sunday. Where we were staying worked out really well for us. When my niece checked the race course and bus pickup it was essentially in her backyard. We only had about a 5 mile ride to the pickup area and we didn?t take the tourist route.
Pre-race area was well stocked with water, coffee, powerade and all the essentials. There were over 7000 runners/walkers total for both races. We all started at the same time. Judy had hoped to try to run about a 10 minute pace and I thought there was no way I could hang on to that. First ½ mile was flat then up a freeway ramp and over a bridge that crossed the waterway. It crested at about 1.5 miles then a little bit of a down slope until about mile 3. From mile three to 10 it was basically flat, part along a highway then thru a beach community. Miles 5 thru 6.5 was on the sand. Some of it was hard packed, some very sandy. The only good thing was the ocean was pounding waves with a nice breeze. Miles 10 thru the end were the reverse of the first 3 with a longer and steeper upgrade overt the waterway.
We started together and at about mile 2 I told Judy to run her own race and she did. She averaged a 10:15 pace for a time of 2:12:42. She was 64 out of 440 in the 45-49 age group. Proud dad here. I can?t tell you much more about her run except she ran the whole way and at the end was able to start picking off several other runners in her sight.
I finished 2:54:23 and was 8 out of 18. I beat the next guy by 3 seconds, but didn?t know that until just now. Overall the weather was nice with a breeze most of the way. However the humidity really got to me. I had to walk several times because of the hamstring then my right quad started cramping. Running on the sand wasn?t a lot of fun for me and I was already struggling so walk probably about ½ mile of it. The uphill at the end caused me to walk some more and my right quad was hurting so bad I couldn?t even pick up the pace on the last downhill or the final stretch.
Post race activities were also well orchestrated. Actually, the whole event from Expo to the end was extremely well organized. They exceeded their goal of 5000 runners and raised over $800,000.00 for breast cancer research.
Monday we had to ourselves and drove a little south to St. Augustine. Toured Fackler College, walked and enjoyed the sights and gift shops ate lunch with a view of the waterway.
I know we both had a great time and one day we?ll run another event together?but I?ll definitely be in better shape. The ordeals I?ve had since the middle of December has really taken a toll on me and hopefully that?s the end of those for a long time. I?m still working on the pinched nerve, but it?s coming along pretty well.
This has been one great long weekend. I arrived in Jacksonville 10:30 Friday morning, Judy arrived a little earlier. We had planned on having a fun filled weekend with my niece Rosalie and her husband Craig, both Pittsburgh attorneys with a second home in Ponde Vedra, on the 9th green of Sawgrass Country Club. And that we did. We took the tourist route from the airport?.that means we missed a few turns because we weren?t paying too much attention to Mapquest. Friday afternoon was just relax and get adjusted to the surroundings day. Saturday we went to the expo. Once again we took the tourist route. Incidentally the tourist route is a great way to see different areas of a new place. Expo was typical with the informational booths and apparel sales. Then came Sunday. Where we were staying worked out really well for us. When my niece checked the race course and bus pickup it was essentially in her backyard. We only had about a 5 mile ride to the pickup area and we didn?t take the tourist route.
Pre-race area was well stocked with water, coffee, powerade and all the essentials. There were over 7000 runners/walkers total for both races. We all started at the same time. Judy had hoped to try to run about a 10 minute pace and I thought there was no way I could hang on to that. First ½ mile was flat then up a freeway ramp and over a bridge that crossed the waterway. It crested at about 1.5 miles then a little bit of a down slope until about mile 3. From mile three to 10 it was basically flat, part along a highway then thru a beach community. Miles 5 thru 6.5 was on the sand. Some of it was hard packed, some very sandy. The only good thing was the ocean was pounding waves with a nice breeze. Miles 10 thru the end were the reverse of the first 3 with a longer and steeper upgrade overt the waterway.
We started together and at about mile 2 I told Judy to run her own race and she did. She averaged a 10:15 pace for a time of 2:12:42. She was 64 out of 440 in the 45-49 age group. Proud dad here. I can?t tell you much more about her run except she ran the whole way and at the end was able to start picking off several other runners in her sight.
I finished 2:54:23 and was 8 out of 18. I beat the next guy by 3 seconds, but didn?t know that until just now. Overall the weather was nice with a breeze most of the way. However the humidity really got to me. I had to walk several times because of the hamstring then my right quad started cramping. Running on the sand wasn?t a lot of fun for me and I was already struggling so walk probably about ½ mile of it. The uphill at the end caused me to walk some more and my right quad was hurting so bad I couldn?t even pick up the pace on the last downhill or the final stretch.
Post race activities were also well orchestrated. Actually, the whole event from Expo to the end was extremely well organized. They exceeded their goal of 5000 runners and raised over $800,000.00 for breast cancer research.
Monday we had to ourselves and drove a little south to St. Augustine. Toured Fackler College, walked and enjoyed the sights and gift shops ate lunch with a view of the waterway.
I know we both had a great time and one day we?ll run another event together?but I?ll definitely be in better shape. The ordeals I?ve had since the middle of December has really taken a toll on me and hopefully that?s the end of those for a long time. I?m still working on the pinched nerve, but it?s coming along pretty well.
