After my New York City non-marathon experience I was really disappointed & changed my training plan from my scheduled INSANITY marathon training to a RevAbs / running hybrid. The first week after the failed NYC marathon I did RevAbs all week and ran 8 miles on the weekend. The next week I did RevAbs 3 days & ran 7 miles two of the days. That weekend I ran the Women's 1/2 Marathon in St. Petersburg, FL.
The Women's 1/2 Marathon was very interesting. Obviously I knew it was a race catered to women. I signed up to run it because of the great feedback my friend Mike had from leading a pace group the prior year. Jackie was running it too & I thought it would be a great race close to home & possibly a new 1/2 marathon PR. Little did I know that they corral the men that register for it in the last corral no matter their expected finish time. Also - it was quite obvious that the race organizers weren't thrilled to have men running their race. If that's the case, they should do what the IronGirl Clearwater race does & not allow men to register.
I lined up in the 1st corral - with the 1:45 pace team & was told by a race official to move to coral 5 & that it didn't matter my goal -- it was a women's race & I needed to start last. So I start walking back, but the corrals were packed and I only was able to walk to corral 2 before the National Anthem was being performed & I stopped to get ready to run. I started off the race strong and ended up catching up to the 1:45 pace team. Ran strong with them until mile 11 and then fell slightly back. The course was beautiful through Downtown St. Petersburg. I especially enjoyed running inside Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays. My finish time was 1:45:44. Not a PR, but I'll take it.
If you are a woman looking for a beautiful course in a great city - I would definitely recommend the Women's Running 1/2 Marathon - St. Petersburg, FL. You can't beat the weather & scenery for late November!
After running the Women's Running 1/2 Marathon I went back to my RevAbs / running schedule although it was pretty much just RevAbs. I ran the Tampa Bay Times Turkey Trot 10k on Thanksgiving. Almost 18,000 people were out there running. Turkey Trot races are great to get the metabolism going before a big Thanksgiving meal. I didn't want to run the race too hard because I had the Space Coast Marathon coming up Sunday. I ran the 10k in 46:30.
The next run after Thanksgiving was the Space Coast Marathon. This would be marathon number 16 for me & I really didn't know what to expect. I had originally planned to run NYC for fun & use Space Coast for a training run / practice for Jacksonville Bank Marathon. My goal all year has been to PR my marathon time at the Jacksonville Bank Marathon. The night before the marathon I had dinner at the Apollo/Saturn V center at the Kennedy Space Center. The keynote speaker was Bart Yasso & if you haven't read his book "My Life on the Run" pick it up. He has many great running stories to tell & it is definitely worth the read. I decided last minute I would run with the 3:45 pace team at Space Coast & see what happens. The weather for the marathon was great. I felt strong starting off the race - however - my stomach had other plans. I ended up making three costly pit stops during the marathon. This caused me to lose the pace team and run my own race. No PR. But I was still able to finish in 3:55. So 3 put stops, mental torture and only a loss of 10 minutes & still sub 4 hours? I'll take it. I'm definitely looking forward to running the Jacksonville Bank Marathon December 16. I hope to run around a 3:40 marathon.
Now I'm back in training mode. It looks like I'll be running 1/2 marathons the next two weekends. Then back to the marathon distance with Jacksonville Bank.
I'll continue to mix INSANITY & RevAbs into my training. Let me know if you would like any of the FREE INSANITY marathon training programs
The Women's 1/2 Marathon was very interesting. Obviously I knew it was a race catered to women. I signed up to run it because of the great feedback my friend Mike had from leading a pace group the prior year. Jackie was running it too & I thought it would be a great race close to home & possibly a new 1/2 marathon PR. Little did I know that they corral the men that register for it in the last corral no matter their expected finish time. Also - it was quite obvious that the race organizers weren't thrilled to have men running their race. If that's the case, they should do what the IronGirl Clearwater race does & not allow men to register.
I lined up in the 1st corral - with the 1:45 pace team & was told by a race official to move to coral 5 & that it didn't matter my goal -- it was a women's race & I needed to start last. So I start walking back, but the corrals were packed and I only was able to walk to corral 2 before the National Anthem was being performed & I stopped to get ready to run. I started off the race strong and ended up catching up to the 1:45 pace team. Ran strong with them until mile 11 and then fell slightly back. The course was beautiful through Downtown St. Petersburg. I especially enjoyed running inside Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays. My finish time was 1:45:44. Not a PR, but I'll take it.
If you are a woman looking for a beautiful course in a great city - I would definitely recommend the Women's Running 1/2 Marathon - St. Petersburg, FL. You can't beat the weather & scenery for late November!
After running the Women's Running 1/2 Marathon I went back to my RevAbs / running schedule although it was pretty much just RevAbs. I ran the Tampa Bay Times Turkey Trot 10k on Thanksgiving. Almost 18,000 people were out there running. Turkey Trot races are great to get the metabolism going before a big Thanksgiving meal. I didn't want to run the race too hard because I had the Space Coast Marathon coming up Sunday. I ran the 10k in 46:30.
The next run after Thanksgiving was the Space Coast Marathon. This would be marathon number 16 for me & I really didn't know what to expect. I had originally planned to run NYC for fun & use Space Coast for a training run / practice for Jacksonville Bank Marathon. My goal all year has been to PR my marathon time at the Jacksonville Bank Marathon. The night before the marathon I had dinner at the Apollo/Saturn V center at the Kennedy Space Center. The keynote speaker was Bart Yasso & if you haven't read his book "My Life on the Run" pick it up. He has many great running stories to tell & it is definitely worth the read. I decided last minute I would run with the 3:45 pace team at Space Coast & see what happens. The weather for the marathon was great. I felt strong starting off the race - however - my stomach had other plans. I ended up making three costly pit stops during the marathon. This caused me to lose the pace team and run my own race. No PR. But I was still able to finish in 3:55. So 3 put stops, mental torture and only a loss of 10 minutes & still sub 4 hours? I'll take it. I'm definitely looking forward to running the Jacksonville Bank Marathon December 16. I hope to run around a 3:40 marathon.
Now I'm back in training mode. It looks like I'll be running 1/2 marathons the next two weekends. Then back to the marathon distance with Jacksonville Bank.
I'll continue to mix INSANITY & RevAbs into my training. Let me know if you would like any of the FREE INSANITY marathon training programs
RSS Feed
