Key Biscayne Half Marathon RR

Today, I ran the inaugural Key Biscayne Half Marathon in (doh!) Key Biscayne, Florida.  Key Biscayne is one of the areas runners and triathletes train most, so I knew the course and I knew it was going to be a tough one with its mixture of no shade, hills, and wind.  Plus nobody has ever held a HM in April down here but these people did, so I signed in.

I heard I was the first person to register for this HM (how cool is that) but unfortunately, they did not give Bib # 1.  A girl can only hope, right?  Pffttttt, the nerve.

As I just raced a 5K yesterday and because this is not a goal race, I decided to take it easy but not too easy.  Last HM I did was in March and I treated it as a LR coming in at 2:21.  This time around I wanted to run easy but faster than that.  So, my goal was to finish between 2:10 – 2:15.

As the week went by, the weather turned nastier and nastier.  Today it’s supposed to rain all day and so far, it has.  Humidity is one of my worst asthma triggers (as you saw from yesterday’s RR) and I was somewhat afraid I could not even run my goal pace in this weather.  But damn it, I would try!

My friend Rodrigo picked me up at 4:50 (that is, AM!) and we headed up to Key Biscayne which is just a tad East of Downtown Miami.  My plan was to run a 2 mile warmup to calm the asthma but the traffic was hideous near the area and it took close to 30 minutes to park.  By that time it was 6:10am and the start time was 6:30.  So we only had time to use the restrooms before the start.

It started raining bad at 6:30am so they delayed the start by 10-15 minutes.  I was already soaked before we started, and I was standing in a pool of water.  As we crossed the mats, people starting slowing down to evade the puddles so I had to crossed the puddles and wet them on purpose, LOL.

Here’s is a summary of the mile to mile experience.  I did pretty good on this tough course.  It is my 3rd fastest HM, second fastest post asthma.

Mile 1 – 9:38 (a little too fast for what I wanted but it felt fine)

Mile 2 – 9:36 (I knew this pace would not last forever as we headed to the big hill but it still felt fine)

Mile 3 – 9:24 (I can see the hill by now and I knew my sub-10mm miles were probably gone)

Mile 4 – 10:03 (hill # 1 is done)

Mile 5 – 9:40 (heading back to hill # 2 and making up time)

Mile 6 – 10:17 (hill # 2.  I tried to fuel while running and holding a pouch of water but the wind was so bad, I walked the uphill while fueling.  Almost lost my visor here)

Mile 7 – 9:52 (my pace starts slipping and my HR is going up; I know what’s coming)

Mile 8 – 9:57 (not bad, but I know I need the inhaler soon)

Mile 9 – 10:20 (after this slip on pace, I know I need the inhaler, like now!)

Mile 10 – 10:43 (I walked as soon as I cross the Mile 9 marker and use one pump of the inhaler and continued on.  When it’s time to fuel, I walked a bit more and use the second pump of the inhaler)

Mile 11 – 10:01 (the chest is still a little tight but I feel the inhaler doing its magic; I wanted to walk to get rid of the high HR but I prevail and run on.  Oh, I threw my visor and left it there.  It kept falling in my eyes or falling away it was so soaked)

Mile 12 – 10:22 (I have no explanation for this mile except it clocked 1.04 miles.  It was full of curves and I was passing people and weaving a lot but still doing good time)

Mile 13 – 9:41 (as soon as I crossed the Mile 12 marker, my lace became loose.  I stopped fixed it and lost like 20 seconds doing this.  So, this mile was super fast considering.

Crossed the mat in 2:10:38, almost beating the goal I had made for myself and finishing strong.  Unfortunately, the timing company has all of us slower, at 15 minutes slower.  I didn’t stay to see whether they fix it but I’ll email them when I see the results.

Here is the elevation and HR profile.  You can tell when I started having problems by the HR level and when I stopped to use the inhaler.

Oh, and a pic, all soaked and wet:

Apart from the chest tightness which I’m sure was due to the 100% humidity, I ran very well.  This was a tough course, hilly, windy, it was raining hard throughout.  Not bad for such a sucky day.