TORREY PINES RACE FOR RESEARCH HALF MARATHON

TCPalm.com voted the Race for Research as the “Best New Local Race on the Treasure Coast” in 2010!  The Race for Research also won the Reader's Choice poll for “Best Local Race,” local meaning the Port Saint Lucie, Florida Treasure Coast area.  All things considering, I rated this event 3.5 stars out of 4.  No event is perfect!

One of the pluses of the March 19th race was the early start for we slow pokes.  With the regular field of runners starting their 13.1 mile journey at 7 a.m., any runner or walker that anticipated their finishing time to be over three hours was allowed to start one half hour earlier.  More than likely, the early start had something to do with limited duration of road closures – or maybe the high costs of renting the few Jiffy Johns that were situated along the course. 

Anyway, I was one of the estimated 25 to 30 participants that took advantage of the early start. 

The earlier start rendered a cooler run with less time in the sun, a big plus when running and walking in South Central Florida.  Starting earlier also meant running directly towards the setting Super Moon during the first mile and a half.

Torrey Pines Institute For Molecular Studies

Even though I was the very last runner out of the starting blocks, it didn’t take long before I was leading all of the other early-start runners.  A typical mistake of inexperienced runners and walkers is to go out too fast in the very beginning.  Doing so just about guarantees a slower pace later on in the race.

Somewhere between mile 4 and 5, the overall winner of the half marathon, a 39 year old male, passed me like I was standing still, and he started his run ½ hour after I began mine.  Talk about fast versus slow, that was a textbook example.

Four or five minutes after the overall leader passed me, more and more runners began passing me, both male and female from the 7 a.m. group. 

It wasn’t until around mile marker 11 that my running pace was equal to the rest of the pack that was in my general vicinity. 

Crossing the Finish Line

At long last, no one was passing me – not until the last 1/10th of a mile, when a very fast young lady sprinted past me towards the finish line.  All I could think about was aggravating my left knee and lower back in a quest to keep up with her, or even beat her to the finish line.  She more than likely started her run with the 7 a.m. group instead of with me at 6:30 a.m., so trying to beat her at the risk of injury would have been unwise.

My finishing time of 2:35 was much faster than I anticipated.  After looking up my past ten years of half marathons on Athlinks.com, Saturday’s finishing time was my fastest in the past eight years.  I call that a good day!

What do they say about fine wines, they get better with age?  I should be so lucky!