Rock n Roll St. Pete 2013 Race Recap

Race Recap

This year’s RnR half marathon in St. Pete went very well.  The weather was perfect, a near 40 degrees warmer than last year, at about 65 degrees.  I went into the race feeling good but not expecting to stay under 8 min/mi for the entire 13.1 miles.  I had a honey stinger about 30 minutes before the race and sipped on a mix of powerwade, a scoop of bcaa powder, and a scoop of jack3d energy powder.  I started the race a lot slower than last year, but finished faster which is the way I prefer to race:

                                                                        2013:                                                 2012:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
1	7:37	1.00	7:37	7:20	1.00	7:20
2	7:43	1.00	7:43	7:24	1.00	7:24
3	7:35	1.00	7:35	8:13	1.00	8:13 – stopped to use the bathroom
4	7:32	1.00	7:32	7:20	1.00	7:20
5	7:27	1.00	7:27	7:16	1.00	7:16
6	7:32	1.00	7:32	7:18	1.00	7:18
7	7:28	1.00	7:28	7:29	1.00	7:29
8	7:35	1.00	7:35	7:40	1.00	7:40
9	7:26	1.00	7:26	7:36	1.00	7:36
10	7:20	1.00	7:20	7:50	1.00	7:50
11	7:14	1.00	7:14	7:30	1.00	7:30
12	7:18	1.00	7:19	7:41	1.00	7:41
13	7:02	1.00	7:02	7:26	1.00	7:26
14	1:22	0.21	6:26	1:37	0.25	6:30

I only took 2 gels, one at mile 5 – Clif Stawberry and the other at mile 10 – Powerbar Berry.  I took water at every aid station and took a cup of Gatorade at mile 8.  You can see my times start to get significantly faster starting around mile 7.  I ended up next to this girl around mile 5 and we ran side by side.  Around mile 7 she started to push the pace faster.  I was able to stick with her until the water stop at mile 11 and then I had to back off a bit.  I’m glad that she was there to push me though.  I wouldn’t have done it myself and then I wouldn’t have PR’d.  If you remember from my Beach 2 Battleship recap, I ended up next to a girl at the beginning of the bike leg that was pushing the pace.  I decided to let her go and stay within my own pre-set limits until I got further into the bike leg.   If I would have started with the girl at the RnR race in the beginning and she kept pushing the pace within the first couple of miles, I would have let her go too.  But, because we were a little over half way through the race, I decided to try and keep up with her.  My final time was 1:38:09.  2012 was 1:39:24.  I have 2 more half marathons and then Boston.  After this past weekend’s performance, I’m expecting some good times this year.  All of the upcoming races are ones that I did last year so I will results that are better to compare against since the courses will be the same. 

Race attire:

Visor – Nike feather light visor

Shirt – Women Rock Marathon tank top

Shorts – Nike pro combat compression shorts

Socks – Road Runner Sports ankle tab dry-fit

Shoes – Brooks Pure Cadence2 – I am in love with these shoes by the way

Headphones – Jay Bird Bluetooth

Music – iPod nano 6^th gen

Race belt – Spibelt with 3 gel holders on each side and a pouch in the middle.  This is the first time I’ve used this belt.  It worked ok.  It wouldn’t really stay on my hips as well as my iFitness one does.  But, I guess it will work.  Maybe I’ll try tightening it for the next race.  I really like my iFitness one but I wanted one with the gel holders and the pouch and all the ones like that by iFitness have a wide waistband.  I wanted to minimize what I carry around my waste.  That’s why I decided to get the Spibelt.  Both belts are water-resistant which is a necessity for me because I sweat a lot and pore a lot of water on myself unless it’s under 70… then I just sweat a lot J.

Race Review:

St. Petersburg is pretty flat.  There is one small dip and climb in the first mile.  There is no shade anyone on the course, but this race is held at the perfect time of year where it’s 99% of the time sunny and around 65 degrees.  Sometimes it varies and you’ll get 30 degree whether like last year or high 70s like previous years.  But, obviously these two extremes are outside the norm.  There seemed to be spectators along almost the entire route.  Other notes:

Good –

·         there were plenty of port-a-lets

·         cups of water were set out if you wanted to hydrate some before the race

·         they had the corrals set up with people standing there to check your bib to make sure you were going to the right corral

·         they started right on time

·         every aid/water station had a sign about .10 miles before it letting you know that there was a water stop coming up

·         there was a water stop just about every mile

·         post-race food selection was good – water, Gatorade, bananas, mini bagels, chocolate milk, cups of fruit, and granola bars.  I may have missed a couple of things. 

·         they had cold towels at the end

Bad –

·         they make you get there so early if you do the park and ride.  The race didn’t start until 7:30 but they wanted you in the parking lot no later than 6:15

·         they charge for parking for the expo.  Although you can get around this because there is a parking lot right across the street that is free and all the street meter parking is free too since the expo is held on the weekend

·         this isn’t necessarily a bad thing that they did.  But, there was so much stuff at the end that you could grab to eat and drink that you ran out of hands to carry everything.  It would be nice if they gave you a bag to put everything in.  Disney started doing this and it is awesome

·         they messed up the mile marker placement for mile 10.  It was about .2 miles ahead of where it should have been.  This also isn’t a huge deal, but it did through me off a little since I was planning to take a gel at mile 10.  So, I ended up taking it a little earlier than I meant to.

All in all, RnR pretty much knows what they’re doing.  The race went smoothly and I will probably do it again next year.        

After the race, Sarah, Daniel, and I met up with Cesar at Square One for burgers.  Sarah and I split the Peanut Butter and Nutella shake.  Yes, it was delicious!  The rest of the day was hanging out and relaxing.  Just the way I like it.  I ended the night watching the season premiere of The Walking Dead with Daniel and eating homemade pizza by Daniel.