The Story of a Half Marathon

Steve and I competed in the 7th Annual Sarasota First Watch Half Marathon this past Sunday, March 17th. This was my third half marathon and Steve's second. It started three years ago when I thought it would be fun to try to complete a half marathon. I found  the Sarasota First Watch Half was run while we were in Florida for Steve's O-I negotiations, so I signed up. My main focus was to create an end goal that would force me to train regularly; i.e. exercise. The advice from everyone that year was don't start too fast. So I didn't and I finished the race at 3:03, a very respectable time for a walk/run first half marathon. That year Steve was at the start line and the finish line taking pictures. I entered one of the photos into the annual photo contest and ended up winning a free entry into the next years race. Steve was psyched to run himself now that he had "won" entry.

 

The winning photo

                                                                    

 

 

We ran last year and my goal was to break the 3 hour time which I did and Steve finished with the goal to run another half marathon. That brings us to this year. Early season training was sparse. I had been suffering from a lingering hamstring injury and 3 weeks before the race fell on the hard court playing tennis. With a banged up knee and little distance training I knew my goal this year was to complete...not compete. I finished at 3:11. Steve's goal was to break the 3 hour barrier and he did, completing the race in 2:56.

 

With a 7AM start we were up early. Steve before the race.

                                                                           

 

Our official entry badges

 

 

The beautiful finisher medals

 

 

After the race.

 

The day after needs.

 

It was a great race and we are already trying to plan when we will run again.