Space Coast Half Marathon Recap 2014

For the third year in a row I ran the Space Coast Half Marathon!! This is my favorite race. Maybe it's because this is the first half I ran after I swore I'd never run another half again. Or maybe it's because it's a local race. Or maybe it's because I love running with the Running Zone. Anyway it's my favorite.

Photo Credit: Space Coast Marathon

This year was the second year of The Big Bang Series! I'm planning on getting all 7 of those medals pictured above. The medals that you earn after running these races are as fabulous, if not more fabulous as runDisney medals. Yup.... I went there. They are awesome! Pictures don't do them justice. 

2012, 2013, 2014

This year the expo was held at the Radisson in Cape Canaveral. The past two years that I went it was at the Kennedy Space Center. I know the Space Center is far away from the host hotels and even the start of the race, but I always enjoy going up there. Oh well... My husband and I went in the morning to pick up his packet. I actually went to the store to pick mine up earlier in the week. Every year I buy a cup and a shirt. I figured I'd skip the expo lines and just go to the store. We picked up my husbands stuff, walked around and looked at the booths, made a purchase and left. It was busy, but not as bad as other expos I've been too!! 

My plan for the day before the race was to do as little as possible, and that's what I did! I was hoping to be asleep by 8:00pm. Well my cat had other plans. I think around 10:00pm is when I finally went to sleep. Of course I was wide awake at 1:30 and my alarm was supposed to go off at 3:00. 

At 3:00 am I got out of bed and started my normal pre-race preparations. We decided this year to park at the Merritt Square Mall and use the shuttle service. Normally I go to one of the hotels to get on a shuttle, the only down side to using the hotel shuttle is they stop at several hotels. Figured since we live about 5 miles from the mall that would be quicker. The shuttle to/from the mall was new this year! Hopefully it will be there next year, because it was perfect!!

Once we got to Cocoa Village we just walked around. I was hoping to join the Moms Run This Town photo group, but was stuck in a porta potty line. Bad timing on my part. Around 5:45 we walked to the start line. It was jammed packed with runners. This year 3307 runners started the race, according to the Running Zone race result page. The first year I ran there were 1995 runners. Yes the Big Bang Series has helped this race! I lined up with the Galloway 2:15 pace group. It was perfect because they were doing the 3:1 ratio!! 

It's hard to tell but that bright blob in the picture above is the jumbo tron that showed the countdown and the "launch" to start the race!! 

We were off!! I'll admit my training wasn't the best for this race, but I really wanted to PR. I really wanted sub 2:15. That's why I joined the pace group, at last minute I just jumped in with the group. The beginning of the race is in the dark and there are only a few street lights. This year I remembered my flashlight. It's small, I wear it on my finger. But it was dark. My husband actually fell because he couldn't see. 

The first mile flew by! We skipped our first walk break. I set up my watch for a 3:1 interval and the entire race I was off the pace leaders timer. Guess I should have asked what the plan was. Oops.... Our goal was 10:18 min miles. Our first mile was actually 10:27, BUT there were a lot of runners and getting through traffic was difficult. The second mile we ran 9:56, so we made up our time!! The best part of this group was if you got held up in traffic, when they leader started to walk you could always catch her. 

Race selfie!!

The sun was up and I was keeping up with group, life was good!! Around mile 10 I heard the pace leader say we were two minutes ahead of schedule. Awesome!! Ok not awesome that's when I lost my steam. Mile 11 I couldn't keep up with group. Another runner and I were both fighting to keep up. We weren't taking our one minute walk breaks because we were too far behind and were struggling to keep up. HOWEVER we were pushing each other. With about 1/2 mile to go the group was gone. They all sped up and left us. The pace leader fell back with us and said if we keep going we will have no problems making our goal time. And as she was saying this we were at the corner where my mom was a course volunteer. That was pretty much my boost and I just kept running. We made our turn into the park and I saw the 13 mile sign! I had nothing left to kick in and sprint to finish. I just trotted along and saw that finish line and crossed with a time of 2:13:24!! PR!!!!!

After getting water and taking a moment to catch my breath and take a few photos, I walked to the corner where my mom was volunteering. My husband was behind me and I wanted to see him. First I saw my friend Joe. He was struggling, so I went out and ran with him for a few feet making sure he was ok. Just as I was turning around I saw my husband. I have no idea how, but I ran with my husband. At this point my legs were killing me. I ran with him until we got the turn into the park and I cut the corner and he finished.

After grabbing a beer, we headed to shuttle and went home! I was exhausted. I guess the being up since 1:30, pushing myself in this race just wore me out.

This was our reward.

This was an awesome race for me!! I got my PR!! This is my favorite 1/2 and I'll run it every year until I can't run anymore.

Are you running next year with me?