Saturday, April 23, 2022
It took me a little while to select my next race. I had some reservations about doing another half marathon as the temperatures have started to creep up in the spring, but I really wanted to put one more 13-mile race under my belt before the Fall running season. With that in mind, I came across 2 choices, The Naples Paradise Coast Half Marathon on Sunday, April 24 or The Breathe Easy Half Marathon on Saturday, April 23. The factors that led me to the Breathe Easy Half were 1) In-town race, no real travel, 2) No hotel stay needed, 3) A new race , 4) A different medal for each event (Naples had the same medal for the Half marathon AND the 5k and did not have the year on the medal). Lastly, I thought it would be fun to do a race on the Courtney Campbell Causeway.
Sign up for the race was pretty easy and uneventful as they were using a similar RunSignUp system that TBR uses for the Strawberry Classic Race. I did have to reach out to the race director to find out if we had to pay for parking or not (he did state that he forgot to include that in the correspondence). After getting all that straightened out, it was just a matter of making sure I got up in time to do the race!
Start time for the Half Marathon was 7:15am which was PLENTY of time to make the 25-minute journey from my house to the race site. I arrived at 5:45am as they had race day pickup starting at 6am. I was able to park at the Ben T Davis beach area with tons of parking space available. Also, I was there early enough to make a stop at the bathroom before the rest of the crowd arrived. Package and race shirt pickup was very efficient, and I was able to get both in a few minutes. After pinning my bib onto my shirt, I did a quick warm up on the path to get loose for the race. There appeared to be about 150 people gathered around for the half marathon and we started exactly at 7:15am. I had spoken previously to the race timer, (who happen to not only be a person I knew who had timed many of our Strawberry Classic Races in the past but who had also been the timer at the Firefighters 5k Race I had done the previous week) and he warned me about headwinds I would be hitting on the way back. Keeping that in mind, I put my headphones and sunglasses on and I got off to a quick start with most of the race leaders. There was a nice breeze blowing and the temperatures were in the mid 60’s to start the race, not bad at all. I settled into a comfortable pace and made sure to keep my eyes open for anyone I though could be in my age bracket! The first 2 ½ miles were smooth sailing and the crowd begin to thin out a little the further we ran. There was plenty of water/Gatorade at roughly every 2 miles with Honey Stinger Gue or wafer at the halfway mark. By mile 3 ½ we reached the first challenge of the race, the Causeway Bridge. The incline was steady and took a bit of concentration to try and maintain a steady pace. This is where several runners either slowed down or stopped to walk. I had gotten somewhat prepared for this as a few weeks earlier I had run some of the hills in Brooksville. There were quite a few pedestrians using the path as well who were kind enough to step aside whenever they saw runners approaching. The bikers on the other hand were not always as considerate. While a few did yell “on your left” as they approached runners, several simply buzzed by. This made for a few close calls. By mile 4 ½ we were off the bridge and running on another straight away towards the turnaround point. It was nice looking to the side and seeing the beautiful waters splashing against the rocks and seeing the city skyline in the distance. At this point some of the runners begin to fade a little bit and fall behind. I hit the halfway mark and did a u turn back to the start. One thing to note, the race did not have a lot of fan support except closer to the start line. There were several cars passing by on the Causeway who honked their support for us. The run out had been pretty smooth and fast, the run back was nothing of the sort! As the race timer had stated earlier, I hit a very strong headwind and the sun was shining even brighter heading back. Also, the temperatures got a bit warmer. I made it to mile 8 ok but the next few miles were rough! I think I was not hydrated enough as I felt my legs begin to stiffen the further I ran. This led me to slow down on 3 occasions and totally stop twice. I kept checking my watch to make sure I was still in the window to finish the race within 2 hours. At the halfway mark I was on pace for a 1:56 finish but at mile 9, I was closer to a 2 hour or more finish. I knew I had to average a 10-minute pace to have a chance at reaching my goal for the next 3 miles. So, after guzzling the rest of my Power Aid, I willed myself to crunch it out. I did one last stop at mile 11 and then ran non-stop until the end. Once I got to mile 13, I could see the finish line at least 50 feet ahead of me and the time was reading 1:59. I went for broke and gave it all I had and crossed the finish line right as the clock was switching to 2:00 hours! That is what I call a photo finish! I was told that if you have nothing else in you, you have given your all, so I guess that is what I did. After doubling over to catch my breath for several minutes, I walked over to collect my medal and something to drink. The medal was unique in that it was in the shape of a lung! They had a variety of beverages from sodas to beer to water for the runners. Also, they had bananas, mandarins, chips, granola bars and with your bib stub you could get a pair of chicken tacos! There was a problem with them getting all awards results for the race in a timely manner, so they just gave out the awards for the overall male/female and masters male/female for each of the events. All age group awards would be mailed to the winners. I got a chance to look at the printed results page and noted that I had actually come in 1st in my age group! This was a surprise as I have never won an age group of any race before. So overall, for a first race, everything went fairly well, and they did a good job of conducting the event. I would recommend this race to anyone who likes a challenging but rewarding course to run.