Long over due, but here is my experience during the St. Petersburg Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon. Leading up to the race my daughter had dancing competition in Lakeland, so I was going to be driving a truck with all the props back from Lakeland at 11:00 PM the night before. Although I had known this ahead of time, I didn't realize the impact this would have on my performance.
As the race approached, the event planners released parking details which required us all to pay $10 to park and then an additional $5 for vouchers for a bus ride from the finish to the parking area. We were welcome to park off site (and pay local rates) but you could be walking a mile or two to get to the start and back from the finish. Although this seemed extreme and there was a lot of discussion about this leading up to the race, it was no more than what was going on across the Bay over at the Gasparilla preparations. The one irritation was that you also had to pay $10 to park to attend the expo where you would get your packet pick-up. They did not allow anyone to do pick up in your place, and did no on site pickup the morning of the race. This meant you had to make two trips and potentially pay $20 worth of parking fees. I was able to park on the street to attend the Expo and pick up my materials early enough to avoid the fees.
The Expo was ok. Not nearly as big as Disney and not as big as Gasparilla. There was nice Brooks running gear with the Rock 'n' Roll logo (all sized very small) so I didn't buy anything. Packet pickup was quick and easy and the t-shirts were nice.
As explained, I was driving a truck back from Lakeland (about an hour) the evening before, but I also had to pick up the truck and take it to Lakeland that morning at 7:00 AM. So all told, the day before started at 5:30 and ended when got to bed around 1:00 AM. I knew I would be out most of the day, so I had made my preparations for the run the day before so I could come home and collapse. The race started at 7:00 AM so I planned on being at the parking lot at 6:00 AMor so. But, the parking was backed up all the way onto the interstate, and it took me 30 minutes to get parked. As always, I did my normal prep for the race and was waiting in line to use the portapotties, and by the time I made it to the front, they were singing the national anthem. I was running to bag check to find out it was closed and ran another half mile back to my car to drop my bag and deal thhe the repercussions at the finish. I thoughfully grabbed my bus voucher so I wouldn't be stranded at the finish.
By the time I made it to the start, my wave had long since been started as did the pace group with which I was hoping to run. I jumped in and started. I had already been running, and I hadn't really had a chance to get myself mentally prepared. I was frantic and tired. Not to mention it was cold! (Well cold for me, it was in the 40's). I had finally bought some running gloves, and wore a jacket. I was glad to have the goves, but I wish the jacket would have disappeared. I didn't have time to find a disposable jacket, so I wore one I wanted to keep. I tied it around my waist and kept going. The course was nice enough (downtown St. Petersburg), but I found the water stations to be manned by lots of kids who were not always in tuned to what they were doing. Also, we were told that any discared clothes would be picked up and given to a shelther. What they didn't tell us was that our clothes were being snatched up off the ground nearly as fast as they came off. It was a little creepy.
The bands were nearly every mile and were a great mix of blues and rock. There was some great entertainment, and the course was nice and flat. The beginning of the course was all downtown, and the end was all near the pier and park. I enjoyed the run, but got an asthma attack at the end. I made it the last couple of miles at a decent clip, but it didn't make up for the time I spent going slow and I paid for the increased pace with a demoralizing finish where I found a patch of grass and collapsed to the sweet rocking sounds of Flo Rida. Thats right, I finished just in time to see the headliner. Unfortunately our race was scheduled the same day as the Grammy's, and all major acts had to be in California for the show. This meant that many people didn't get to see the beginning of the show since he went on at 10:00 AM.
Generally, I had a great time but the punishing weekend events the day before took their toll and I walked away with a pretty poor time. Not quite my worst, but for such a cool day and with no shin pain, I should have done better. I do have my Inagural medal, but I was not very competative, even with myself.
Rock On!
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