Central Florida Spartan Sprint

After the Kissimmee Spartan Sprint this summer, I really wanted to do another one. Getting to do the obstacles made me feel really powerful and strong. The next Florida race was the Central Florida weekend one week after the Space Coast Half Marathon. Will was already signed up to do the longer Beast distance on Saturday and when I said I was interested in the Sunday Sprint, we both signed up.

The Central Florida races were taking place about 3 hours from where we live. Since spectating isn't free and there's not usually a lot of places along the course to spectate, Will decided to go run the Beast by himself and come home afterwards. We'd drive back down on Sunday together for the Sprint. Unfortunately, disaster struck when Will got a flat tire around 9 pm on the drive home. He was fine, the car was fine aside from needing a new tire and we had a spare so he was able to get back on the road and make it home without needing a tow. But you can probably tell where this is going.

There is pretty much no way to get a tire replaced between 9 pm on a Saturday night and 8 am on a Sunday morning which is when we'd need to leave to make it to the Sprint on time. Even attempting to get a rental car before 8 am on a Sunday would be really unlikely. If it was a local race, we probably could have gotten someone to drive us but three hours each way at the last minute is a lot to ask even of a really close friend. So we were left with skipping the race as our only option.

I wasn't super upset Saturday night but at that a point I was just really tired and wanted to sleep but Sunday morning I was really struggling with my emotions. After the Space Coast Half, I did not feel great so I started out the week with a rest day. I had planned on doing recovery walks on Tuesday and Thursday but it was in the 40s during my walking time. I have no issue running in 40F weather but this Florida girl is not up for walking in near freezing temps at 5 am. I napped instead. So by Sunday, I had all of the angsty feelings from not having exercised all week on top of all of my feelings about missing my race.

I went out Sunday morning for a four mile run. The weather was actually quite nice for a run and it was a good time for me to get my feeling settled about my first DNS. It was a real bummer to have two not so great race weekends in a row but there will be more races. Marathon weekend is coming up. And there will be more Spartan races opportunities in late 2020.

One of the things that comes with running is that sometimes you will put in all of this training and not get to run your race. Injury, emergencies and inclement weather happen to everyone. It sucks when it happens but the journey is still worth taking even if the destination isn't what you pictured when you started out.

Space Coast Half Marathon Race Recap

The Sunday after Thanksgiving is always the day of the Space Coast Half Marathon and Marathon. This year it was on December 1. This race is known for having really cool spaceship medals and also a lovely riverside course. The Marathon goes north out and back and then south out and back through a tree lined neighborhood. The half marathon has two courses either the north half or the south half of the marathon course. I signed up for the half course as it was described as very flat with the north course having more hills. At least more Florida level hills.

Originally, I had planned on this being my PR race with my goal of a 2:36 half for proof of time for a future WDW marathon. With my amazing PR at Wine and Dine weekend, I felt way less motivated to push on this race but I thought I'd give it a shot anyways especially if the weather was nicer than Wine and Dine weekend. Alas, the weather was about the same as Wine and Dine with the race starting a bit later in the day. This race did have a 2:30 Galloway pace group running 60/30 intervals just like at Wine and Dine so even though I wasn't feeling super motivated, I thought why not.

Like most local races in my area, it was self seated corrals with both halves and the full starting at the same time. It was quite crowded as this is a super popular race. I managed to find my pace group and met the pacer. It got really tight close to race start as people kept piling in last minute. Then for some reason, the pacer decided that she needed to push further up in the coral leaving the rest of the group to try to squeeze through the crowd to keep up with her. Not sure what was up with that but it was not a great start to the race.

I wasn't able to see much of the prerace festivities because I'm short and there were just way too many people. But soon we were off. The beginning of the race was very crowded as we headed down a two lane road. I was glad to be with an interval pace group because it would have been very difficult to navigate walk intervals in the dark with such a crowded course. It took quite a while for the course to thin out. Part of the problem was that there was also a 2:25 non-interval pace group and a 2:25 and 2:30 pace group are going to be pretty close together especially at the beginning of the race. I have no idea why they had two pace groups so close together but I also learned there was a second 2:30 pace group that did not run intervals that started behind us.

I could tell from my phone that we were a bit behind in the beginning. I wasn't worried at this point as the same thing happened at Wine and Dine and we were able to catch up. The course had plenty of water stops but they were very tiny compared to runDisney water stops. We blew through the first stop. I managed to grab a cup of water but inhaled about half of it while I was trying to run and drink at the same time. This would become a trend as we ran through every water stop. I had to chose between skipping water, trying to drink and run or stopping and then having to really push to catch back up to the pace group. Because of this, I was not able to take any of my electrolytes during the first half of the race. I simply did not have time to mix it in my water cup without getting left behind.

I started getting worried as the course turned out to be hillier than advertised. They were gentle rolling hills that most runners probably wouldn't blink at but for someone who runs in an area so flat you can't ever tell there is an incline, I was not prepared for this. I felt that we weren't running fast enough to make pace especially as I knew my phone over estimated how far I ran. Then the second 2:30 pace group passed us..... Never a good sign when your pace group gets passed by another pace group.

I managed to stay with the pace group through the halfway point turn around. We passed quite a few spectators. There were a lot of unofficial booze stops but I was not about to stop for alcohol during a potential PR race. By mile 8 we still hadn't caught up to the pace group that had passed us and I was feeling really tired. I knew I could have pushed myself for longer but I didn't feel like I would have made it with the pace group till the end so I fell back from the pace group at the next water stop. I finally got to take electrolytes and some extra water. My salt solution tasted amazing which meant that I was loosing too many electrolytes.

I switched to 30 30 intervals and let myself slow down. At this point, I just wanted to finish the race. My legs started really hurting as I got further into the race. While I was running, they felt fine, but when I switched to walking all of the muscles in my legs felt really sore. I was too tired and cardiovascularly worn out to run longer intervals but my walk intervals were not fun either. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other and taking extra water.

I did get passed by the first place marathoner. I'm not sure what his time was but last year's winner finished around 2:20 so I had expected to see him. I also got to see the first few marathon pace groups and it was encouraging to see those runners still looking strong. Once I got within a mile of the finish, there were a lot more spectators and loads of people encouraged me to keep going while I was doing my walk breaks. I think I need one of those Jeff Galloway made me take this walk break shirts for local races because people don't know about interval running. I know from experience that I can't start skipping my walk intervals if I'm more than 0.1 miles from the finish.

Time: 2:39:40

Pace:12:11 min/mi

Finally, I made it to the finish line and got my medal. I was feeling really not good. I usually like to walk around quite a bit after a half marathon to help my legs cool down. After this race, I knew that if I stopped walking, I wouldn't be able to start walking again. I drank a bottle of water and found Will. He wanted to wait to see his official finish time so I went to find the bananas. They were hiding behind the giant line for pizza. When I got finished, Will's time was posted and I told him that I needed to go home. Usually, we like to stay and enjoy the festivities and catch up with our other runner friends to see how their races went. That was not happening today.

Looking back at this race, I could pinpoint several things that went wrong but I was still really happy with my time. It ended up being my second fastest half marathon so I couldn't be unhappy with the overall result even if it was a pain to get to. But after my amazing PR at Wine and Dine weekend, I was not super motivated. I definitely wasn't mentally prepared to PR a race. My nutrition wasn't that great during November and I hadn't been sleeping very well.

I had issues with getting enough electrolytes on course which is pretty normal. It was so bad that I drank some of the on course electrolytes during the last quarter of the race. I'm so not a fan of gatorade/powerade type drinks. I think I'm going to have to start carrying my own electrolyte beverage with me during races. I hate having to carry a water bottle. Oh, well. More experimentation is needed before Marathon weekend.

So I'll just say that this race was an educational experience that came with a really cool medal.