Suncoast Classic 10k

The alarm clock didn’t go off today, so I woke up an hour later than I thought I would. Had a quick breakfast – luckily I’d brought food – and were out of the hotel at seven. The race start wasn’t far away and we found it very quickly so I enough time to get my race packet, warm up and go to the bathroom.

It was an unusual warm and humid day for February, 73.4 °F / 23.0 °C, even at eight in the morning. The sun was out and it was windy. I knew it wouldn’t be an easy race, but I had a pacing strategy that was supposed to help me live all the way through the run. A big help were the water stations at every mile. I usually grabbed two cups, one to drink and one to pour over my head.

This strategy worked well, I started at a 6:48/mile pace and tried not to let it drop slower than 7:00/mile. I accomplished that over the first 4 1/2 to 5 miles and never got past by any other woman. On contrary I even past to more girls between mile four and five. The problem about the last part of the race was now the wind. At first the headwind was felt good because it cooled me down a little, but the longer I had to battle the wind the weaker I got and even though Jon was standing close to the finish line cheering me on like crazy there was a slight uphill portion right before the finish that really beat me. There were also no other women right there that I could try to pass and nobody right behind me.


I had got to the starting line 10 seconds after the official start so I didn’t know my chip time, but I knew it had to be over 44 minutes. I had hoped for 43 something, but that had just not worked.



We got some of the free water and snacks at the BayWalk where the race was held and then walked around a little to the pier and the small downtown beach area to kill the time until the awards were given out at ten.

I ended up with the second place in my age group, 9th overall female and had to pick between a yellow and a red bag as a prize. I took the yellow one and we walked around more in St. Petersburg, had an early lunch with my obligatory margarita and didn’t go on the dolphin cruise because the weather was getting worse and I was just so tired. Once we hit the Interstate the rain started pouring down on us and hardly ever stopped before we got home. I have to say though that I’m not quite certain about most of the trip because I fell asleep instantly.
Back at home we just watched a movie and my dad made a good simple pasta dinner.

See more progress on: take one photograph each day as a way to document my life.