A1A Fort Lauderdale Half Marathon Recap

It has been years since I've blogged. I can't believe how long it's been but I FINALLY found something that I’m so excited to share with the masses! This past Sunday I completed the Publix Fort Lauderdale A1A Half Marathon. I completed this race last year and loved it so much I jumped online the next day and registered for 2016! Which meant I spent a whole year fretting about this race. When I first signed up there was a link in my registration that said "Transfer to another athlete". It was my first time seeing that for a race

Expo and flat Mimi

I signed up for. I took it as a bad omen. LOL. What if something happened and I couldn't run?? A million scenarios ran through my head. But then October came and it was finally time to start training! I would go into the highs and lows of training season but there were so many ups and downs and twists and turns and I want to keep this post about that actual race!

The day before the race (Saturday) after sorority meeting I went to pick up my race packet. The expo always has a way of bringing things home. I picked up my packet and say my name bolded on the bib! It’s on and popping now! I walked around the expo getting all the free goodies being offered by the sponsors of the race. A1A expo never disappoints! I ran into a few race buddies, Jamie who runs with my regularly at our local run club and then Ali, who I meant through an online Facebook run group. We chatted, collected more goodies.

Me and Ali at the Expo

After a fitful night of sleep the alarm went off at 4am. Actually it didn’t need to go off because I woke up at 2am and couldn’t go back to sleep. So that meant I only got around 3 hours of sleep. This was going to be interesting. My running buddy Andrea, who was coming along to cheer us along, picked me and Marie up and we headed to downtown Fort Lauderdale. Because I did this race last year I was familiar with how to get around all the traffic so we got down there and was parked fairly quickly. It was a chilly 55 degree morning so we just sat in the car and danced to Soca music. LOL!

Finally made our way to start line then realized we needed to use the bathroom. Again like last year the lines were long at the porta potties by the start line. Guess no one, once again like last year, realized there was a whole row of porta potties down the street. So off we went and went back to the start line. By this time my heart was racing. I always get nervous before a race. Always. But when you have a timed goal, it ramps up the intensity. Everyone kept asking me if I was ready and I’d give an awkward smile because really I wanted to throw up.

One last shot with Ali!

In the car Marie and I went back and forth on what time we were going for. I’d say 2:35, she’d say 2:30, I’d say between 2:30 and 2:35 and she’d say 2:30…at that point I just stopped arguing. LOL. What was the point? I’d aim for 2:30 and just be happy for somewhere between 2:30 and 2:35. So we went to line up and I ran into Ali again, who decided at the last minute the day before to run the full marathon, we took pictures, hugged and wished each other luck. The national anthem played and then we were off!

And.... Go!

It’s so easy to get lost in the hype of everything and just take off running too fast and my first mile was fast. I told Marie I’d have to slow down to pace myself or else I’d burn out. So we slowed a little bit but overall I felt good. After mile 2 I stopped to stretch right before we went over the Las Olas Bridge. Mile 3 landed us on A1A Blvd. By then the sun was just breaking over the horizon. I had to remind myself along the way to take in the sights to take my mind off the fact that I had 10 more miles to go… I saw a police officer running in full police gear, a man running in only a speedo made of the American Flag, an 8 year old beating the pants off everyone. There were lots of spectators cheering us on, the aid stations were filled with water and Gatorade, random people passing out beer and Twizzlers. It was crazy but it made it interesting.

At around mile 5 I really had to use As we went down the little hill a man coming back said the line was long. I turned around and told Marie let’s go back but she was like let’s just check it out. Luckily we did since there were only 2 people in line. So I was in and out pretty quickly. Marie just went in as I was coming out so she ordered me to just go! She’d catch up to me and I know she would so off I went!
the bathroom. As the course went through a park I saw people running to the bathroom so I told Marie let’s go.

My friend catching me around mile 6

The winds while going north on A1A were pretty brutal. They were coming from the northeast so they were blowing you back and sideways. LOL Marie finally caught up to me close to mile 8. She said that really had to push it to catch up to me. Little did she know that having her behind was a major boost for me to get moving. My competitive side kicked in and I didn’t want her to catch up! LOL! But she did and it was nice to have her alongside me again. At which point I commenced with the whining again, this time about the wind. Marie just ignored me. At one point I actually looked up at her to see if she was wearing headphones because she was just not responding to me. LOL how rude!

So we ran on, mile 9 was the turnaround point. It was time for me to refuel. I could feel myself losing energy. I pulled out my Vanilla Gu Roctane gel. It was my first time trying that flavor or even trying Roctane but I heard good things about it from other friends. After mile 10, Marie told me we had to pick it up. I texted my husband to let him know where I was, so that he’d know to hightail it to the finish line. Only 3 more miles left! But I was really on the verge of a meltdown. I started walking. Marie indulged me for about 30 seconds then said let’s go, time to run. So I cranked up my music, which by the way I ran the first 5 miles of the race with no music! That was a first for me.


Ariel shot Courtesy of A1A marathon Facebook page

Heading south on A1A there are no more mile markers for the half marathon people, only for the marathoners. After running for almost 2 hours no one is in the mood to do math equations to try to figure out how many miles one has left to go. So we just ran, I did take time to look at the beach again, the water, the sun getting higher in the sky. The weather was still cool. Everything after mile 11 was a blur. Only thing I was looking for was the entrance to the park, to the finish line. We turned the corner and that last .1 felt like forever!!!
Marie stayed ahead of me screaming at me to come on, run! And I did. She slowed down and let me pass her and I crossed the finish line with both hands up! I was sooo excited to be done! The clock said 2:35 but I know my time was short of that because I started near the back of the start line. We had to wait for the final results so we went ahead and got our medal, our water, Gatorade and all the other post-race food being offered to us, which was A LOT! LOL. A1A FTL marathon never disappoints with the post-race party.

Thank you Lynette for the finish line pic!

I was very proud of my performance on Sunday. It made all those dreaded training runs in the early morning, late in the evening, in the cold, in the heat, all alone, sometimes with a friend…. It made it all worth it.

Happy to be done!

After cheering some more runners and a friend who completed the full marathon I finally went to check my time but they still didn’t have my time posted so I checked it on my phone on the drive home.

My final time was 2:30:01! We hit 2:30 right on the money!! I couldn’t believe it! That is a 7 minute personal record for me! My last half marathon, which was this race the year before, my time was 2:37:47. I definitely redeemed myself! I’ve been chasing a 2:30 since my first half marathon in 2012.

Free engraving!

I compared my pace from last year to this year and just overall I did so much better. Last year my legs felt like lead and I had the most awful foot cramp. But this year my legs felt good, but my feet did start to feel achy and at one point started to go numb. When I stopped to use the bathroom I could feel the feeling coming back to my foot and it didn’t bother me again. But that was so weird.

Special shout out to my husband for getting up early with the kids to cheer me!


My run Boos! Shout to Andrea who came to cheer us!

My run boo! The best pacer!

My family!

Even though I’m writing this blog days later after the race, I’m still on a high from it! I love running. I cannot believe how far I’ve come from that high school senior who ran one track meet in high school, came in last place and promptly quit the team. But desire to run never left me. When I learned of BGR in 2011 it was like another world opened up for me. It has literally changed my life. You have your good runs when you feel like you’re flying, but you also have those bad runs where you literally have to coach yourself to take every single step. But Sunday’s race reminds of one of my favorite motto that I came up with, “You never know what you can do until you do it”!