Southernmost Marathon - SOMO!

Southernmost Marathon - SOMO
Wow. What a week we had leading up to Somo. We ended up having to evacuate due to Hurricane Matthew so all of our travel plans got changed. Originally my kids were supposed to bounce between grandparents for this race, but because of the seriousness of the storm, I ended up bringing our friend (who also nanny's for us as needed) along so we wouldn't miss the race. I basically didn't run all week between work and storm prep... which was all so stressful! We spent all day Wednesday putting up our storm shutters, packing and preparing to come home to no power (dry food storage/water ect).

Putting up shutters at
our house

Putting shutters up at my
grandparents house

The Category 4 hurricane covering our state

 We left Thursday morning to head west and spent the night in Naples. Normally a 4 ish hour drive took us well over 10 hours because of traffic.  After a very long night watching the storm and trying to keep in touch with family who stayed behind, we left Naples Friday morning to head south trying to miss the storm. Got to Key West around 6 pm, picked up our packets and checked into the resort.

Race: Southernmost 1/2 Marathon
Date: October 8th, 2016
Finish Time: 2 hours, 44 minutes
Distance: 13.1 miles
Gain: 376 ft

Originally there were 12 of us going down to run this race, 3 running their first full marathons, 1 running her first half, 1 trying for a BQ after a long summer of training... a lot of excitement for this race (pre-hurricane Matthew). Only 4 of us ended up running the race, the all stayed behind to care for their loved ones, or homes. Race morning my husband and I woke up, and decided to drop to the 1/2 marathon. It had been such a stressful week we both decided we wanted to just have a nice easy fun run with friends. My best friend (Jess) was running her first 1/2 and I trained all summer with her so it was really exciting to actually be able to run the race with her. I had two complaints about the start of the race...

Justin, me and Jess at the start line!

1) There were only about 8 outhouses at the start line for everyone to share. I feel like there should have been quite a few more.
2) When we sang the National Anthem, there was no flag to salute. Found this a little odd.

Jess' husband Jason was running the full so he took off promptly at 5:30 am start time. The 1/2 started at 5:45 am giving a little room between the full and half marathons. This course was beautiful but Key West is extremely hot and humid. This is coming from a group of us who LIVE IN FLORIDA. I couldn't imagine running this race if I had traveled from somewhere not humid already. I would have died, pretty sure! LOL.

We took off at a nice and easy pace at 5:45 am. It was dark and none of us came prepared so we tried to stay behind people with headlamps or flash lights! Justin started the race really strong, I thought he would end up taking off and leaving us in his dust! He didn't but I kept waiting for it to happen. We hit the southernmost point around mile 3 and they had a photographer there grabbing everyone's pictures as they ran through, that was exciting.
 
I remember Jess saying she was excited we hit mile 6 (about half way) and she hadn't walked at all yet. This aid station was pretty cool, they had lots of cool lights and loud music playing. The sun was starting to come out now, and the sunrise coming over the water was gorgeous. As the sun came up, it was getting even hotter... which was unimaginable!

We got to the 1/2 marathon and marathon split (mile 8) and Jason was sitting on the ground there waiting for us! He decided to bail on the full and finish the half with us. He was in the lead of the marathon group but realized by mile 6 he wasn't enjoying himself and knew he would slow down as the sun came out, and we have all had SUCH A STRESSFUL week.

Best Friends

Power walking up the last bridge :)

We were so surprised to see him, but excited for him to join us! The 4 of us ran the last 5 miles together, and crossed the finish line together. It was awesome. Jess had an initial goal to finish between 2:15-2:30 and that was before we knew how humid it was going to be. We crossed the finish line at 2:31. So impressed with her pushing through! It was really cool to have trained together for the last 5 months and we all got to run the whole race together as well. It's a race I won't forget!

The course was great, we crossed a few bridges (that was the only bit of elevation change we had), we ran along the water almost the whole time, the sites were beautiful, we got to see the Southernmost point buoy around mile 3 and water stations every 1-2 miles (with ice cold water and gatorade that wasn't super diluted, which was needed for how hot and humid it was)...

I would NOT recommend it as a first marathon or half I believe you will be disappointed because it was so hot and humid it makes the race so difficult. I would recommend it as a runcation with friends. We won't forget this experience anytime soon, and have already talked about heading down to do it again (with no time goals... just a fun run with friends :D) We enjoyed the rest of the weekend in the keys including a sunset boat cruise, the aquarium, lots of pool time at the resort, site seeing, key lime pie and great fun with family and friends.

Jax Bank Marathon Race Recap

My husband and I met my parents at the hotel in Jacksonville "Jax" as the locals call it. My dad was planning to run his first 1/2 marathon, mom her first full, and my husband was along as the most amazing, supportive spectator around (and great photographer too). We drove to 1st Place Sports, a local running shop that is a big sponsor for this race. The shop was cool, the people were well informed and friendly. I bought myself a cool coffee mug that says "26.2" and they gave me a free shoe charm for making a purchase. Let me really start by saying, I got to Jax completely unprepared. I forgot my phone carrier, my ear buds, my shirt I was planning on wearing, and my handheld water bottle. I purchased a new phone carrier and ear buds at the store, wore a different shirt I brought (not dri-wick which was a bummer with the heat/humidity... I'll get into that later).

Pre race, getting ready! #Jaxbankmarathon

We had a good dinner (salmon with veggies and some bread for me, as always pre-marathon), and got to bed early. We left the hotel around 5:45am to go early and find parking. Not much traffic congestion and we found a great parking spot on the main road right at the start/finish line. We beat the crowds by seconds because it got crazy right after we pulled in. The race started at 7am, it was a very HUMID 67 degrees at the start of the race, and the temps rose quickly. It was 76 degrees by the time we finished, 80 degrees by the time we reached out hotel around 1pm. 

It was a fairly small race (since I have only ran Rock N Roll Marathons which are huge), this race had 699 marathon finishers. The course was nice, very very flat, total of 1400 feet elevation change with no real "hills" or bridges to cross. We ran through neighborhoods in a single lane. There were water stations/Gatorade every 2 miles or so (which would have been fine any other race, but with the heat I was certainly dragging in-between), they also had 4 stations with GU along the course. I personally don't use GU but I thought it was awesome they had so much available. 


The first 18 miles I was lucky enough to run with my mom. I started slowing down around then, and she was able to maintain a faster pace than me, I was so happy to see her take off. "GO MOM! GO!" I met some great people along the course with awesome stories at what brought them there. I ran into a girl from my hometown who belongs to the same running club as me (Flagler County Runners, FCR) around mile 19? Ish? We ran together off and on for the rest of the race. This was her first marathon and I was so excited to watch her cross the line about 15 seconds ahead of me. 

My mom crossing her first FULL marathon finish line! 

Me crossing my 3rd marathon finish line!

I went into this race saying I was running to finish, to remember to enjoy myself. For the most part I did. The heat really got to me, I puked twice because of it. Overall it was a great race. My official time was 4:38:08 (mom finished almost exactly 10 minutes before me). This was my SLOWEST marathon to date, by a LONG shot. But, it was also the first I had to endure heat AND humidity. 

We ALL finished!