Lighthouse Loop Half Marathon

Let’s just get this out there: This race sucked for me and it kinda turned me off to running. It was half my fault and half mother nature’s fault, but still. It sucked.

So let’s talk about the day before the race. Around noon, I had my normal pre-race lunch of a cheeseburger and fries. Then I topped that off with a pumpkin pie Blizzard from Dairy Queen (omg, please eat one of those now. So good.). It was a meal that happiness was made of and it was all delicious and filling.

So. very. filling.

By 9:00pm that night, I still wasn’t hungry so I didn’t eat dinner. That wasn’t my best move. Usually I have a light/healthy dinner the night before a race but this time, I didn’t eat anything for probably 10 hours.

To add to that mistake, in an effort to not poop my pants during the race, I drank magnesium citrate the day before. I drank it before the Chicago Marathon too and it worked out fine, but I think the combination of the magnesium citrate and no dinner left me with no energy. I felt fine leading up to the race, but about a mile in, I knew the next 12 miles would be a shit show. (But not literally, thankfully.)

Now let’s place blame on things other than me. The weather was a hot and humid 70 degrees at the start. It was terrible racing weather but it could have been worse. I was really thankful that it was overcast the entire time.

The course had a ton of steady inclines and very little decline. Mile 12 was a giant, horrible bridge.

All of these things together made for a really miserable race. I walked a lot and even stopped for a few pictures, which I never do. (As opposed to taking pictures on the run and hoping they aren’t blurry at the end.)

The race namesake at Ponce Inlet. That was mile 6.

I finished in 2:27:32, my third worst time behind my first half and one I ran with Michelle when she was seven months pregnant.

The after party was great. They had four different kinds of beer and a buffet style breakfast with omelets, sausage, grits, fruit, etc. We got a choice of a sleeveless or sleeved shirts in our race packets and the medal was cute. I was really impressed since I don’t think I paid more than $55 to register, so I have to give props to Final Mile for knowing how to organize a race.

Overall, I just didn’t care for the course. Most of it was along the ocean that I couldn’t see because it was blocked by buildings. The parts I could see were beautiful and it wasn’t the worst course I’ve run, but not one that I’m dying to run again.

I had big plans to do chores and clean the rest of the day, but I managed only two things: a mimosa’ed lunch with hubs and then six straight episodes of Bates Motel, which I am now addicted to.