The Carrabba's Summer Beach Run

Ah, the dreaded Summer Beach Run. Well, that's at least what people have told me. The conditions followed the trend from previous years-hot and humid. And even though the race was postponed two weeks due to Tropical Storm Fay the conditions would have been the same. But one thing that did surprise me was the condition the beach was in. It was packed perfectly and wasn't at all like the torture of the Tour de Pain 4 mile beach run. During my warm up, I noticed a somewhat strong headwind, but it was nothing that would be an excuse for a poor performance. The Summer Beach Run, unlike the Winter Beach Run, is one of the biggest races in Jacksonville and is the oldest footrace in Florida-dating back to the 1960's. Some 1100+ runners toed the line at at 7:00 PM to kick off the race but before we ran we gave a moment of silence to honor long-time Jacksonville-area race organizer John TenBroeck who just that past week lost his battle to cancer at age 67. And for the first time in a long while the cannon wasn't shot by him. After the moment of silence we were all stirred by the firing of the cannon and took off. I was dreading this race and just wanted to get a good week of training in. But I still tried. My approach for this race was just to run an evenly paced race. I tried to fulfill my goal and I went through the first mile in 8:10 and the second one in 16:30. At the turn-around point the change in weather was instantaneous. It went from a moderate headwind to a hot furnace, all in the matter of a few seconds. I wanted to go faster but just couldn't; my legs wouldn't move faster. So I took the last 2 miles at a mid-8:00 pace, the cruise-control I was in. I just wanted to receive my Grand Prix points. I finished in a slow and disappointing 43:34, good enough to get 5th in my age group, missing 4th place by about 30 seconds. I stuck around to receive my portion-controlled Carrabba's post race meal and finally didn't hear my name announced for an award, another humbling experience for thyself. But on another note my dad finished in 38:55, a very respectable time (two minutes faster than his performance in this race two years ago) that he managed to muster despite having the same desire I had to run this race-none. He placed in the top 130 finishers in this field of 1100+. Now the weather is cooling (very slightly) and I am reaching possibly the best weeks ahead of me as I get taken under the wing of my new instructor-Coach May, who also coaches some of the best youth distance runners in the Jacksonville area. So long and see you at my next race, the Children's Way 5K!