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And it felt like shit.
My pace was off, almost 12 minutes per mile, which has never happened. I didn't want to be out there, I changed my intervals from 4/:30 to 1/:30, then to 30 seconds run, 4 minutes walking. It was terrible. I wallowed in my pain and self-pity on the couch watching crap TV for the rest of the day. I understand how some people would kill to be able to hold a 12 minute/mile pace, but it's not about that. It's about how I felt trying to do it. It wasn't comfortable, every muscle on me hurt, every step I took hurt my feet. My form sucked. I quit because I didn't want to risk injuring myself further than I already had from falling the morning before.
So I took a few days off, and did a short 3 mile run on Friday morning, since I was scheduled to run the Diva Half Marathon in St. Augustine on Sunday. In the beginning of the week, I really was dreading Diva. I didn't feel good at all. But as the week went on and it hurt less and less to just sit down, I started looking forward to it. Meagan was going to drive 4 of us up there and she was going to help pace her friend Lindsay to a PR of "anything less than 2:16." Well, that's the kind of pace I figured I could handle that day, so I said I'd help out and time the intervals.
We got on the road a little after 4am for the drive up to St. Aug. There was no on-site parking so we pulled into the lot at a local hospital and caught the race bus. The weather was cold and wet and windy! It was around 6am when we arrived for a 7:30 start, so we scurried over to the Hampton Inn a block from the start area where another friend of Meagan's was actually staying. We needed to meet up with her because she picked up our bibs and packets the day before- and our tutus! The hotel lobby was full of women dressed in pink running gear- the man at the desk was more than happy to let us hang out in the warmth and even told us to enjoy the free breakfast! Yay, bananas! We stayed there til just after 7am when the sky started to turn gray and then headed out into the chilly, breezy morning.
Good lookin' group!
There looked to be about 3,300 people at this race- mostly women, of course. There were a lot of tutus! We checked our bags and then Meagan, Lindsay, and I inched up toward the front of Wave 1. 7:30 came and went. Just as we were starting to get antsy, at 7:39, the gun went off and we moved toward the start line!
Lots of folks!
The plan was to run the first 5K, then switch to my 4/:30 intervals. Lindsay had never run intervals (and had just completed the Marine Corps Marathon!) but she was willing to try it after Meagan and I talked them up so much.
The Divas course was...not awesome. Yeah, it was flat but it was also one of the less scenic races I've done. We all thought it would be like, through or near historic St. Augustine- I mean, why else would you have a race in that city? But no, this one was pretty much through the ghetto. There were some parts down some generic city streets with generic city views (gas stations, restaurants, etc). We were looking forward to running though a "NEW!" part of the course- Anastasia State Park. That didn't come til like mile 9 and it was also less than remarkable. It was still on a road, not a running trail or path or anything, and the only difference from the rest of the course was that there were some grasses and sand dunes on both sides. We caught a glimpse of the iconic black and white striped lighthouse and Ponce Inlet but then it disappeared behind the trees. Sooo...
What made this race fun of course was running with my friends. I'd never run with anyone besides Scot but the 3 of us ran and chatted and had a great time! I didn't even have to think about turning on my music. Never did we get out of sync- the intervals worked great and after a couple miles of them Lindsay was a believer! I was watching the time and not once did we risk not getting her that PR. In fact, we blew away her previous time and crossed the finish line all 3 of us holding hands together up in victory in 2:06!
About .1 from the finish line, you pass a tiara and boa station- grab one of each to cross the line in style! The feather boa on a sweaty neck was kinda gross though!
Artistic photo of our pink nails and medals!
"Hot shirtless firemen" handed us our medals at the finish line, as promised. We got some glasses of cheap, sort of flat champagne, and took lots of pictures! There were tables full of snacks after we picked up our bags, so we loaded up, found the rest of our crew, and headed to the bus to start the trip back home. The weather ended up being perfect for this race- it was overcast and cool, and the breeze died down just enough to where it wasn't a hindrance but instead provided relief from the 100% humidity.
So, over all, not much to say about the course- that alone would keep me from doing this race again. But the medal is awesome and running with friends made all the difference!
