March – Running Fun!

Three years ago we attended an event in Sebring called Run the Track. It’s a 3.74 mile race around the Sebring Raceway. It’s a pretty small race with only a few hundred people, but it’s a fun event. One of the best things about this race was the long sleeve running shirt that we got. So we decided that it would be nice to do it again, and get another shirt – well worth the $25 cost!

Not only did we get another long sleeve running shirt, and have a good time – but I came in 1st place in my age group! That was pretty exciting!

That was only the first great running event we had going on in March. It was a long time ago – over a year!- when we signed up for a half marathon that would be taking place in Sarasota, FL. We have done several other races over the past few years, and for all of them we traveled to the location on the morning of the race. Races always start pretty early in the morning, and since we have to arrive early to find a parking spot, we’ve always had to get up in the middle of the night to have enough time to get ready. For this race, we decided that we were going to splurge and get a hotel room right by the start. Being Sarasota, and right by the water, it was really pricey, but it turned out to be totally worth it!

We left for Sarasota on Saturday morning. We had found a Groupon for a place to eat in Sarasota, and being St. Patrick’s Day we decided to eat earlier in the day to avoid the crowds. That turned out to be a great idea, because the meal was really filling. We were barely even hungry again for the whole rest of the day!

After eating, we drove a couple miles to Lido Beach and were lucky enough to find a parking place. We went for a nice walk on the beach to pass the time until it was check-in time at the hotel.

Around 3:30, we left to drive over to our hotel – the Hyatt Regency Sarasota. This is easily the most expensive hotel we have ever stayed at. The view was awesome, but other than that, I can’t say it was that much over and above other places where we have stayed. But the best part about the location was it's proximity to our race – that parking lot over to the right in the picture was where we needed to be in the morning.

And then it was race day! Harry took this picture as we were walking over to the start line. It was so relaxing just being able to get up in the morning, have our coffee and breakfast, and then just stroll on over about 20 minutes before the race started.

I took this picture as we were running over the Ringling Causeway.

One of the nicest parts about this race was that the race photos were free to download. This is the first race we have done that didn’t require you to purchase the race photos. 

So here we are coming in! Our official time was 2:42:34. (It took us three minutes from the official start to actually get over the start line. They start people in waves.) I was extremely happy with our time. This was the first half marathon that I actually ran all the way through!

There’s the Causeway! We ran all the way across this and then back. That was the first 6 miles of the race.

And then we took a nice leisurely walk back to the hotel where we could shower before we headed for home. It was a great weekend!