Cocoa Beach Half Marathon 10/25/2015

[Keels]

Just got the info email, which really doesn't contain much info other than "you'll find out at packet pickup".

Nearly 3 miles of running ON the beach ...

 

[Mimsy Borogove]

Nearly 3 miles of running ON the beach ...

Yeah, this has me a bit worried. We've had a lot of wind since Sunday and beach erosion is pretty bad where I'm at. The beach in CB is wider, though, so maybe it's not as bad up there. But if the sand is softer than I'm expecting (and I walk the beaches all over the state as part of my job), I may just walk that stretch since risk of injury this close to Dopey isn't one I'm willing to take. I won't be meeting Barbara Eden regardless.

 

[SunDial]

I am looking forward to running on the beach as long as it is as hard as the sand in Daytona. If not my calves are not going to like that. I will be walking along with everyone else.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I am looking forward to running on the beach as long as it is as hard as the sand in Daytona. If not my calves are not going to like that. I will be walking along with everyone else.

My BiL lives in Cocoa Beach so I have run those beaches many times. They used to be much wider than they are today. Too many storms have eroded the beach. It is still nice, but the only hard packed sand is right up at the water's edge and there is a slope there. Unless something has changed in the last 10 months or so, I suspect that you guys will be running on loose sand. Now, maybe they will wet and pack the sand along the course, but only the early runners would benefit from that.

My advice - unless you are used to running in loose sand or on a sloped surface - don't . Just walk/slowly jog that portion. You can get some pretty nasty injuries in those conditions.

 

[Mimsy Borogove]

Just checked the tides and it'll be outgoing for the duration of the race, which means down by the waterline will be hard-packed, and the later you get to the beach portion the greater that expanse of packed sand will be (unless earlier runners churn it up). Bottom line, I'll run it if not terribly sloped and is hard-packed, but will expect to walk it so I'm prepared for that possibility.

 

[SunDial]

I do not run in sand at all. A hard slope would not be to bad. I train on the outside camber of the roads. This will help some if slope is not to bad.

 

[Mimsy Borogove]

Just checked the beach at Lori Wilson (finish line and midpoint of beach leg). Beach is very wide, very packed, and very flat. I'm not too worried about it now other than it's near the end. As an aside, beaches up here are so crowded compared to my local ones! Wow!

 

[SunDial]

Good to know. just checked in and have not made it to the beach yet.

I like the sticker too

 

[SunDial]

Made it to the Beach a few minutes ago. The hard surface is just about under water. Good thing this is going to be run on an out going tide

 

[SunDial]

Made it to the Beach a few minutes ago. The hard surface is just about under water. Good thing this is going to be run on an out going tide

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Hey guys - anxious to hear how this one was as I might consider it next year. Hope everyone had a great race!

 

[SunDial]

it was fun. Beach wasn't what I thought it would have been because of the angle of the sand. I will post pictures later and get into it a little bit more in depth but right now I'm walking around Epcot wearing the bling

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Yeah, this has me a bit worried. We've had a lot of wind since Sunday and beach erosion is pretty bad where I'm at. The beach in CB is wider, though, so maybe it's not as bad up there. But if the sand is softer than I'm expecting (and I walk the beaches all over the state as part of my job), I may just walk that stretch since risk of injury this close to Dopey isn't one I'm willing to take. I won't be meeting Barbara Eden regardless.

We just ran today. The shore line is pretty wide in CB.

We did not like the entrance nor the exit to the beach as the soft sand lasted a little bit longer than we would have liked at those mile markers (9 and 12).

It wasn't that bad. I broke ankle last year and I didn't have any issues. As just walked on the soft sand.


The Jeannie division had their own age division awards.


Here is a beach pic from when we entered. Those are runners and walkers as far as the eye can see. A few runners we were near had the same sentiment we did at the end--3 miles was a bit much. Not because of the terrain--but that it just seemed to be montonous and go on forever.

Okay--first the crossover.


That is soft sand. And it was annoying.

Down by the water is the hard packed sand. There was a slight slight pitch. I can look at a hole and stumble and I navigated
this just fine. As I said--the biggest issue was that it was the course that would not end...


And back at the start, news 13 was doing a live shot with some of be Jeannie's.

 

[Keels]

I'm glad I did it, but it's definitely a one and done for me.

I wish I had known in advance how much running would've been done on the beach, and I would've deferred to the virtual. As it was, I ended up walking the whole beach stretch because it was soft and well-trodden with some pretty serious holes by the time I got there (I tend to start from the back in races like this). I was so worried about hurting myself to where I couldn't get my C2C medal in two weeks that it really soured the whole experience. I'm also not at all trained for sand or trail terrain, so I'm really feeling it in my shins right now. But that's on me, though - not the race!

That said - for an inaugural, you can tell they put in a LOT of work to make a successful event. They have some kinks to work out (ditching the color-coded shuttles, doing away with the relay, finding a better timing management company, etc.), but they have a great concept.

The lines were way too long for me to attempt to get anything post race (no pink beer cup for me! #sadface), but that's something they'll work out in time.

I also didn't get a shirt in my size, which was kinda sucky since I was one of the first wave to register and they were "guaranteed" in your size. But, I had no intention of being there first thing for packet pickup, so I guess that's my fault.

The mile markers were ADORABLE. And by adorable, I mean super attractive. I imagine more men will sign up next year for the mile markers alone!

As for the race as a whole, I'm sure others will chime in - but it seemed like it was either serious runners or walkers/first-timers and very little in between. For a decent-sized field, I was pretty much by myself for decent stretches, and that was surprising.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Even with Disney, towards the back of the pack, it gets pretty then. I stayed to the end one time and the very last participant of the full was walked in with race officials.

I kept expecting things to thin out more and they never did. As we did some of the switch backs (like the parking lot after the start and down the street and back before entering be beach), I did notice they it was a little more thinned out behind us than in front of us. And we are slow and run/walk.

But looking at the results, the 2-3 hour window, seemed to be the sweet spot for finishers.

The beer lines were bad. That may have been the constraints of the beer truck, though. I think I waited 30 minutes.

For the shuttles, they said they did that to her people to space out arrival times. I don't know that mattered.

I am wondering why you think the relay should be ditched?

I do think the beach portion needs to be shortened. I am not sure how they would manage that.

We do want to do this again, so I may have to add beach training. I can't figure out why my legs are in so much pain today--I guess it is due to the beach.

 

[SunDial]

Lisa, I was watching the live broadcast from the opposite side and not far from the reporters right arm. I also agree that getting onto and off from the beach was not that much fun.

I thought is was a fun event for the most part. Yes the bus color was a little confusing but the volunteers were just saying get on any bus. After getting to the starting area it was nice to hear the ocean and watch the sunrise before the start. I am not a morning person. There also was no attempt to separate the 4 colors into any resemblance of a group start



My primary cell phone broke so there was no running music to listen to. I did like the on course entertainment. I also did get to meet some really nice people while on the course. Something that would not have happened with music in my ears. The girl singer at mile 1 and the 2 guys on guitar at mile 2 were good. There was a church playing music, a group at about mile 4 to 4 1/2. I am partial to Jazz so when I got to the water stop just before mile 9 the guy playing guitar was pretty good. I was thinking I could have volunteered at this fluid station.

I agree with Keels about training for the sand. I didn't think the almost hard sand was too bad, however the legs didn't like the slope that much. I did run a little bit but like Keels I walked most of the beach. My calf's were also starting to cramp up here too. I also didn't train as much as I should have so part of this is my fault. Also looking down the beach those runners you could see just went on forever




Keels is absolutely right about the effort they put for the inaugural. Over all this was a good event. Are some tweaks to be done for next year, yes.

The mile marker Jeannie's were cute.

I haven't looked at the finishers list but I know I was towards the back of the pack. My time was about 3:24.

Now Keels, I have to say that I did think about calling out your name to give you my 2 beer tickets. I no longer drink. (As the cardiologist told me years ago that heart meds and alcohol don't mix) That beer line or should I say 3 to 4 beer LINES and close to 100 runners per line was completely insane.

Now lets see how much fun I have at the Wine and Dine being a little sore now and a little undertrained.

 

[Mimsy Borogove]

Agree with what a lot of you said. Personally, I didn't care for the late start time as I'm usually finishing my long run by about then! But I understand that it was likely due to safety concerns on A1A - we were right next to an almost-accident when one car stopped suddenly nearby and the car behind didn't react very quickly. Screeching brakes. But everyone was fine.

We ended up running the first half mile or so to try and break free of the crowd since we started near the back. I'd say things thinned out for us by about mile 3, but it was never an empty field. The mile markers were adorable, loved the signage along the way, a lot of the music entertainment was similar to the Melbourne Music Half (which I believe has changed names for this year - Florida Marathon and Half Marathon) in February. Loved seeing the labrador retriever dressed as a genie and owner in a flight suit along the way. Too cute.

The sand. Ugh. The sand. The soft sand wasn't too terrible for me (I walk long stretches of beaches as part of my job), but I hated getting sand in my shoes right off the bat. And at the entry point, the slope was much worse than that I'd checked the previous day at Lori Wilson. It did eventually even out a bit near Lori Wilson, but by that point, my hips and calves were in such pain that we just continued walking. We've had a lot of rough coastal weather the last week or so and it shows on the shoreline. IMHO, I wouldn't have minded the beach so much if it wasn't so long! A mile would have been reasonable, almost 3 was ridiculous, everyone was complaining about it where I was on the field.

The finish line was great, the hot pink shag carpet a nice touch (though I was constantly thinking, "don't trip, don't trip, don't trip" all the way in) and the medal is pretty sweet. I also didn't get a pink cup full o' beer because of the lines, but that's OK. DH snuck in a can of the grapefruit beer they serve at Epcot (it had been BOGO at Publix for 4-pack of tall boys a couple weeks ago), and BRF and I split it afterwards and it was SO refreshing and a test run for mile 25ish for the marathon in January!

For an inaugural event, I think they did a great job overall, obviously some organizational things could be tweaked, like no one knowing what to do or where to go at packet pickup, but overall I think it was well-organized. And we got to see Ms. Barbara Eden!

However, that being said, like @Keels said, it'll be a one and done for me, too, just because of the 3-mile beach stretch. But I may do the virtual if they switch up the genie bottle design.

 

[Ariel484]

@Mimsy Borogove I think you and I are in the same FB group...I recognize all of your pictures.

 

[Mimsy Borogove]

@Mimsy Borogove I think you and I are in the same FB group...I recognize all of your pictures.

Too funny! RT Club?

 

[Ariel484]

Too funny! RT Club?

Nope. Sparkle FanZone?