Beach running is hard y’all.
I haven’t had much time for social media. My small business took off a lot faster than I anticipated and I work so much. I seriously nap as much as possible and catch up on reading in my little bit of downtime.
Just thought I’d pop in to say I ran a LIVE race. The Cocoa Beach Half Marathon was downgraded to a 10K so my husband and I signed up. I’ve been plagued with injuries most of the spring and summer. None were running related, but they did prevent me from running and I didn’t go into this race as trained as I wanted to be. Rob had never run a race and wanted to get the experience. What little training I did get in went great though. A lot of runs were spent on my treadmill because I usually can’t start until after 8am. It’s still hot as Hades here in FL so A/C wins over my love of the outdoors.
I believe there were around 800 runners signed up for the race. Bibs were assigned by last name in alphabetical order. They were releasing runners in mini waves of 50 people every 2 minutes. If you were running 7 minute miles or less you got assigned to the 1st wave. I had bib 150 and Rob 151 which meant we were in different waves. That wasn’t a big deal since we weren’t running together.
The staging area was in the Hilton parking lot. Everyone wore masks and stood in groups until start time. It was hot. It was humid. Pre race and race water stops had full bottles of water. They had six (???) porta potties. We met up with Mike @MrDrauer and his friend Emily just before race start. My earbuds wouldn’t turn on

I went into this with no plans. I had my Garmin set up to have me run an 8:54 pace and thought I’d hang on as long as I could. The first two miles felt effortless and I ran those in 8:57 & 8:54. As soon as I hit the beach at around 2.3 miles it’s like someone attached weights to my feet and was using a blow torch on my thighs. The next three miles was an experience. The sand was hard packed, but still a workout in itself to run on. It was spongy and not easy to get traction. I should have known better since I trot horses around in conditions like this. The next three miles got slower and slower - 9:20, 9:34, & 10:14. The start of mile 6 had us leaving the beach. I thought I was going to sprain an ankle trying to run through the deep sand so I walked for a few seconds. Once my feet hit the wooden bridge and the asphalt I felt like I was so light and fast. I actually passed people on my way to the finish line!!! Mile 6 was 9:23 & .20 miles 8:13. I finished in a time of 58:07. It was my second fastest 10K. Had there been no beach involved I think it could have been a new PR for me. Rob finished with a time of 1:12:25. The finish line had self serve two cans of beer or pineapple cider and a bottle of water per runner. I heard last night that they ran out of water! Medals were hung on racks for runners to grab for themselves. Very little social distancing and mask wearing after the race from runners and spectators. I do not want this post to get derailed. Don’t disparage the volunteers and race officials who were wearing their masks doing the best they could. You can only control a mass of people so much and lots of us don’t want racing to disappear again. BTW, there is no mask ordinance in Cocoa Beach nor has there ever been one in Brevard County.
I‘m glad I experienced racing on a beach, but it’s not something I would do again. I’ll leave my beach activities to swimming, reading and snoozing. I feel worse today than I did after running Dopey or Goofy. Next on my running agenda is the Orlando OUC Half Marathon. I’m still debating the Space Coast Half, but these two races are on back to back weekends
Rob said he hates running races. He won’t exactly explain what he didn’t like, but he never ever wants to do it again. His medal is still rolling around on the floor of my car.
Beach torture photo
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Sweaty finish line tomato face
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Rob & Mike crossing the finish line
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Post race Dis photo
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Medal
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