Virginia Wendler ran the Spring Time Tallahassee 10k and finished this distance in the time of 1:12:00. This was a massive personal record by 5:02.
Lots and lots of hills. Even the finish is at the top of a hill! I believe the training that I received from Runners Connect helped to improve my performance.
Roderick Clark ran the Florida Shamrock Distance Classic Half Marathon and finished with a time of 1:38:52. This was a PR by 3 minutes 9 seconds!
To be transparent, I came into this race with a bit of a chip on my shoulder. This is the same course where I ran my first half marathon, dealing with debilitating leg cramps, yet still managed a respectable 1:42:00 finish. This time, I was determined not to let the course get the best of me and fully expected to hit my goal.
I kept an eye on the weather but tried not to let it get into my head. My mindset was that everyone would be facing the same conditions, if someone else could hit or exceed my goal time, then I could too. That said, Mother Nature had other plans and definitely checked that mindset with classic Florida conditions: 70°F and 94% humidity at the race start, and most definitely got hotter!
My goal was 1:37:00, with a plan to run around 7:34 pace for the first four miles and then settle into ~7:24 (± a few seconds) for the remainder. Things were going according to plan early on, but the first cramp hit around mile 9.25, ironically the exact same distance and same area of my leg where it showed up during a previous half marathon tune-up run. That run was in much better weather and at a more conservative pace, so I had hoped this wouldn’t be a recurring issue.
Unfortunately, the cramps didn’t fully subside and eventually affected both legs. It was frustrating, especially being so close to the finish, but I adjusted my pace to keep the cramps manageable and was able to bring it home.
In hindsight, I should have adjusted my goal based on the weather conditions and truly learned the importance of running your own race. Immediately following, I was pretty hard on myself, but that caused me to almost overlook the bigger picture, I still set a new PR by more than three minutes. Taking a step back, that’s a meaningful improvement and something I’m proud of.
Joe Allen ran the Rotary Lake 5k with a finishing time of 30:15.
This is a trial race around a small lake with three steep hills, including the last 1/4 mile which is the steepest. It was cold at the start but once we got down to the basin around the lake, it was great running weather. Kept up a good pace throughout and finished 17th overall (out of about 60), so not bad for the oldest runner in the race.
