What a difference decent weather and a packet of caffeinated jellybeans makes

I can tell you exactly what a difference these two things make: a full 30 seconds off of my personal record (PR) mile split for a half-marathon!  That's a whole 6 minutes faster!  I think that actually it's closer to 7 minutes faster!

Really!

That happened!

The scenario: the first half-marathon in the Florida Halfathon series was today.  I was, to say the least, concerned, particularly after the last long run that I did where I was awful.  I decided to try being better about fueling: generally I don't eat much before a race, so I decided to change that.  I had one of my packets of caffeinated jellybeans prior to the race.  That apparently did the trick.  I don't think that I've ever felt so focused at the beginning of a long run.  This idea is staying.

Then, I was very fortunate in that the weather was MUCH better than anticipated.  It was 58F with a dew point of 50F.  Now admittedly, this is actually in the 70% humidity range, but it felt considerably better than normal.  And there was a pretty hefty breeze--actually, I could have done without the hefty breeze from a running standpoint, but it was fantastic from a not-overheating standpoint.  Also great: it was overcast throughout the run, so Mr. Florida Sun was not even a factor.

And I did not even come close to overheating!  I did have to walk a bit around mile 11 because I got going too fast for a while.  But I was back on track soon enough and polished off the last mile and finished in a much faster time than anticipated.  Considering that I was worried about being taken off the course for slowness, this was, to say the least, an unexpected surprise.

This was my benchmark race for the series.  I need to work on staying steady and getting faster so that I can power through that 11-mile slump next time.  On the other hand, who cares because I got a half-marathon PR!

WHOOOOOOOOOOO!

Apparently, it's the year of weird running surprises.  I got the age award for the 5k in April, even though I didn't run all that fast.  Then, I got my half-marathon PR on a race that I really didn't expect.  Considerably better than last year, which was the year of the cruddy race weather.