Half-marathon #3: done

I successfully completed the third of four half-marathons in the Halfathon today.  Whoo!  So what if it was my slowest half on record?  I had to tackle two bridges....twice each!  So make that four bridges.  One of which was sheer evil (Sand Key).

Another reason that my time was slow: at around the 11-mile mark, I noticed that there was a dead-looking fish on the ground.  A lot of people fish near the Clearwater Causeway, so I think that it fell out of someone's fishing bucket.  I felt bad for this poor, dead fish who was living out his last moments on earth in the bright, harsh sun.  So I picked it up and dropped it into the water.  Burial at sea for a fish during a half-marathon?  That, for me, was a first.  And likely a last.

I ran the race with a friend (the same friend who kicked my butt a few months ago at the 5k).  We decided to take things at a leisurely pace.  Since it was her first half-marathon, she was guaranteed a personal record provided that she finished.  And we did, so yay for her!

I do admit that at one point it looked like we might be last.  But we were not.  We overtook at least 3-4 people during the second half of the course.  Yes!

Weather: not ideal.  The humidity was not lower than around 75% for the whole race.  Ew.  The temperature, in and of itself, was okay in the high 50s/low 60s.  But the humidity made this not so pleasant.  Particularly since it was in the 97-98% range for the first hour.  It's winter, Florida!  You can abate with the humidity!  In case you are keeping track, that is nearing the threshold of ick (humidity + temperature > 160), as in the threshold of ick that we measure for summer conditions.  Also, Mr. Florida Sun came out to visit for much of the course.  Some of it was not very shady.  Actually, much of it was not very shady.  This means that the temperature was probably closer to 70, putting it even closer to that ick threshold.

Only one to go!  Also, I am now officially a Half Fanatic.  This makes it worth suffering through the last half-marathon and going over the evil bridges and everything.  Almost.  Hey, I get another t-shirt (well, a singlet) to celebrate.