Surf City Half marathon 2015 recap

Ran the Surf City half marathon yesterday. 2 other buddies came along, so we all carpooled. Took about an hour, and parking was relatively painless despite the horrors that I have read about in the reviews. We got there at 6:20 and it took no time to find parking in a structure ($12 though).

The pre-race went as expected. Line up at a portapotty, do the deed, mill around, hit the portapotty again, off to the starting line. This time I took a bit longer than usual and had to push through a densely packed crowd to get to the starting line.

So the plan was to run the first 7 miles or so at a 6:45 pace, and then slow it down for the last 6 miles, to end up with the average of about 7:15. The first 5 miles went great, but by the end of mile 5 I felt like I was developing major blisters on the balls of my feet. Both of them. I was running in my Saucony Guide shoes with about 230 miles on them, and I have been doing all of my speedwork in them... no real issues in training, logged 12 miles in them just last week... perplexing. By mile 6 I had to make a decision to slow down to get to the nearest aid station and get some Vaseline. Found it at the mile 8 or so. From there I ran the rest of the course very leisurely, stopped at a portapotty, since a bunch of time was wasted anyways.

Finished with the feet absolutely searing. Finish time was pretty irrelevant by that point (1:58). Had a couple of beers in the garden, waited for my friends to finish... enjoyed the sun and the chatter around me. Will need a few days to let the feet heal and maybe find another half to do in mid February to test the fitness. This said, week 5 is over just like that!