100 Triathlons
Go to the early blogs to read how I got into triathlons. Click on any picture to enlarge it. "It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood...who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly." Theodore Roosevelt 1910


Saturday, February 23, 2013

Real Florida 10K at Wekiwa Springs

This morning was the Real Florida 5K & 10K at Wekiwa Springs State Park.  This is a fund raiser for the CSO I belong to, Wekiva Wilderness Trust, so I got up early to help out before the race.  I was very surprised when I checked the temps; 68' F and quite humid due to a few passing showers.  This is February in Florida?  Over 250 pre-registered and we expected about 100 walk-ups.

I did an easy warm up 30 minutes before the race because I wanted to best my time of 58:00 in 2012.  The 10K starts at 8:30 with the 5K at 8:45.  There were 103 starters when the horn blew and I took off like a shot and was booking 7:30 minute miles during the 2 kilometers.  Dry weather had made the trails quite sandy in places and it's alway a challenge to climb a sand hill.  I felt strong throughout the race and did a final surge at the finish.  I finished 21st overall and 2nd out of 5 in my age group by 4.5 seconds to a guy from Illinois with a time of 56:32, a personal best by 1:28.  That gave me an overall mile split of 8:56.  I would have pushed harder if I'd known the win was that close.  As usual, the Garmin GPS I carried showed the course was 6.33, a little long.  Next weekend is the Long Play 33 1/3 mile Run so I feel I'm primed for that.