La Porte By the Bay Half Marathon

My final race for 2011 was the La Porte By the Bay Half Marathon in La Porte, Texas.  I was able to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins, which made this one even more fun!  They were even able to follow us on the course and see me at several different points along the course.  Extra motivation!

Getting to the race was a piece of cake.  Plenty of parking at the high school across from the Sylvan Beach area for the start.  I was impressed with the size of the race (890 runners) and the organization.  The swag was pretty nice as we got gloves, a tech shirt, and some running socks.  

The weather wasn't bad at all.  It was around 55 degrees with a  drizzle at the start of the race and it didn't warm up much from that.  We started out from Sylvan Beach and I used a different race strategy than normal.  The key attraction of this race is that we got the opportunity to run the Fred Hartman bridge twice.  I could tell from the pictures of this bridge that it would be tough, so I decided to start out fast to make up for time missed on the bridge.  We made a quick one mile loop around town before we began heading outside of La Porte towards the bridge.  I kept under my usual 9 minute pace for the first few miles and got through the first three miles in 26:04. 

The area before the bridge was not very scenic, but I wasn't really expecting much.  This race was all about the bridge itself, which we started at the five mile mark.  This thing was a beast!  The ascent began with a gradual uphill that really wasn't bad.  Then the uphill changes dramatically.  Check out pictures of this thing online.  Plenty of people were taking some walk breaks.  I had no problem the first time around and just maintained a steady pace.  I hit the halfway point in just under an hour. 

The downhill was nice, but a little too steep.  The quads were beginning to feel this race and I was glad to make my way back to flat ground.  We made a quick detour to the turnaround point and my family saw me twice here.  Then we made our way back to the bridge.  Not so much fun the second time around.  I walked about 100 yards on the initial uphill and was able to slog through the rest.  I stopped taking splits right now because my quads were in a lot of pain and I did something to my left foot during this race.  Thankfully, that has now healed up.  The final three miles were slow, but enjoyable as the bridge was now behind me (though it may haunt my dreams).  I just maintained a steady pace and came in at 1:53.08.  That is way faster than my goal of simply breaking 2:00.  I was in PR shape, but those uphills were just terrible.  

That ends my 2011 running season.  I achieved my goals of new PRs in the half marathon and marathon and I even added a surprising 10k PR, too.  Nine half marathons, one full and twelve other races make this a very successful year for me.  I also ran in several more states: Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, and Texas.  I'm taking a well earned break during the holidays before starting in again.  My plan is to start in late February with a half marathon in either Florida or Georgia.