Run Tampa

Women's Half Marathon & 5k

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of running in the Inaugural Women's Half Marathon in St. Petersburg. Dawna Stone, founder, publisher, and president of Women's Running magazine, really knows how to put on an event. Over 4,000 women participated and a few brave - or very smart - men.

Christa Benton, 25, of St. Petersburg, one of the best known local runners, led the whole way and won the event easily in 1:20:02.

One of the things I liked about this course was that it doubled back on itself in a few places, making it possible for runners to get a quick glimpse of the leaders as they whizzed by.

We started at Albert Whitted Airport. Then the course took us along beautiful waterfront areas. We ran out around The Pier, over the bridge to Coffee Pot Bayou, around Mirror Lake, and eventually into Tropicana Field where we circled the bases before exiting and returning to finish where we began.

The weather was warm but lovely. Most of us had arrived before sunrise, and were rewarded by a spectacular sunrise, just the first of many breathtaking vistas.

Every finisher received a unique medal which had a charm dangling in the center. The charm could be removed to be worn on a bracelet or necklace.

One thing would have made the day better; that would have been if my daughter Wendy could have been running with me, but, she was in Riverview doing the Alafia X-Country Half Marathon, another outstanding race, and one that I have done the past few years. Next year I sure hope they aren't on the same day again because I would want to do both races.

Click the icon in the column to the right to see all the photos, and read the St. Petersburg Times story here.

Popularity of Halfs Continues to Grow

Since 2003, the half marathon has continued to be the most popular race distance, and in 2006 and 2007 the number of participants grew by 10 percent each year according to Running USA’s State of the Sport Report Part III. That would account for the increase in the number of half marathon events. The number of halfs increased 14.5 percent between 2006 and 2007.

Challenging Race, Beautiful Place

As the Florida Trail Challenge Half Marathon approached, being the weather wimp that I am, I mostly worried about the temperature on race morning. Since we’d had temps in the upper twenties only a couple of days before, I was relieved when Steve Jerve predicted a low of 53 and a high in the seventies.

I carefully planned my race attire Saturday night, then cast the planned outfit aside on race morning, deciding on shorts and a short sleeved running tee with a long sleeve ‘throwaway’ outer layer and, on my head, my lucky Boston cap, a black Under Armor cap I found on the ground during the 2008 Boston Marathon.

Florida Trail Challenge Half Here I Come

I'll be running the Florida Trail Challenge Half Marathon in Alafia this weekend. I know it'll be cold, but everything is relative. At least the ground won't be frozen, and I can be certain there will be no snow. Not so bad, really. And since I've run there before, I know it will be beautiful, challenging, but beautiful, at least if I ever feel like it is safe to take my eyes off the trail to look around.

The Deep Freeze Half

I just read an article about The Deep Freeze Half Marathon outside of Chicago this weekend. A group of stay-at-home-moms and business women decided that in order to stay in shape during their cold winter, they would run in the Naples Half Marathon, the one in Florida last weekend, but it just became too complicated to arrange, so they decided to put on their own race. They have been running together two mornings a week at 5:30 a.m. all winter. I like this part: they designed the race course so that it passes by all of their houses. Nice idea.

I don't know about you, but when I woke up this morning and saw it was only 39 degrees outside, I didn't want to get out of bed. I  guess we really have it pretty good, though, compared with people up north.

Click here to read the article about the Deep Freeze Half Marathon.