305 Half Marathon

Disclaimer: I’m promoting 305 Half Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

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I really like this pic because my friend, Vivi is the pacer shown.

In the past this race was called the Michelob Ultra Miami Beach 13.1 and Miami Beach 13.1 This was actually my first half marathon ever back in 2013. I have been running this race every year since! This race actually held my half marathon PR for about a year in a half at 2:03:34. Here are a summary of my experiences over the years:

2013 – My first half marathon ever – ran it only using my Honey Stinger chews, did not drink any water on the course, crashed pretty badly at the half way point. Cooler weather also, probably high 50s – low 60s.

2014 – 4th half marathon at that point – slower than my first time on the course – forgot my honey stinger chews in car. I carpooled with my aunt and her friends who were doing the race. Did okay but did not drink nearly enough water for the warm day.

2015 – 8th half marathon – ran it while almost 4 months pregnant with my boyfriend. We took it easy and I made sure to drink lots of water on the course, even stopped for a bathroom break at mile 10 – Slowest time on the course that year.

2016 – 12th half marathon – Course PR – It was a warm day but I fueled right and my boyfriend helped push me to a new PR. We actually started this race at the back of the corral because I wanted to use the porta potties and didn’t realize that the race was already starting! So started in the back and still earned a new course PR.

2017: 16th half marathon – Weather was on the cooler side of high 60s and did not warm up too quickly but the wind was intense 20 mph. Stuck with pace group, crowded in and stuck with the group nearly the whole time. At the end started to fade due to the wind and previous cold I had been fighting for a few weeks. Hector from iRun, pacer for the 2:00 group did not let me give up and almost pulled me to the finish line to get my under 2 hr finish. 2nd fastest time on that course.

Hoping for some cooler weather with no wind this year, crossing my fingers for another under 2 hr finish.

I have a discount code to share, use “BIBRAVEMB18” which gives $5 off half marathon race entry.

 

Race Recap – RunWild 5k – February 9, 2013

This was a race that my aunt had recommended to me soon after I told her that I was starting to run. She told me that they had great sponsors and it was for a good cause. Plus a day at the zoo afterwards sounded like a pretty good incentive also. I hadn’t been to the zoo in a couple years so I said, why not. I even got a couple of my friends to sign up, new runners! Maybe I talk about running a lot on social media and got them excited about it but I’m really glad they came along. The charity this race benefited was the Chapman Partnership, check them out to see how you can help the homeless.

So the morning of the race started out very eerie, the city of Miami was covered in a dense fog. Some people actually described it as Silent Hill-like. After arriving at ZooMiami the fog had mostly lifted and my friends set off to pick up their race packets. The line for race packet pick was extremely long and hardly moving. The race actually started 20 minutes late so that everyone would get the chance to start at the same time, otherwise half the participants would have still been waiting to pick up their race bibs. Running on Miami time, I suppose.

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I bid my friends and aunt farewell and raced on. I know, I really should’ve ran alongside of them but I really wanted to PR on this 5k, unfortunately it didn’t happen. Probably due to the fact that I did my longest distance run on Friday morning, 12 miles, training for my half marathon. Now I’m positive I will be able to make it 13.1 miles in March. I was okay with my finishing time but I did realize that I started out waaaaaay too quick, beating my fastest mile PR at least. Dodging walkers and children at the beginning slowed me down a bit but after the 1st mile, there was no human obstacles. My finish time was 26.39, I was 168th overall and 6th in my age group. Everyone got a RunWild medal at the finish line, there was also a lot of good sponsors too. As soon as you finished, there were many volunteers handing out plenty of hydration such as water, Vitamin water and Coco Vita. I had some Alpina blueberry greek yogurt with granola on top, grabbed a banana, a KIND almond  & coconut bar and headed back to the finish line to wait for my friends. Almost right after I arrived at the finish line one of my friends was crossing, then a few minutes later the other one crossed. It was perfect timing so we all walked around together so they could gather some nutrition from the sponsors. I got a Miami Heat cheerleaders poster for a friend of mine from the actual cheerleader & our group had our pic taken by someone who got our names. Stupidly none of us asked where the picture was going to posted, so we will be forever googling our names to find ourselves. Haha.

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After the awards ceremony was over we took a nice walk through the zoo, getting lost and staying at the zoo much longer than we expected to. But hey, at least we got some time to take pics of the animals that we passed earlier, and some silly pictures as well. Still wearing our race bibs and RunWild medals we decided to get sushi for our post race meal and our waiter thought we had ran a marathon. We told him a 5k at the zoo and he ended up giving us a bowl of free cotton candy? Overall it was a really fun race that I will for sure do again next year.

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RUNWILD                                                               My favorite race photo YET!

What is the most memorable place you have ran/walked a race at?