Dig a little deeper

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I am just livin’ my life.

Struggle.

Last Saturday, I did a half in Key West called the Southernmost Half. The weekend itself is referred to as SOMO Marathon Weekend. It is a running festival that consists of a full and half on Saturday and a 5 and 10k on Sunday. The festival was born in 2013 and still very small. I didn't know that the half would only consist of only 580-odd runners and that there would be 10 people in my age group. I typically do larger events, but even doing smaller events in the past, for some reason I expected Key West to have a much bigger draw. Packet pick up was very easy and casual as you can imagine. It was held at a restaurant downtown called The Rum Barrel and they are also the lead sponsor for the race. My only complaint with bib pick up was the shirt situation. When I got there, I was informed that they had run out of my size in the female cut and that I could pick a male shirt. Now, this is the second time this has happened to me at a race within the past 30 days. I think it's a joke. I get that people register last minute or that people may want to swap sizes. But unless you have EXTRA of each size, this shouldn't be allowed until post race. If I registered months ago, I should get the correct shirt size. There's no excuse. Their male/unisex shirt though was printed on a slim cut t-shirt style so it didn't turn out too frumpy. They do not give you any swag or race guide either. It is strictly t-shirt, bib, and a few promotional fliers for other races in the bag. I think this could probably be improved, but simple doesn't bother me. The race itself started at 6:15 on Saturday morning and leaves the Rum Barrel to run around the Island and see sights such as the Truman Annex, Hemingway House, Southernmost point buoy, and run along the Atlantic Ocean and return on the gulf side. By mile 3, I was so hot and miserable (humidity was really causing me to struggle to breathe), I told myself to just get to mile 6 and then I would walk the rest of the way. Well, I was just about at mile 6 when a couple dressed as Forrest Gump and Jenny ran by me. This motivated me to run to mile 7. "I'd follow you anywhere, Mr. Gump." Regretfully, I did pretty much walk the rest of the way. I feel so ashamed about it, but somehow the humidity was different in Key West than in central Florida and I've done training runs in humidity but never a distance as far as 13.1. I just couldn't do it. Maybe this race weekend is so small because no one in their right mind wants to run in this heat and humidity. My boyfriend was waiting at the finish and did tell me he overheard locals saying that it was unseasonably humid that day. There wasn't even a coastal breeze or anything. This race offered Popsicles, fruit, and bagels at the finish line. Along the course was water and something called Heed (which was AWFUL). So I was stuck just drinking water for 13 miles. There wasn't much course support at all either, but the Key West police are some of the nicest police I've ever seen. Most cops during a race almost look unhappy to be there and certainly don't cheer you on (at least in every single race I've done). However, the KWPD held out their hands for high fives multiple times and yelled words of encouragement. The SOMO Half has a generous time limit of 4 hours and I finished in just under three. I know my times are usually much better, but hey. I walked a lot and the heat was crazy. Two big perks of this race is that the medal is pretty good and the race has free photos that were taken by photographers on course. They're not available for download just yet, but this is a pretty good perk since not many races offer the free photo downloads. Would I do this race again? Probably not. Unseasonable or not, the humidity and heat scared me away. My boyfriend says he really wants to do this race next year though. Apparently listening to me complain did not deter him, but standing there watching all the finishers motivated him. If he does it, I'll do it with him. I'm sure next year the field will be even larger as the word gets out about this relatively new race.

I can’t deal. The holidays at work stress me out, but so does not having money. Bring on the 60 hour work weeks please.