2007 St Pete Beach Classic Race Report

On the second Saturday morning of January I ran a 10K in shorts and a singlet and worried about overheating. In any winter it would be obvious that it wasn’t run up here and it wasn’t but it’s too bad there weren’t any races scheduled the first Saturday of the year that could have taken advantage of Florida like conditions.

I ran my race in St Petersburg, FL, the 4th Annual St. Pete Beach Classic. The race has grown quickly and seemed worth going to from its advertisement in Runner’s World.

Because the schools were also off in Scotch Plains on Tuesday January 16, we decided to
take advantage of the long weekend and see family that lives in Tampa. The race seemed
like a dubious idea since we had to drive over an hour to get to an 8 am race the morning after flying in but my sister in law was game and got us all up a little after 5am and we were off in two cars in the darkness.

Like so many events, getting to the race and moseying to the starting line was the hardest part. My 16 year old daughter was entered in the 5k, which for some reason started first at 8 am. When they started us at 8:15, we could see the 5k leaders come back but I was unable to find my daughter.

With race time temperatures at around 65 and no shade to be found, my main goal was to stay cool and hydrated. The odd thing about running on a west coast beach was that the ocean was on the opposite side where you would see it at the Jersey Shore.

The race was generally uneventful for me. I tried to make as many mental notes as possible to help with writing this story. The bad part of running in a strange place is that you are highly unlikely to know anyone. There was nobody to encourage you and nobody to discourage you by being far ahead of you.

I was amazed by how clothing so many of the runners wore. Florida seems like a great area to run as long as it’s in December or January. Most people I talked to are resigned to the weather and run at obscenely early times to avoid the heat.

I spoke to a few people during the race, boring them with where I was from and how
great the weather was. I overheard some runners discussing their marathon training. Although there is a summer running season in Florida, the bulk of good racing occurs in the winter months.

Fortunately the mild winter actually enabled me to not have totally pale skin but I still wore sun block. The race was a bit of a challenge since I had not run that far since my injury at the USATF ten miler in December 2005. The last two miles were an out and back where I saw people finishing who were a mile or two ahead of me.

As I neared the finish at the entrance to the Tradewind’s Hotel, I looked around for familiar faces. My chip time of 54:58 was about what I expected considering everything.
I first found my daughter who had every excuse in the world for her slow time (for her), which still got her an age group award.

The post race buffet was excellent. There was a beer truck, too. The hotel provided nice amenities for the runners and the pool and beach were both delightful. What more could you ask for on the second Saturday of January?