Ran the Mary Andrews Half Marathon in Hawthorne This Morning

I don't think I've ever gone into a running race with as negative an attitude toward it as this one, the Florida Track Club's Mary Andrews Half Marathon...the junior component of the event's main attraction, the "full" length marathon race named in honor of a local distance runner who tragically succumbed to cancer at the age of 44.  Aside from feeling phantom pains in my left leg before the race, I was still miffed that the FTC had placed an elitist five hour cap on timing finishing marathon runners...no way was I going to shell out the entry fee and come away from it with no time! So I signed up for the half-marathon, my second in a row at this particular event, held on the Hawthorne Trail in Hawthorne (a few miles southeast of Gainesville).  The temperature at the 8 AM race time was 43 with a 75% humidity: to my friends up north this may have seemed like perfect weather but to me, a die-hard Floridian, it was torture...at least during the few minutes before the race.  The course was simple: two out-and-backs on the Hawthorne Trail going west from the starting line...for the marathon it was four: not exactly the most inspired course design, but very little worry about traffic management during the race.  I employed the Jeff Galloway system of running with brief walking breaks: for this race...at least for the first three quarters...I would run nine minutes and then speed-walk a minute, and then repeat.  I had the advantage of a 2:10 (hours & minutes) pacer in front of me the first half of the race...then I passed him and didn't look back.  Other than my phone running out of power on me, I experienced very little trouble during the race, and the onlookers, few as they were, were very vocal and encouraging...as were many of the other runners and, of course, the volunteers.  My final finishing chip time for this half-marathon was 2:07:40...click HERE to view the results.  This was a little more than ten minutes faster than my Tom Walker Half-Marathon performance this past November.  Had I attempted a 26.2 mile marathon instead (assuming they hadn't capped it like they did, that is), I would have run a considerably slower pace and taken more frequent walking breaks.  But maybe I'll see an opportunity elsewhere in the not-too-distant future to do just that.  I like this eastern end of the Hawthorne Trail, but it does take a lot of driving to get to. There's another running event here taking place in April, and it also includes a marathon.  H-m-m.  As for my pre-race negativity, the results would indicate that this is a good strategy for my peculiar personality...bah humbug!