Sweet and Sweaty: Summer Watermelon Series 2024:
This year I decided to do something a bit different. Since I can’t screenshot mileage points with my Garmin like I could with my Fitbit I thought it would be easier to keep everything in a one stop shop.
First up… June…to start let me set an initial goal. While I doubt I’ll break my actual PR of 42 mins I’d love to aim to beat my Garmin PR of 49 mins…but as long as I kick it off sub 55 mins I’ll be content.
kicking it off my first outfit of the series is my green livi skort and my hot pink top made for my Zenon costume paired with my new bondi band
I started my 10 minute trek towards the starting coral at 6:35 am and as I entered I did a weather check. With record heat in the area it was already 75 feels like 80 with 93% humidity…
My music choice was my 5k shuffle list where I made it through 16/52 random songs with no skips…
Now onto the run…
I never did screenshot the time on my phone that I crossed the start but rounding up what the official results stated I’m going to go with 7:03 am
With that time in mind 17 mins into things my garmin vibrated that I reached a mile … I never saw a mile one marker but my official split was 17:22
From here was the merge from the road onto the lakes walking path which while still wide enough for passing was narrower than the road… the water stop was also here
Just past the water stop 18 ish mins after the last time my garmin buzzed mile two. About a minute later I did see an official mark. Going with garmin time I was at 35 ish minutes elapsed with a mile two split of 17:54
In the next 18 mins I pushed along trashing my water bottle and merging back into the road…passing the official mile 3 marker a few moments later I was already at 53 mins cumulative with a 18:14 mile split and a tenth of a mile to go.
I was already well about physical and garmin PR and doubtfully would make it across in less than two minutes to make my goals but I did make it across just over it with a finish of 57:21 (my garmin being over my official by a second with my mileage clocking in at 3.23)
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For July my goal is to at least beat last months time of 57:21…
Again it’s harder to keep track of mileage while running with my Garmin vs Fitbit so we shall see what happens.
Also for this month I’m seeded in group 10 vs group 7 so once I arrived at 6:21 am and made my 13 min trek to said wave passing SEVERAL pods of running strollers in earlier waves it was just about a foot of pavement and less than a dozen people between me and the pace car…considering this was my seeding based on my 14 min mile PR and post 2020 I’m lucky to get a 17 min mile on a good day my goal is Just to finish!!!
Not trying to over think things let’s talk outfit of the day.
This race keeping with the aesthetic I did my green puma tank that has been sitting around in my closet since 2017 with my pink skort made for my PNK costume as well as my older watermelon bondi and watermelon Buck-ees socks
I made my way to my coral like I said before and did a weather check
75 feels like 78 with a 97% humidity. So the feels like was less but the humidity was more and the air quality was moderate vs good.
Music was 15/52 songs in my 5k playlist
Now onto the run…
Like I said I was seeded in coral 10 but as groups move up there is no rope breaking things up and everyone pushes together. I was a few people back from the start staggering forward when I heard the announcer comment how group 8 seems to be the hot group for stroller runners and so I was about to wait my turn on the side when I noticed at least two people with group 10 bibs push across the start so…
That said I crossed the start at 7:05 am and 17 mins into things my garmin vibrated a mile with passing the marker a minute later with a split of 17:06 so less than June
There was the merge point to get onto the lake path and eventually the water stop but since I didn’t post how many minutes to those benchmarks in June I’m
Not going to do so for July or August and probably won’t even repeat myself in August that those things happened and will just mark mile marker two.
I reached this marker via garmin in 35 mins elapsed which while it was on par with June the split of 17:47 was again faster…once again the official marker was about a minute after the garmin notification
Like last time this leg I trashed my bottle and eventually reached mile three in 53 mins cumulative same as June and a 17:17 split which was less than June official marker past again about a minute post garmin
My ultimate time was 56:27 on both garmin & official with my Garmin clocking me in at 3.26
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For August my goal is to beat or be on par with a 56/57 min finishing like I was (ideally I’d love to get a sub 50 again but it’s hot plus my work schedule has made any training non existing)
Once again I was seeded in group 10 and it was stated multiple times to not start earlier due to not wanting to cause congestion at the merge point so it will be interesting to see if group 9 and 10 folk squeeze over the start with the group 7 & 8 strollers or if I will be fighting to not be pulled starting dead last like I was initially seeded last month
OOTD was my green print Livi skort years watermelon top and my Bayou Princess crowned accessories (I grabbed my ballcap after taking my flat lay)
I made my walk to staging at 6:26 however I was instead dropped off in a different spot closer to the end of the staging areas which was roughly a 3 min walk out vs the 10-15 being dropped off at my normal spot. When I arrived there was one woman standing in the road by the wave 10 sign blasting Spanish TikTok’s two people sitting off to the side in the middle of the lakes jogging path , and a group of three adults, a young child and another child in a stroller.
After checking weather which was 77 feels like 81 and watching a dozen strollers lining up a ways ahead of me probably in wave 8 or earlier it was time to start moving up.
At 7:05 I crossed the start possibly with group 9 and 17 min later I buzzed just as I passed marker one with a split of 17:17 (less than June but more than July though only by seconds)
36 mins cumulative after the merge from the road onto the lake path, dumping my water bottle and taking a few more sips at the events water table I reached marker two my split was 17:55 which was more than the previous months and I definitely felt like I was more walking with purpose at this point for various reasons both physically, mentally and environmentally in nature.
54 mins cumulatively after getting back on the street I passed mile three with a 17:19 split which was again more than the past months…
Sprinting to the finish line I finished in 56 mins even which was shockingly the best time of the series for me !!!
My 15k series total was 2:49:48 which was a solid half hour+ above my 15K PR
Playlist for August was 16/52 songs from the same shuffle list I kept for the series
Upcoming Races
Wine and Dine 5K 11/1
Wine and Dine 10K 11/2
Gasparilla 15K 2/22
Gasparilla 8K 2/23
Springtime 5K 4/4
Springtime 10k 4/5
PRs
1M {15:26} 3K {30:59} 5K {42:46} 8K {1:13:59} 10K {1:42:52} 15K {2:19:09} 10M {3:01:51} HALF {3:54:55} FULL {7:08:15*} *virtual full run in increments
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