In November of 2020, my family and I planned a trip to Florida for Thanksgiving. Oddly enough, there was a half marathon in Orange Beach, Alabama the same weekend we were going to be there. However, the race start time was set for 8am and it was about 2.5 hours away from our place. After begging my selfless mom to ride with and support me that early in the morning, I registered for the race within minutes. After receiving the confirmation registration email, it dawned on me that humidity and climate changes are way different down south. Sure enough, I went back to thinking like I did before my last race, 'I'm screwed. There's no way I can run in that heat'. But, I had no other choice, so I trained the remainder of time I had left at home until the day we flew out to Florida.
November 28, 2020 was the day of the race, and the heat index was a little rough but wasn't as bad as I anticipated. Typically in most scenarios, the outcome isn't as bad as you think it'll be, which was proven to me in this situation. I was the third place finisher of my age group for females (I was 24 years old for this one also) with a time of two hours and four minutes. Woohoo! Six minutes better than the last one. I may have placed less, but my time was better, which was a personal goal that I was hoping to reach.
This run was pretty exciting for me because, for one, it was in a completely different state surrounded by my favorite plants; palm trees. And for two, my mom got to be there and greeted me at the finish line. Running in Alabama was never a goal of mine, nor was it on my to-do list, but it inspired me to look for nearby runs when planning vacations. Nature is pretty, and it's even prettier when you receive far more than you seek.
Two things I learned from my second race:
1. Don't wear your hair in a lose braid when running in the humidity. It will snarl like a bird's nest.
2. Post-race swag and snacks are so worth it.
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