Palm 100 Race Report
I've been wanting to do the Palm 100 for a few years. It moved to the fall this year which worked out perfectly in my schedule so, 3 weeks after the Chicago Marathon, I headed down to Deerfield Beach, FL for the race! This was a first for me because my husband came, too. I've done all my other long ultras alone.
The race is pretty straightforward. It's an out and back 50K. You can run that, go out for another 19 miles for the 50 M (my distance this time), or do it twice for the 100K. It's on sidewalks most of the way and has really nice views of the beach.
My husband ran the first 10 miles with me before heading back to finish the 32K. Only a couple aid stations were staffed, but there were plenty of unmanned stations with lots of goodies. It was pretty warm that day and when I came back into base after 50K, I was really tired. A bunch of people were lingering around the pavilion with that look of longing for the sweet release of death, and you could tell they were not going back out to finish their race. (Side note: this race does not like DNFs, so if you stop at 50K, you're a finisher for 50K even if you signed up to run longer. I think that's great!). I ate a piece of pizza, tried really hard to politely tell everyone to stop asking me what I wanted because I just wanted to not talk to anyone, and then set out for the last 19 miles.
The race organizers and volunteers were great. Florida has a wonderful and pretty close knit ultra running community, so I got to chat with organizers of other races I planned to run (including the Everglades Ultra & Keys 100).
I finished an hour faster than my best 50M time and came in 3rd. That's 3rd overall and 3rd woman because only women managed to finish. There were 5 others who dropped down, so I consider this a big win for me. I even got a finisher award (that cool water bottle), which is wonderful and hilarious for a slow runner like me.
Overall, I loved the race. The sidewalk was hard on the body, but the scenery was nice and the support was good. It definitely remains on the list of races I'd run again.
For the blow by blow of my day, head over to twitter where I live tweeted!
https://twitter.com/jenrunswithdogs/status/1056135592969416704
The race is pretty straightforward. It's an out and back 50K. You can run that, go out for another 19 miles for the 50 M (my distance this time), or do it twice for the 100K. It's on sidewalks most of the way and has really nice views of the beach.
Sunrise around mile 5
My husband ran the first 10 miles with me before heading back to finish the 32K. Only a couple aid stations were staffed, but there were plenty of unmanned stations with lots of goodies. It was pretty warm that day and when I came back into base after 50K, I was really tired. A bunch of people were lingering around the pavilion with that look of longing for the sweet release of death, and you could tell they were not going back out to finish their race. (Side note: this race does not like DNFs, so if you stop at 50K, you're a finisher for 50K even if you signed up to run longer. I think that's great!). I ate a piece of pizza, tried really hard to politely tell everyone to stop asking me what I wanted because I just wanted to not talk to anyone, and then set out for the last 19 miles.
The race organizers and volunteers were great. Florida has a wonderful and pretty close knit ultra running community, so I got to chat with organizers of other races I planned to run (including the Everglades Ultra & Keys 100).
I finished an hour faster than my best 50M time and came in 3rd. That's 3rd overall and 3rd woman because only women managed to finish. There were 5 others who dropped down, so I consider this a big win for me. I even got a finisher award (that cool water bottle), which is wonderful and hilarious for a slow runner like me.
Me with my 3rd place award AND a piece of pizza
Overall, I loved the race. The sidewalk was hard on the body, but the scenery was nice and the support was good. It definitely remains on the list of races I'd run again.
For the blow by blow of my day, head over to twitter where I live tweeted!
https://twitter.com/jenrunswithdogs/status/1056135592969416704
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