Kasha and Kiwi Run Daytona

This month, our Month of Many Mini Marathons stunt has been something else! Tybee was the usual cold weather hometown half. Hilton Head was an unexpected PR. And Daytona, well Daytona. Wow!

Kiwi and I packed up and headed south last Saturday. We arrived in the midst of Budweiser Speedweeks, 8 days of preliminary racing before the Daytona 500. The whole city was packed! We found our way to packet pick up and our hotel. Everything was pretty uneventful.

Except the weather!

Except the weather. Packing to race in Florida, at the beach; I had my usual running clothes packed.

Bad idea....

I woke up on race morning at 4:45. We had a 6:30 start scheduled and I had to get inside the speedway and park. The weather when I left the hotel was 37F/2C with a 12 mph wind. Yuck. I was wearing shoes, socks, compression leg sleeves (first time), the usual shorts, long sleeve shirt, and a headband. I had a throw-away t-shirt with me. My gloves? ...still with Lily from Tybee! I was not prepared for this and it wore on me a little bit.

Also, I still hadn't decided "how" to run this race. Clearly, there were a lot of photo ops, and I was looking forward to those. But I've only really ever raced for time. Would today be different? My indecision was definitely taking a toll. I left my beachfront hotel and headed for the speedway. At 5:30 I passed the turnoff to Starbucks. I wanted to go, but Kiwi told me not to and I'm glad I listened. As I made the turn toward Gate 40, traffic stopped. 3 lanes crawled into one gate, with one person checking tickets for 1400 runners, their guests, and any speedweek tailgaters who happened to be coming in at that hour. I'd been to the speedway once before but never got my bearings. Or so I thought. Once I was inside, about 30 minutes later, I had no problem navigating the tunnel, infield, and parking. I really tried to ignore the cold and headed for Pit Road. Kiwi was on one arm and my handheld on the other.

I wasn't the only one feeling the cold. Those around me were huddling to stay warm. I pulled my tshirt over my race shirt and thought back to the bridge I'd crossed getting to the beach a few times. ...with the wind what it was supposed to be; I couldn't run with just the race clothes. I moved my bib to the tshirt and it became my new uniform.

At 6:30, officials were clearing the roads and getting the last few runners to the line. At 6:45, BOOM!!! Fireworks! 6:45 on a Sunday morning in what may have been the current fullest campground in the state! But the sleeping race fans continued to snore. Off we went! As I crossed the start line, I still wasn't sure how to run this. I was cold, it was early, there would be wind, I just pr'ed, it wasn't going to happen again so soon. I watched our pace car (We had a pace car! How very NASCAR! Loved it!) leave Pit Road and head onto the track. For about a quarter mile I was so happy! I'd wanted to do this! To race at Daytona! And here I was, on the speedway, racing!!!

Other runners began to fly up the steep turns to take pictures. Some got stuck and crab walked back down. I tried to take a self photo, still unsure if I should be focusing on racing faster. Then I heard "I'll take yours if you'll take mine!" I yelled "sure!" and swapped phones with another runner.

Enter Nicole.

We took each other's photos. Mine really captures how I felt to be there! Then we started running and talking. Nicole told me she was on week 5 of 6 (5 half marathons, 6 weekends of races in a row) and I told her this was my 3 of 4. Thus, she was trying to stay slow. Her slow was my usual pace. We started off again, wandering between 10-11 minute miles. Nicole is from Florida and runs. (In case you missed that.) She blogs. She can run and talk at the same time! She told me about Half Fanatics, Detroit Marathon, her work as a pastry chef, her blog TheSweetMile, her half pr (she's right in front of me with a very low 2 hour!) and how she was planning on breaking a 5 hour marathon soon.

I told her about my year of marathons, my blog, and Kiwi. We raced together toward the huge bridge separating Daytona from the beach. Her friend was looking to break a 1:30 and we passed him at the one hour mark. He had 4 miles to go and plenty of time. Plus, he was about 5th from the front. Enter the bridge! I tend to walk up, power down. Nicole uses the opposite approach. So here we split up, and I caught her again about 1.5 miles ahead, on the beach. The beach was lined with race flags, race cars, and a retired driver or two.

How. Cool. Is. That!!!

A quick history lesson:

NASCAR stands for National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing. Back during prohibition, guys would take cars to the beach, sand them down, lighten them, remove everything they could, and try to make them faster. Why? To outrun the feds with a load of liquor. The original speed tests were on the beach. The fastest cars and the drivers with nerves of steel then headed north. Once prohibition was over, the need for fast cars was gone, but the desire was too deep to toss. Thus, NASCAR was born. They moved from the beach to the speedway and have been racing there ever since.

So here we are, running from the speedway to the beach and back. To know this meant to know you were racing through history.

On the beach, I got a great photo and we headed onward.

Back toward town, we turned off of International into one of the most beautiful parks I've seen. Everything was so lush and green. What a sight! Back onto the Boulevard and toward the speedway. A few more great pictures, and toward the finish line.










 Nascar Dr with the Daytona Beach Sign





 

 We made it!








Our finish line? The actual checkered black and white line on the track. So cool!

So we tracked down Nicole's friend who not only beat his desired PR time and placed in his age group, he beat driver Jimmie Johnson by seconds, keeping him from placing in the top 3 of his group. We pointed out that he beat Jimmie Johnson at Daytona and not many people can say that!

Side note- 4 NASCAR drivers and one sportscaster raced with us. And they all posted great times. Sure, driving is a skill, arguably not a sport, but your body cannot handle the stress of 200 mph for 3 1/2 hours if it is not in excellent shape. All 5 proved themselves athletes by any standard that morning.

Kasha, I'm bored. 

What? Why, Kiwi?

You've been talking for a hundred thousand years. 

Well, it was a really good day. And we still have more to tell.

But I wanna play app. Can we tell it later? PLLLEEEAAASEEEE? 

Okay. I suppose it is a long story. Wanna put up the last two photos from the morning?

Sure. 

KIWI UPLOADS:  

... I suppose we'll finish this later.