Muses

Key West Half Marathon. Why can’t I just throw my bags in the car and go?

Hi ho from Key West.

No.

I’m not in Key West, darn that, but I was a couple of weeks ago. And high time I do a Key West Half Marathon race report.

Guess this trip started about a year ago when I was on Facebook. Yes, be careful for a harmless click on the big white F in the field of blue can end up costing you more than you think.

Last January a friend posted photos from Key West and the half marathon. Sitting in my cold house in cold Central Georgia, a cold me thought, “Wow. That’s nice.” So I became a fan of the Key West Half Marathon on Facebook.

Well, low and behold in March 2014, a Facebook blurb came up about a price increase in the Key West Half Marathon.

So what did I do? What I’m sure all of y’all would do. I signed up myself, my oldest, and my husband. Just like that.

And forgot to tell anyone till say late summer when I started to think . . . hmm. We might want to think about getting hotel reservations. (And tell my husband he was going to Key West in January to walk 13.1 miles.)

Here he is after I told him I signed him up to walk 13.1 miles in Key West in January 2015.

No, sillies. That’s him about 100 yards from the finish line.

But I’m getting ahead of things.

Yes. I let my son and husband know they were going to Key West in January to run or walk 13.1 miles. Not that there’s anything wrong with walking 13.1 miles.

And a funny thing happened. Before I knew it, all that time passed and we were on a plane to Key West.

* * *

When we got into our hotel and got conscious Saturday morning this is what we saw . . .

See that bump. Sitting on our balcony having coffee, my husband says, “Look at the iguana.” And sure enough — there he bobbed up and down as the wind tossed his perch on a palm frond to and fro.

We said goodbye our new green friend, the large bug (or reptile) and headed out exploring. And we learned that Key West was home to Truman’s Little White House, Hemingway and chickens.

They were everywhere.

Can I stop a moment and say roosters crow ALL NIGHT. If you ever doubted that they only crow at dawn, rest assured they crow every second of every 24 hours.

For a seventh generation Floridan, this was my first time in Key West and I did all the tourist things.

Obligatory, goofy selfie and end of A1A.

Photo at Southernmost Point of United States.

The line to take the obligatory photo at the Southernmost point of U.S.

We ate and walked and saw chickens and before we knew it we were at the start of the race.

My husband looks like he really wants to be there doesn’t he?

The crowd in front of me.

That 2:15 is a joke after mile 8.

The group behind me.

And we started.

Covering 13.1 miles on Key West ends up being your basic out-and-back with unbeatable scenery and lots of heat and humidity. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

We ran by the Southernmost Point again but didn’t have to stop and take a photo.

A lot of race was on the water.

Pretty amazing.

And thank God for the clouds that morning.

Caught my son as he headed back.

I felt pretty good till the turn around. From mile 7 — 9, I started walking some.

Mile 10 on — I was walking a lot.

The humidity killed me.

Yes. My stride at the end was pretty weak.

But I did it!

But seriously. Can any race be that hard when we finish at a marina?

And there’s free beer.

What a great medal.

And here’s a funny. I thought I recognized this woman and talked with her during the race. About mile 5 or so.

Here we are afterwards.

It was Tina from Elberton. As I case out the usual suspects in my age group for local races, I knew Tina’s face well. But I had never talked with her before.

She was a lot of fun and met her husband and daughter, who lives in Miami.