Daytona Beach Half Marathon
Daytona Beach, Florida
Sunday, February 17, 2013

I race walked the Daytona Beach Half Marathon on Sunday, February 17, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. It was cold as the temperature was 34 degrees at the start of the race and no warmer than 45 degrees by the end of the race. The wind was 10 to 20 mph and the sky was sunny. It was the beginning of race week for the Daytona 500 and related motor races and was the first time the foot race event was held in conjunction with the motor events as the previous four years the foot race was held at the end of October. The award ceremony was held on the Victory Lane Stage. The race started on pit road of the Daytona International Speedway and had the participants do nearly a lap around the 2.5 mile oval track before exiting the Speedway and heading East on International Speedway Drive. After crossing the Inter-Coastal Waterway the course led to the beach where the participants did a tenth of a mile on the sand where the original automobile races were held in Daytona Beach. The course then proceeded back to the Speedway where the participants continued around the oval track to the finish line for the auto races which served as the finish line for the foot race. There were water/Powerade stations located approximately every 1.5 miles outside the Speedway that were manned by plenty of enthusiastic volunteers. The course was relatively flat except for two trips across the bridge over the Inter-Coastal Waterway that was high enough for sailboats to pass under. There was also a few small inclines and declines along the way. The roads had dedicated lanes for the participants and there was a large number of police stationed at intersections and riding motorcycles to ensue that traffic and participants remained separated. The event was extremely well organized and it was quite exciting that the foot race was treated as one of the races during race week. There were already hundreds of tailgating motor-homes on the Speedway grounds when the Half Marathon was being held. In fact race car drivers: Michael Waltrip, Kasey Kahne, Arie Almirola, and Jimmie Johnson ran the half marathon as a participants and did quite well. Later on Sunday Danica Patrick became the first woman to win the Sprint Cup pole which just added to the excitement of participating in the event. I enjoyed myself completely despite the cold.