Race Recap: Mount Dora Half Marathon 12/20/2020

 Sunday December 20th 2020 was the Mount Dora Half Marathon. This race has been on my to-do list for a while now. I've never done it because it's a little far away and I've always had another race on the same weekend. This year however, was different since Covid-19 made races pretty scarce. Mount Dora Half is usually a pretty big event and it has a Christmas theme which I absolutely love (themed races are always my favorites). 

Pre-Race
Race morning I drove to Mount Dora and arrived pretty early since I read parking might be an issue. I think I got there an hour before start time and didn't have a problem finding a spot to park. There was a smaller field this year and they have the 5k race on Saturday instead of Sunday now so all of that helped. I got my packet and started to make my way to the starting line. Everyone was very safe and things were spread out pretty well. 

The Race Miles 1-3  7:58, 7:45, 7:51
We went out in waves to help with social distancing. I went off in the first wave but in the back so I didn't start out too fast. I wanted to run a comfortable pace but not push myself too much. I wanted a long run pace not a goal race pace. The first part is uphill and they did warn us about all the hills in the beginning. I felt pretty great and downtown Mt. Dora is one of the cutest towns I have ever seen. 

Miles 4-7  7:39, 7:42, 7:46, 7:52
The first part was through downtown and the middle seemed to be the residential areas which were also super cute. There were so many hills during these miles but nothing too crazy I think the worst one was at the mile 5 marker. I was running by feel and everything felt pretty easy at this point. 

Miles 8-10  7:40, 7:40, 7:32
I wanted to speed up a little at the second half if I felt up to it which I did. Since the hills were mostly over I knew I could do some negative splits. I really enjoyed the views of Mt. Dora and the houses near the lake were beautiful. 

Miles 11-13.10 7:37, 7:31, 7:44, 7:32
I was in the home stretch and still feeling good. I was able to eat my 2 energy gels and also had some water from the water stations. I wanted to get my pace down to the 7:30s since I was feeling so great. Mile 12-13 was the only one that felt kind of tough. The final part took us back into downtown and luckily we had a downhill finish. 

Overall 
I was super happy with my time I didn't push myself too hard but still had a good pace and felt great. I really enjoyed this race so much and cannot wait to run it again in the future. I loved the Christmas theme and also the medals/shirts with the reindeer wearing a mask because it was so perfect for 2020!

Results 
Time: 1:41:46
pace: 747
Overall 73 out of 670
1st in 30-34 females out of 30