Fantastic Long Run IN FLORIDA!

I snuck away to Florida for a 3-day weekend with 2 of my brothers-in-law about 10 days ago! I noted this in my January in review post, but didn't eleborate on it. While I was there, I had a GREAT morning run along the coast on Amelia Island!

I took off just before 7 a.m. as the sky was starting to get light:

The lit trees next to where I was staying.


Views of the fancy golf course next to the Ritz Carlton. (It was much
darker than this - my phone's 3 sec exposure really lightened this up.)


After a half mile under trees and then a half mile on a sidewalk next to
this road, I was finally spit out onto the bike path for the rest of my run.

I'll take a bit of a soapbox here. Over the last 15 years or so, I've been realizing how "car-centric" and in many cases "pedestrian unfriendly" most of the US is. I didn't realize this myself, but I'm friends with people that have been noting this for a long time, and it's been sticking with me. And this route in Florida really struck me. When the sidewalk next to the road ended, it ended at a locked gate heading into a neighborhood that was for residents only. It FELT like it was saying "you need to have enough money to live here to have any rights to walk on our safe sidewalks." Being I didn't belong in the fancy neighborhood, I was forced out right along this road with no space for people to exist on their own - only for cars and cyclists. You can take in the views in your vehicle, but there's no place for you to enjoy this scenery on 2 feet. It seems to say you can revel in these views (and get to any of these homes, apartments, and condo) ONLY if you have a vehicle. Very pedestiran unfriendly, ESPECIALLY considering it was a place with lots of beach access but no way to safey get there on foot. It seems like no one wants to temporarily share 3' of their front yard along the road to give any room to anyone who might want to walk or run or get somewhere along the beach. Rant over.

I found this dead snake near the end of my warm-up and took a photo to show Charlie.


A sidewalk appeared after 3.5 miles! It was only on the west
less-fancy non-beach-front side of the road. This photo was
near my turn-around near the north end of the island.



Bike paths to the south, and then a sidewalk north of that
roundabout (the ONLY curves in my middle 6 "at pace" miles).

My splits were FAST. And they were CONSISTENT! When I'm on the treadmill, I slowly speed up with half-mile splits starting around 3:20 and dropping to just sub-3:00. When I'm outside for my runs, it's generally similar (but with a less "controlled" pace). I was shocked at how even I kept these from the start! Here were my half-mile splits for my 6 "at pace" miles in the middle of this long run:

3:07, 3:08, 3:08, 3:06, 3:08, 3:08, 3:04, 3:05, 3:06, 3:02, 3:03, 2:58 = 37:08 (6:11.33/mile!)

Those first 6 splits were all within 2 seconds!! And that translated to mile splits that were all within 2 seconds as well! Then I was able to drop the time a little in the later miles, but yet ALL 12 of my half-mile splits were within 10 seconds. (Take away the final fastest split and my first 11 splits were within 6 seconds!)

55 degrees, overcast, and calm! BEAUTIFUL TO RUN IN!!


P-r-e-t-t-y straight run! And you can see my faster miles easily.


A selfie back in the trees (off the highway) on my cool down.


Winding covered path! Glad I did my faster miles on straighter roads. But pretty here!


The road that we stayed on - the path crossed it a few times.


Cooling down a little farther to the south, and taking a boardwalk to the beach.


Running the boardwalk on my cool down...


... and then it opened to the beach.


Mossy trees on my way back.


Pretty flat! Went up and down 30' of elevation change in 5 miles out, then again on the way back.


Pace and heart rate show no surprises. Lots of extra slow
sections in the last mile heading out to the beach.

In the end, 6:56 pace is a pretty average overall pace for a long run, but this was greater because it was longer overall (longest run indoor or outdoor since my October half marathon last year, and a longer run still with just 6 "pace" miles which means more slower cool-down miles than normal to slow my overall average) and also because I had some extra slow splits at the very end on windier roads and on the boardwalk that slowed my average a lot. This was a GREAT run! My pace miles that averaged 6:11/mile were the best numbers I'd seen in a LONG time, as all of my recent treadmill long run "pace miles" end up averaging 6:15 - 6:18 / mile, and my outdoor runs have been slower than that:

Florida run 1/29/23:

6:11 pace miles, 6:56 overall

Previous weekly long runs heading back in time:

6:36 pace miles, 7:16 overall (Mexico)
6:29 pace miles, 7:07 overall (Mexico)
6:15 pace miles, 6:51 overall
6:17 pace miles, 6:55 overall
6:15 pace miles, 6:51 overall
6:17 pace miles, 6:56 overall
6:14 pace miles, 6:45 overall (last MN outdoor long run 12/5/22)
6:26 pace miles, 6:58 overall
6:20 pace miles, 6:53 overall
6:35 pace miles, 7:06 overall
6:23 pace miles, 6:59 overall

... and that takes me back to the Minneapolis Halloween Half Marathon last October. You can see that a handful had a faster overall pace, but none had faster "pace miles" in the middle of the run. Nice!

I also set a daily personal record for steps the day of this long run. (I've just started wearing my Garmin regularly around Christmas.) After the run, we walked for 2 hours on "boneyard beach" just off Amelia Island, and I ended the day with 31,673 steps (breaking my previous high of 31,300 on a day last August that I went for a long run and then biked to the MN State Fair with my boys).

Back with some more photos from this trip shortly!