Key West Half Marathon, 24 January
Report by Paul Ackerley
My plan had been to do a cold and a hot half marathon on consecutive weekends. As the Polar Arctic HM was postponed, this couldn’t happen and so I only had the Key West HM.
As you may know, Key West is at the southernmost tip of Florida, the southernmost place in the US and less than 100 miles from Cuba. It is also a party town; it is a very liberal outpost in an otherwise relatively conservative state. On a previous visit I managed, inadvertently, to book my wife and I into a lesbian-only hotel; they were very good about it and I was made an ‘honorary lesbian’ for three days.
Consequently, I wasn’t surprised when I got the schedule that there were 5 days of activities around the half marathon; the run seems to be an excuse for a 5-day party. On the other hand, it also appears in a ‘Top 10 world bucket list HMs’.
As I am not a party animal, I only did the run. My entry was a postponement from last year due to Covid, and, due to the complications of getting to the US at the moment the organisers thought I was probably the only Brit running.
The race starts at 7 am, just before dawn – we got an email the day before giving us notice that the temperature at the start of the race would be ‘low 70s’ and by the end it would be ‘high 70s’ – it was 70 when I set off at 5.30 am on the mile and a bit walk from our hotel to the start line, so I didn’t need any additional kit.
I can’t claim it was hilly as the highest spot on the island is only 16 feet above sea level, and we didn’t go anywhere near that. It was the elements that were the biggest challenge.
- Humidity: this was new to me from a running perspective. By the time I had run the first mile I was sweating like I had never sweated before; I don’t generally sweat much (more than Andrew, obviously), but I could taste the salt on my face within 10 minutes. After 2 miles, I had dispensed with my Ripon Runners top and ran bare-chested. I checked the humidity after the race and it was 80%; that doesn’t mean a lot to me, so I looked it up
It was indeed uncomfortable. - Wind: The humidity was only a factor for the first and last 3 miles, while we were in the town (where there was no wind). For the remainder of the time, we were running along the promenade (including a ‘there and back’ along a pier) facing the Atlantic. The wind speed was 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph and so it was a bit blowy.
- Waves: The result of this was that the waves were high; consequently about once every 3-5 minutes we would get a salty shower as a larger wave crashed and showered the promenade. But every cloud has a silver lining… I generally struggle, I think, with salt loss and replenishment – having a sip of salt water every 5 minutes could be the way forward!
The run was well manged, and the medal and shirt are exquisite (although I accept that’s a personal opinion!).
Things I liked about the race
- Got to see the whole island, the views and overall geographically, a lovely route
- It was flat
- Nature’s provision of salt
- The shirt (a local artist is commissioned each year to produce a shirt)
- The medal (lovely design and colours)
- ‘Bring your own cup’ policy
- The last 10 yards
Aspects that were less enjoyable
- The humidity (but good learning)
- The wind
- The official photos – not particularly good and £50 for 5. Consequently, there is this one relatively poor quality picture of me at the Southernmost Point. My official photographer wouldn’t come any closer due to the waves, but still ended up getting soaked by one!
Points of interest to me
- When I arrived at registration, I didn’t have a pre-assigned number. They just took the next one off the top of the pile, and then allocated it against my name. I have never seen number allocation like this, but I guess it saves on wasted numbers (where a person doesn’t turn up) as the numbers can be used again. This particularly works for me as being Ackerley, I end up being number 1 (unless there is an Abbot or Abraham), and I fail to live up to what spectators expect of a number 1!
- A runner had their phone out as they were running, presumably filming the route – until they didn’t see a cone, and fell flat on their face resulting in a lot of blood. In race briefs, I often see the prohibition of headphones, but cannot recall seeing the prohibition of using phones for photography. The latter, in my humble opinion, is at least as significant an issue due to the example above, and how sometimes a runner suddenly stops to take a photo with no regard to whether there is someone running behind them.