Tori Brady's Staging Area

This was my first time running the St. Pete Distance Classic but definitely not my first race. We were spending the winter in Florida so I wasn’t familiar with the area but thought it’d be cool to do a race through a state park next to the ocean. It would’ve been great had the production been better. The announcer/host was trying to give people an updated verbal race map, which apparently wasn’t the same route that had been posted for months. She told everybody the WRONG ROUTE and didn’t correct herself until after the marathon/half marathoners had started. (I was running the 10K.) She then talked about park landmarks like everybody knew the place like the back of their hand. I had no idea what she was talking about the whole time and it gave me so much anxiety prior to start.

On the course, old race mile markers were left out on the course so nobody had any clue where we were at or going the entire time. Many 5K-ers ran way too far because of lack of signage. I seriously had no idea how far I was on the course until I hit the 5 mile mark. I had passed a 4-mile marker way too early in the race and ended up spending way too much energy early.

This is a really flat, easy course for those looking for a PR or good time to qualify elsewhere. But I can tell you I’ll never run this one again.