Fitness Swellness: Bahamas Half-marathon Race Report

I’m not always in shape for a race. The past two months I’ve had long gaps without training as I took a break after several races in a row in the fall, plus I’ve been away from home a lot for work. But with a last-minute invitation to run the Bahamas Marathon in January, I simply couldn’t refuse (hello, it’s the Bahamas!)…but I opted for the half-marathon. I figured I could run 21.1 easy as a training run, but the same doesn’t go for doing 42.2k.

The race started at 6 a.m., and it was rainy and then mostly overcast until I finished the race when the sun came out just in time. Half of the race route went through town and the latter half we ran along the beach so my thoughts focused on how nice it’d feel to be swimming in the water rather than thinking of how hot and sweaty (aka miserably hot and sweaty) I was actually feeling.

I was by the finish line when Sarah Dohan from the U.S. won the women’s marathon and I got a chance to speak to her. It was the 20-year-old’s first marathon race, and she seemed a little stunned; happy but stunned. She’s run several halfs and hadn’t expected to finish first.

As for myself, I finished 17th in my age group, out of 43 women, which I’m more than OK with as I walked whenever I felt like I wanted to have a sip of water, which was often. When I”m doing a training run in not ideal conditions, I usually find it helpful to have my watch for 10s and 1s but I’d forgotten to pack it, which means I usually will walk even more often than every 10 minutes. Given the heat and humidity that morning in the Bahamas, I’m actually surprised my time wasn’t slower than my 2:20 time!

After the race, I spent at least an hour on the beach soaking my feet in the water and drinking the Klik beer I picked up at the food tent (where they had plenty of food including peanut butter and crackers — so much better than a plain untoasted bagel!).

This here is just a super brief rundown on the race. For my full race report and all the juicy details you want to know (especially if you’re thinking of running this race!), you’ll have to go check out my post at iRun.ca! (And if you don’t follow @irunnation on Instagram, go ahead and do that, too! I post regularly on Fridays for #fashionfriday!)

1 Comment February 1, 2016