Firecracker 4-miler Race Recap

Oh my goodness!  I JUST realized that I never recapped the Firecracker 4-miler race I ran on July 4th!  I was waiting for some pictures from Krista, but she's been quite swamped this summer and hasn't sent them.  I'll go ahead and recap the race for you anyway :)

The Firecracker 4-miler and 10-miler is held annually in Daytona Beach on July 4th.  The proceeds of the race go to Team Red, White & Blue, an organization whose mission is "to enrich the lives of America's veterans by connecting them to their community through physical and social activity."

Race Swag

I opted for the 4-mile race, as I knew I wasn't ready for 10 miles at that time in my half marathon training.  The check occurred on the Daytona Beach boardwalk and was well-organized.  There were also a lot of booths to check out before heading to the start of the race.

Expo before the race

The race was on the beach, starting at the Daytona pier.  The 4-mile race was a 2 mile out-and-back course, while the 10-mile race ran from the Daytona pier to the pier in Port Orange and back.  There were a lot more people running the race than I expected, but they did a good job of encouraging slower-paced runners/walkers to start further back.

The start

I actually started off at a good pace for me.  The course was easy, since the beach in Daytona is very flat and pretty compact.  Once the sun came up, it got a little hot.  It was also very hazy that morning, which meant the humidity was in full effect!  In fact, you couldn't even see the Port Orange pier at the 2 mile turn around, so I felt very bad for the 10-milers!

Pre-race beauty...then it got hot

After the turn-around, I started to struggle a bit.  I was wearing my patriotic ProCompression marathon socks, I think those were making my body hotter than normal, since I usually wear ankle socks.

Patriotic "costume"

They always say to always practice running in your race attire, but I didn't think the high socks would cause me a problem.  Apparently I was wrong!  I wound up doing a few minutes of walking here-and-there, but I still finished under my goal time!

Forgive my PicStitch of the official race result

I set a goal of 44 minutes, but I really wanted to be under 40 minutes.  Either way, both goals were met and I was a happy gal.

They had bottles of water for the runners after the race and dogtags for the 4-mile finishers.  At the expo, they also had Panera bagels and fruit.  I opted for some watermelon for some extra water and the sugar.

I really enjoyed running in this race and am already planning to join in next year!  Who knows, maybe I'll do the 10-miler then :)

Question for you: Did you run a July 4th race?  If so, what kind of patriotic costume did you wear? If not, has a race "costume" ever gotten in your way of performance?