William's Lake 10 Trail Challange- Recap

First let me say this is a great run.  From the course to the people, it is an all around pleasant event.  

Getting ready.

 The event is held in the middle of no where.  Well, actually it is held in Jay, Florida, on a dirt road leading to William's lake.  The course has few turns, some shady areas, and ends lake front- this year we had to end before the "normal" lake shore due to recent flooding making the course a 5.55.  
The trail is mostly red sand, which is more course and compact than lighter sand in the area.  There are spots of loose sand and some asphalt chunks, both you have to watch out for your footing while running though. 
This is a small race in number of participants- I think some don't share about this race because they like the course to themselves.  The aid stations are lightly manned but ready for runners and walkers as they pass, ready with COLD water too!!!!  The stations are often manned by families with kids excited to hand runners water.  One thing was true of every stop- there was a smiling face and a few words of encouragement. 
I felt good during this run for the start.  I am a slow starter (and let's face it a slow finisher too), so the day quickly heated up.  As we are still in the beginning of the "living on the sun" season we had not been running in heat and humidity for very long which took its toll on me.  By mile 4.5 I was starting to have symptoms of a migraine, those symptoms quickly turned into the real thing.  Knowing the finish line was near made no difference when my stomach finally gave up and for the first time during a race I found myself throwing up on the sidelines.  The nice thing about a small race, run at my pace, is no one is around to watch you when your body sends you violently into the weeds.  I would like to say I threw up and kept on running but that's not what happened.  I thew up, yes; then I made attempts to run again.  I was able to bring myself up to a consistent jog by the time I rounded the last corner.  Every grain of sand my shoe touched was being felt has a piercing dart to my right temple.  Still there it was the finish line.  The cheering finishers, the little flags, and the man holding my finish card!  I wanted to be done, even though I knew I would not be done in front of the woman I had been targeting for the past mile and a half.  But I was finished. 

AWESOME Awards!!!

A few cool things about this race: 1) at the finish you get a card, you take the card to the table, the nice ladies at the table write down your name and put your card in an envelope, if you are the first three names on the outside of the envelope then you placed, for small races it is a great and accurate system (they also had a person at the finish line noting bib numbers and times); 2) after you turn in your card there is a VERY nice lady handing out ice cold rags (and she has lots of them); 3) there is plenty of snacks and drinks; 4) awesome awards; 5) have I mentioned the nice people. 

Patrick had a great run.  He was 2nd in his age group.  This has become one of his favorite runs.  
 I was 3rd in my age group. 
 
I also want to give recognition to Jennifer, Patrick's sister, for her AMAZING efforts on this run.  She pushed a double stroller on sand for 5.5 miles (even the fast guys said there was no way).  Jenn was the only stroller pushing mom out there (we think the ones from last year learned their lesson) and she did it is a good time too-- even having a sprint finish!!!  

During the kids fun run Jenn and Patrick ran with Carson and Nolan.  Both boys had great runs.  Nolan had a 5 minute pace for half a mile!!!  

We are all hoping to come back again next year for this race.