This Sunday January 17, 2016, the Walgreens St. Pete Beach Classic Half Marathon took the roads of St. Pete Beach by storm!

Weather reports called for storms overnight and into the morning.
There was a tornado warning in Sarasota, FL, Sunday.

The big question was, "Will their be a delay for the race start?"
The St. Pete Beach Classic race weekend is operated by a group of professional race organizers and runners. In their eyes, a weather forecast should not get in the way of a race start.

It did not.

The half marathon started off, with dry weather and on time.
About five minutes after the run started, a quick shower raced through the course and a few hours later, the wind picked up to 25mph.

The venue for this race is perfectly suited to run in most weather conditions, and it was a great call by race director, Al Johnson, to keep the run start on schedule.

Another race over the same weekend delayed their start causing a race cancelation due to wind conditions on their course.

Runner Advantages

"We need to be fair to all runners. Some runners actually have an advantage in inclement weather. Rain and wind are as much a part of the adventrue or racing as the sun." –Facebook

Congradulations to Erik Solberg, who took first place in the half marathon with a time of 1:18:46. That's a 5:05 minute mile pace.