I’ll never forget Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015.

My wife and I woke up at 2:45 in the morning in preparation to run the Space Coast Half Marathon in Cocoa, Florida.

I did everything I could to avoid technology so I wouldn’t see the result of the previous night’s FSU at Florida football game, which I had recorded.

I knew it would be a tall task to avoid the result given roughly 7,000 people would be in Cocoa Village to participate in the marathon, half marathon or cheer people on.

As people I knew approached, my greeting was: “Good morning, if you know what happened in the Gators-Seminoles game last night, don’t tell me.”

I must have said that 45 times before the race started at 6 a.m.

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After we ran the half marathon I rested in the Village square, recuperated for a bit and said my greeting several more times as people came up to see how I did in the half marathon.

As I hobbled to my car with my wife — who is a far superior runner — I couldn’t believe we had made it more than 8 hours and traversed thousands of people without the result getting spoiled.

When I arrived home, all I wanted to do was shower and watch the game.

I parked in the garage, opened the car door and used my arms to slide my lower body off the driver’s seat, gingerly putting my sore feet on the garage floor.

I was 6 feet from the door leading from the garage into the house.

As my body emerged from the car — again, inside my garage — I hear a voice yell from across the street: “Hey, Tim, what happened to the Gators last night?”

My shoulders sunk as the result I had been avoiding since the wee hours of the morning was ruined with me so close to my sanctuary.

When I explained to my neighbor what he had just done, he felt awful.

Yet he also spared me from watching three-and-a-half hours of a game that ended 27-2 in favor of the Seminoles.

I’ll be running the half marathon again this Sunday as I have every Sunday after Thanksgiving for the past 10 years. But this time I won’t need to avoid anyone because for the first time, the game will be played on a Friday.

Some of the excitement has been sucked out of this game in light of Florida’s loss to Vanderbilt this past weekend, but when these two teams get together, you never know what might occur.

The game will be the subject of this week’s “The *State* of Florida Sports Podcast,” powered by the USA Today Network.

I welcome in Gators beat reporter Kevin Brockway of the Gainesville Sun and Seminoles beat reporter Carter Karels of the Tallahassee Democrat.

Kevin and Carter have been all over these teams all season and you won’t find anyone more in the know.

They’ll break down the game, the quarterbacks, Florida State’s improvement, Florida’s disappointment, and so much more.

In closing, I should mention that in our house hangs the all-too-familiar split Seminoles/Gators illustration that says “A House Divided.”

My wife has a Master’s from Florida State while my journalism degree is courtesy of UF.

We’ll be rooting against each other Friday, but come Sunday morning, we’ll be rooting for each other as I complete another half marathon while she tackles the full 26.2 miles.

As for the podcast, be sure to listen.

Join the tens of thousands that have downloaded us and find out why we give you the best sports breakdowns in the state.

We can be downloaded wherever you listen to podcasts, or simply type in “The *State* of Florida Sports Podcast” into your favorite search engine. We also can be found on any of the 17 USA TODAY-Network Florida websites.

If you like it, you can check out previous shows, which feature current and former professional athletes and coaches, as well as our stable of journalists who cover beats and write columns, all of whom have a tie to the Sunshine State.