Shamrock Half Race Report

We did it! Beanie and I ran our first half marathon on Sunday!

I'll back up a bit and relay the whole experience...

Saturday afternoon, Beanie picked me up at school. She came zipping up in her mommy mobile, blasting Funkytown, and we headed to Virginia Beach. She kindly let me download from my school day and then take a nap - which had to totally suck for her. What a great friend! I love that Bean.

Total aside, Taz told me something "sucked" today and I was completely horrified. God I hope he didn't pick that up from me.

Anyway.... we zipped down to Va Beach remarkably quickly to me anyway, since I was sleeping for at least half the time, and headed straight to a nice pasta restaurant to meet TriGirls and my non-TG racers Alison and Becky. There wasn't room to cram all four of us in at the table, so Alison, Becky, Beanie and I shared a lovely dinner at the bar. Perfect for us! Beanie and I split a mozzarella/tomato/basil appetizer then I had penne pasta with a spicy marinara sauce and shrimp. Yum! I sopped up every bit of sauce with bread cuz you know I was carbo loading for the race. And what's a pasta dinner without some nice red wine?!?!?! I somehow stopped myself from order an entire bottle - it's more economical, you know - and reluctantly limited myself to two glasses.

While we were at dinner, Alison checked the weather and reported rain and 22 mph winds at the start. Yikes.

Next we headed to our hotel, the Cavalier, which is a gorgeous old historic hotel conveniently located at the starting line. I felt like I was staying at my grandmother's house with the old creaky doors with glass door knobs and separate hot and cold water faucets. Our room was actually two separate but connected rooms with two beds and two bathrooms - very nice. And very convenient for me since poor Beanie didn't sleep much that night. I'm normally nervous before an event but seriously I hadn't had time to even work up a sweat over this one (if you'll excuse the typically lame pun). Beanie told me she laid awake most of the night listening to the wind howl and worrying about the race. Meanwhile, I slept like a rock.

The race started at a pre-dawn 7:00 a.m. Fortunately, since we were staying right at the start line, we didn't have to get up until 6:00. Which translated to probably 5 a.m. for Beanie and 6:15 for me. We ate oatmeal/power bars, made our Accelerade, and headed down around 6:45 not knowing quite what to expect from the weather. Fortunately, it was foggy but only spitting a little. Clearly it had rained all night as puddles were everywhere and from what I understand there was rain all around us.

Beanie and I were both a little apprehensive and quiet at this point. We slowly made our way through the crowd to our race corral, watching in awe as the front line competitors warmed up, dressed in skimpy shorts and tanks against the 40ish degree chill. We agreed that the first 2 - 3 miles would be our warm up. On the way, we saw the adorable TG Melissa who was shooting for a PR and sporting a cute shamrock on her cheek. Once in line, we saw Jill and a cute new TG. We had seeded ourselves too fast because I was aiming for the White Lake half IronMan when I registered, so we started slow and were quickly passed by Alison, Becky, TGs Debbie and Lynn and others. TG Charlotte caught up with us and stayed with us for the first half of the race which was great. For us anyway; I don't know how she felt about our usual nonsense.

We were actually both uncharacteristically silent during the first half of the run. Usually, you can't shut us up. I could not get my mind into the race and Beanie said later that she was very cranky. Beanie is pretty much never cranky so I can only attribute it to nerves.

The first two miles went by quickly and soon we were on a long wooded stretch. I was predominantly focused on how badly my ankle hurt and it was pissing me off. Predictably, I had to go to the bathroom almost right away and although there were port 'o potties at each water stop, there were not many and the lines were long. Many industrious boys and some girls were finding alternative methods in the woods which was just not enticing. Finally, we stopped just short of the six mile mark. I mention this mainly because it skewed our recorded time as compared to my Garmin time because I stopped my watch while we waited. And waited. And waited. And thanked the boys who used alternative means.

We each had a Gu while we waited and that must have helped revive us because we were both in better moods when we started running again. Poor Charlotte was still putting up with us at this point. At the half way mark, our average pace was 10:54 which was faster than any of our long training runs. We turned the corner into a brutal headwind and spotted the ocean. Beanie turned to me and said, "The seas were angry my friends," and we both cracked up. (Remember Seinfeld? George and the whale?)

That was the turning point for me mentally. Soon after, we passed a DJ cranking Bon Jovi whom I love dearly and we were both singing that song for the next few miles. Until we heard another DJ playing AC DC and then I seriously scared people by belting out the lyrics at the top of my lungs.

We hit a water stop at the 10 mile mark and the volunteers were extremely encouraging, shouting that we were almost finished. Soon after we saw the ever phenomenal Deanna L, running a PR race. You go girl! We were chatting when suddenly the Bean took off, tossing back over her shoulder, "I've got to get this over with!" I sprinted to catch her and literally blocked her with my arm and told her there was still a long way to go. I promised to tell her when it was time to sprint it out.

We saw the leaders in the marathon, those who started an hour after us and were already on their second half. They were unbelievable, totally focused and striding it out. I couldn't run that fast for 100 meters.

The next two miles passed in a blur and soon we were making the turn for the boardwalk. I looked at the Bean and told her it was time to turn it on. She was off like a shot and I was in hot pursuit. We were passing people like they were standing still and it was awesome. We crossed the finish line together, high fived and hugged. We ran a great race for us, at a 10:39 min/mile average pace and we were thrilled.

We ran the gauntlet of medals, cool hats (nice unexpected bonus!), chip retrieval and water then headed for the party tent for beers.

Ahhh... I don't know that I'll do a half again but this was most definitely a great experience to savor.