Race Report PLUS: ShamROCK

I had a great time at the ShamROCK Marathon weekend. We couldn’t have asked for nice weather…well, except for a little less heat. But given all the cold and snowy weather we’ve had, I won’t really complain!

Friday night I drove down to Virginia Beach with my son. He was a good sport, tagging along with me. He slept on the way… We arrived after about 3.5 hours of travel. Not too bad for a Friday night leaving DC! We did not stop once on the way down…other than for a little bit of traffic.

Arriving in VA Beach we got to the hotel with no trouble, checked in, then got a great parking spot. Once in the room Patrick, the afore mentioned son, promptly woke up and got his laptop going so that he could play World of Warcraft while watching basketball. In the morning I woke before the alarm and decided to head over to watch the 8K race…grabbing a cup of coffee on the way. I managed to see Carol close to finishing her race, and half way to earning her Dolphin pin! I returned to the room to get Patrick up so we could go on an easy run. Well, we did not actually run ‘together’ as he is faster…in fact, my fast is possibly his easy… We watched the end of the Kids Marathon before returning to clean up so that I could go to packet pick up and find lunch.

Leaving the hotel for the convention center was no problem…till I hit a lot of traffic! It took forever to go 2.7 miles! But I got there eventually and even ran into Priscilla (one of my Diet Coke buddies) with Michelle…and one other person I always see after Team Z swim practice (but I don’t know her name)! I got some cute shamrock sunglasses to wear for the race, but then they did not fit well, so I did not even wear them. But they were cute!

Getting lunch afterwards was interesting. Let’s just say, that also took a while…

So, back to the hotel to chill for a bit till dinner. Thought I did get out for a short walk to find some sunscreen. Even though I just purchased some while down in the Keys…that I left at home. I’m stocked up on SPF 30 for the summer, that’s for sure. For dinner we were meeting Carol and her husband and other Z’ers (Linda, Harriet, Jason, Jill, Tom, and baby Hayden). The restaurant was only a 3 block walk for us. Not bad! Seeing as the NCAA basketball tournament was going on there was some lively talk. That’s all I’ll say about that…

Race morning: I set my usual alarm on my phone, then as an afterthought set the alarm on my watch. Which I generally don’t hear. Funny. I woke at 5:30 to my watch alarm. I turned it off and thought I’d wait another minute for my phone to chime. But it did not. I checked it and it turned out I’d set it for…5:30 PM… What the? Time for pre-race routines. At 6:20 AM I walked down the hall to meet Carol. The race start was AT our hotel. How cool was that? That certainly allowed for extra sleeping time!

Anyway, while Carol and I were standing in the corral, Harriet and Jason appeared so we chatted with them briefly. I thought I’d be chilly at the start and wore a technical long sleeve T. Wish I had not. I took it off and tied it at my waist at the first mile.

I had been training with a Runner’s World training plan to finish in 2:15:21. My plan was to start off slow – slower than I planned to finish and I was hoping to negative split. Of course, I started off too fast! I tried to slow down, but I was having trouble. But…My splits up through mile 8 were somewhat (?) consistent – all between 10:04 – 10:17, a bit fast. My plan had me at 10:19’s. Then 9-11 and 13 were all about 10:42…mile 12 was 11:20 – and my pace during the last 10th was 9:01. Haha. Anyway, my finish time was 2:17:24 and I was thrilled! I would have been happy at 2:30. According to my Garmin my overall average speed was 10:25 – not too far off the 10:19’s I was supposed to do. I did walk twice – when trying to eat my Luna Moons…for some reason running and trying to eat those did not work!

Anyway, I really enjoyed the race – lots of energy at the water stations, which I did not use (I carried my own Heed), but I enjoyed going through them. The DJ’s were also fun and played good music for the race. I think we went by two scout troops – and they both had funny signs painted leading up to where they were. I loved running along the water on Ft. Story and seeing the light house as well as all the trivia signs before Ft. Story. Coming back in the second half it was fun to see the lead hand cyclists for the marathon come through. I had two ladies pass me in the last mile or so who’d been pacing off me and thanked me. I should have tried to pace off of them then!

Finally I made the left turn off the street to head toward the Boardwalk and then the right turn onto the Boardwalk. I could even see the finish sign. At this point I started to pick up the pace. I was looking for the 13 mile marker but never saw it…so I just kept going and going and finally crossed! It was great – they were handing out the finisher’s medals, hats, AND t-shirts! I have to say – this medal is one of the 'funnest' I’ve ever received! I walked along and got some food and water to try to get off the Boardwalk…right about when I reached the steps someone called my name. It was my co-worked who lives in the Norfolk area! I knew he’d be there but never expected to run into him. He had a great race – but was crazy over-dressed. He ran about 11 miles in a t-shirt AND a sweatshirt. Holy cow!

Anyway, I trudged forever in the sand to get to the Team Z tent and get my post-race massage. A Z-mate is massage therapist and she and her partner came down to cater to Team Z that day. It was awesome. Thanks Robin!

And...after the massage I met up with my Diet Coke buddies Priscilla and Carol...sadly less the Diet Coke! (I borrowed this picture from Priscilla...thanks, Priscilla!)

ShamROCK!

The Shamrock weekend is five days away now. Actually, the race is five days away – I’ll be leaving for the weekend in just three days and several hours. I’m so excited! It will be my first time back with Team Z for an event in a while. The few swim practices that I’ve gone to since the beginning of the year don’t really count. Priscilla, a Z-mate, was kind enough to keep me in the loop on the goings on for the weekend! (Thanks, Priscilla!)

Saturday should be fun: there is the 5 mile race at 8AM that a couple of people are doing. Then the team is gathering for an easy run at 10AM. The kids ‘marathon run’ of 26.2 yards starts at 10:30 – two Team Z toddlers are going to be doing this. How fun! Then there is the team dinner on Saturday night – this might be a good thing to go to – just to make things easier. I’m going to leave Saturday’s dinner location up to my son though.

Right now there is a chance of rain on Sunday, but if that is the case it will likely keep things cooler, which is always a plus for me. Of course, that would mean Patrick could be stuck in the rain. But as I’ve heard, the Team Z tent by the finish area is heated! If he decides to hang out at the cheering area with the team he can always wear a trash bag to stay dry. Or he can always stay in the hotel…

Since this is a St. Patrick’s Day event I would of course love to be in something GREEN! I have a new running top that is green, but it might be too chilly for that. I also have my Team Z short sleeve shirt. One thing I could wear - my green froggy socks! I am of course wondering if there will be a hat (green, perhaps?) given out at packet pick-up that I could wear, or I could just go with my new favorite running hat, the one from the 25th Army Ten Miler from 2009… Or perhaps green ones will be available for purchase at the expo? Decisions, decisions, decisions. Guess I will just have to wait and see.

Oh well, a couple more runs to get in this week, and then it will be time to head out!

Happy Training!!

Fabulous run...

Well, my goal before my long weekend with my girlfriends was to run 12 miles. However...things did not quite work out that way and I only ran 5. And I still ran it on the treadmill... But it was all good. I knew when we got down to the Keys I would actually have time to do a 12 mile run. The question is, would I?

We spent our first night in Key Largo then drove to Key West the next morning. That took all day, actually, as we were on MOTR time. First we stopped for breakfast. Then we stopped at a couple of sandal outlets. Then we had lunch. You get the idea. We finally made it to our hotel in Key West. The next morning we already had massages planned between 9AM-12PM. Two each at 9, 10, and 11. I decided I would take one of the 11AM slots and go on my run first. I knew there was *always* a chance I would not do that, but felt pretty positive. The night before I bought my Gatorade and in the morning I got up extra early, walked over to the convenient donut shot for a small latte and plain bagel with peanut butter. At 8:20 I was ready and left for my super nice first outdoor run in a l-o-n-g time.

Key West is about 4 miles long and 2 miles wide. If I ran the entire perimiter I would get my 12 miles in! I did not do quite that but I first did a 8.5 mile loop and saw a lot of cool sights and people and a lot of roosters crowing along the way. Roosters don't just crow at the break of dawn, either. A lot of the run was along the water and was nice and breezy. I saw a few other runners and some cyclists, but they were just casual riders. Running through the different areas of the island was interesting, how it changed from section to section. And I guess the coolest thing was running to the Southern most point in the United States. I don't have a picture of it (from my run anyway) but it is there on my Garmin after uploading the run! I took a short break and then did another 3.2 miles, so all in all 11.7 miles. I kept a pretty steady pace of about 10:46 per mile, too. And of course, the run was mostly flat, just like the Shamrock Half will be. Fabulous run!

And of course, after the run was the massage. It felt nice but not nearly as nice as my usual massage therapist. And that's OK - I have my next appointment with her already set up. Anyway, I felt really good about getting in the run I was supposed to while on vacation. It is always so easy to just *not* do the workout. The rest of my girls' weekend trip was fun and as usual we have some hilarious memories and pictures to go along with them. Our next trip is already in the planning stages... The next two of them, actually!

Happy training!

Life's little stressers...

Even though I did not get to go on my ski/snowboard trip, the weekend ended up OK for the most part. I did my short run on Saturday and then did make it to swim practice on Sunday, but I did not lift after. I did run my 8 miles before swim practice though. So I was happy - 11 miles in 2 days after 9 days of no running. I'm ready for Shamrock!

Having to stay at home was a blessing, I suppose, because it gave me two days to work on my dad's house. We have renters lined up to move in the first few days of April. That is going to be tough. Cleaning out my dad's house has been tough. By tough I mean emotionally. I really don't want anyone else living there...but since I am not there - yet - it is good that someone will be there. And it is nice that these people actually knew and liked my dad and he them. *sigh*

This morning I opted to sleep in instead of swim. I was feeling quite tired and stressed after last night's trip to Home Depot to look at flooring and counter tops for my dad's house. We have someone lined up to do the work and they did initial estimates but I am not happy with their choices...so, off to Home Depot it was. I feel in control again, somewhat. I felt like the future tenants were pushing for one thing, but ultimately it is my decision to make - it is now my house after all. They may be disappointed with my choices (oh the stress...) but again, it is my house.

Tonight I plan to go to my spin class. I missed last weeks due to being sick. There is only one left after tonight. I also want to try to drop off some old running shoes at =PR= before hand, since they have a box for that. I did not get them together last night, but if I have time today I will do that. I also have my new bike shoes to tri out. Yay! After spin class it is back to my dad's house, or better yet MY house, to lay out the sample floor tiles and see what we think. I think it will be good!

Tomorrow...I plan to run 12 miles tomorrow morning - whatever the weather. Hopefully this time I will actually go outside and run. But...if I have to run indoors - again - I will do that. After the run it will be time to meet up with the other Moms on the Run (MOTRs) for journey number two! Then hopefully I will get a couple of pleasant outdoor runs in this weekend when the MOTRs Bust the Keys. And the place we are staying has four swimming pools!! I do not know if any of these are lap pools but I am bringing a pair of goggles, just in case. I can always go for an ocean swim, too!

Sadly, I realize that I never did finish ironing my t-shirts for my quilt project! My goal was by the time the Olympics ended to have the remaining ones ironed. I think getting sick last week really threw me for a loop. Now my basement is packed with things from my dad's house and there is hardly room to set the ironing board up. But I am not worried about this little thing, and refuse to stress over it. I guess my new goal is to start on them again after I get my dad's house finished and the tenant moved in. Right now I have enough other things to stress over!

But there are good things too - like this weekend. And the Shamrock weekend! I'm really excited about these!!

Happy Training!