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!)
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