Shamrock Marathon and Half marathon - RunHalf Marathon

It took a couple of minutes after the start for people to really get spread out, so I started out rather slow because of all the people. At about mile 1, I got into a rythym but then my foot was hurting because the tongue in my shoe was rubbing funny. I ran along for a little while contemplating what to do about this, and I finally decided to stop on the side of the road and retie it. I promplty tied it too tight that time and stopped after 2 more blocks to retie it again when I finally got it right. I had to go to the bathroom from the very start of the actual run, I think it had a lot to do with the cold. All of the porta potties had lines though and I didn't want to wait! It was about mile 4 when we started on the loop away from the ocean that we went on this road that was surrounded by woods instead of houses and I had to go reallly bad...... so..... I went in the woods. It was a lot quicker than the porta potties! Then I felt good and really got into a groove for a little while. I jammed to my Ipod, found some really good tunes, enjoyed the people cheering and the signs people had put on the road side. I tried to drink 2 big gulps of water and 2 big gulps of gatorade at every aid station and this seemed to work just right. I wore way too many clothes, which everyone warned me of, but I didn't listen. It was super cold out there but of course once I started running I was warm and then too warm. I wore thin wicking pants, sweat pants, thin wicking shirt, sweatshirt, gloves, stocking cap. I took off the gloves about mile 2 and left them on the road side. Took off the sweatshirt and left it on the road side around mile 5 and left it on the road side. That kept me occupied for about a mile because I unpinned my number from one shirt and pinned it on the other shirt while I was running. :) I would have taken off the sweat pants too but I didnt want to waste the time to try to do that. I left the hat on for the whole run though. I had periods through the run that I felt good, and periods that I felt bad, but I'm sure this is common for all races. I hit a pretty bad spell for miles about 6-8 while we were running through Ft. Story. I was just really starting to feel some pain in my ankles and some fatigue and just thinking about how much further it was and could I finish and all that. About the time we turned back on to the main beach road (Atlantic), I started feeling better. There were more people cheering, the ocean was pretty, wind was at our backs, everything seemed better. And I think it also helped to know I was getting close! At about mile 9 or 10, I knew I could finish. Mile 11 I tried to pick it up some and think I picked it up a little too much because I think I burnt out a little early. Mile 12 I just kept on running as fast as I could. My husband was standing right when we made the turn to go on the boardwalk which was probably about 1/2 mile from the finish so that made me smile to see him. Then he kept running along the sidewalk and dodging people to try to take pictures of me while I was running so that made me laugh to watch him. The last little bit was on my own because he had given up on running through the people. Got across the finish line and that was an awesome feeling! It's weird because I had some aches during the run but not many, but as soon as I started running, first my heart rate elevated way way high and it took my breath away for a minute, then my knees and everything just seemed to stop working all at once! I'm glad none of this happened while I was still running, but still odd that it all happened as soon as I stopped!

Honestly not much. This was an awesome experience. I didn't think I would enjoy races this much, but it was great. So much different than a training run. I'll try to plan my clothes better next time. This time I was so worried about not being cold that I overdressed and was actually too warm.

Walked around in a daze for a few minutes, collected all of the goodies through the finish chute. Tried to get my body to react normally again. Went back to the hotel, stretched, took a long warm shower.


Just training I suppose. I came into this knowing I hadn't trained quite as much on the long distances as I should have. Still, this was my first half mary so I am quite pleased with my performance.


The race was great, very well organized, plenty of volunteers. The water stopped were perfectly timed for me, spread out just far enough but not too far. I was happy with my decision not to carry hydration with me because what they had on the course worked perfectly.