Shamrock Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon


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Virginia Beach, Virginia
United States
Shamrock Sportsfest
40F / 4C
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 58m 20s
Overall Rank = 1907/5996
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 231/460
Pre-race routine:

Dropped the kids and the dog off at parents house and Sam and I drove down to Virginia Beach on Friday. Checked into the hotel which was right at the finish line and about 10 blocks from the start.

Went out to Murphys for some beer and bad food Friday night. No kids so we got to sleep in and have a nice lazy day.

Met up with one of my Fraternity brothers after the 8k, his daughter was running the 8k then the operation final smile.

Went to the expo, picked up an early entry for the MCM so filling that out tomorrow! Checked out the P4 at FinalKick's booth, looks better in person than online. Went out to their store also, was nice to have really nothing pressing all day to do.

Met up with Karla later that day and we went out to dinner and got to bed early.
Event warmup:

Woke up at 5:50, race started at 7:00 so we were trying to get there right at the start so we didn't have to wait around in the cold. Ran the 10 blocks or so to the start area found my corral and waited.

Sam and I decided we weren't going to run together since we both run different paces and she was doing a run-walk thing with Karla and I was just running so we said good luck and took off.
Run
  • 1h 58m 20s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 09m 02s  min/mile
Comments:

One of these days I will do 2 runs the same distance but this was another new distance for me. I had been doing a runnersworld.com 16 week plan so I think I trained pretty well coming in.

Honestly didn't have much of a plan, Sam said she wanted to do sub 2 hrs so I figured I would shoot for that also.

Suzy from my mentor group gave me some great advice before the race that 9:09's would get me 2 hrs so try to run as close to 9:00 as you could and bank the 9 seconds for when you need them. Any time I was above 9:09 within .2 of finishing a mile I would push it to make sure I got in before the 9:09.

Felt really comfortable the entire race, probably could have gone faster but I had no idea what my body would feel like at mile 10 since that was my longest tempo run before that.

Last mile I really picked it up and tried to catch Sam, she finished 20 seconds ahead of me.

What would you do differently?:

Run a distance for a 2nd time so I know how well I do at the distance instead of having to guess for each one.
Post race
Warm down:

Walked through and picked up my finishers medal and hat, met up with Sam and Karla and grabbed some beer and irish stew in the tent. Headed back to the room for a shower. Went to breakfast at the Pocahontis and had a big greasy breakfast and then hit the road for a long painful drive home.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Couldn't have really run the race any better so nothing really

Event comments:

DRIVING HOME FROM VIRGINIA BEACH CAN KISS MY A$$.

2nd year in a row there has been an accident trying to go through the tunnel traffic stopped.

Passed 3-4 accidents on 64 and last 20 miles of 64 were driven at 5 miles because they were doing road construction and had a lane closed...

Last year took 6 hours to get home, same as this year.

Ok, I feel better now after ranting.

The race is great, the town rolls out the red carpet for racers, they have people handing out beer in the last few miles, if I wasn't so close to my goal I would have grabbed some.

Lots of volunteers and spectators out on the course cheering people on.






Last updated: 2008-10-30 12:00 AM
Running
01:58:20 | 13.1 miles | 09m 02s  min/mile
Age Group: 231/460
Overall: 1907/5996
Performance: Good
Mile 1 @ 9:14 Mile 2 @ 9:05 Mile 3 @ 8:59 Mile 4 @ 8:58 Mile 5 @ 9:00 Mile 6 @ 8:57 Mile 7 @ 8:55 Mile 8 @ 9:01 Mile 9 @ 9:08 Mile 10 @ 9:02 Mile 11 @ 9:05 Mile 12 @ 9:02 Mile 13 @ 8:30 Extra .19 @ 7:27 Watch says I ran the 13.19 in 1:58:25 @ 8:58 Avg Heart rate was Z2 or lower the entire race
Course: Super flat run, lol on the elevation chart they showed the first 1/2 going up hill and 2nd going down but I think there was maybe 5-10 foot elevation gain to the 1/2 way point if that. Perfect running weather, all I had to do was take off my gloves and was able to keep the rest on.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5