Shamrock Sportsfest Marathon - RunMarathon

I had a really awesome time at this race. Going into this race I felt the most well trained and positive about any marathon i'd ever done. During the race, I felt great, my legs were moving well, all thoughts were upbeat and positive. I felt i was well on pace to break 4:00 in a marathon. Then I hit mile 22 and my feet just decided "nope". I slowed a lot. I was particularly bummmed when the 4:00 pace group passed me. I tried to keep up but my feet were screaming. I hung in there and still pr'd...which i'm totally happy about. My goal was to just go with the flow, and hopefully PR..so goal was met. Later on in the day, my friend pointed out that I just ran a faster marathon at age 30 than I did when I was age 22 (4:20)...which i guess is kinda cool. Tho I don't remember it hurting this much when i was 22.


I wouldn't trust the race website saying that there would be gels at mile 16. I had a gel at 7 and 13..i was planning on grabbing one at mile 16 and having it around mile 18. Mile 16 came and there was nohting there. It was a bummer. When we looped back around to the same spot at mile 23, there were tons of little kids handing out gels...what the hell. So yeah, miles 13 thru 23 = no gels. Not sure if one at mile 18 would've helped or not, or if my feet had just had it at mile 22.

Tried to walk to the beer tent. Finally gave up and plopped down on the sand and sent my husband in to get beers. Took off shoes, looked at my swollen foot, and laid on the sand for about an hour.

Went back to our friends' house in Norfolk for a sweet pizza feast. Chris had called ahead, and they ordered 3 pizzas with my favorite toppings. We hung out, ate, and watched basketball.

Took us 6 hours to drive home. WTF? it sucked. We stopped at Denny's for dinner. I got fajitas. Don't order fajitas at Denny's.


My feet deciding that enough was enough.


The race was really fun and well run. I'd come back and do it again. I see now, why, after 30 years and several marathons, this is the only marathon my dad ever gushes about. It was really nice.