Shamrock Half Marathon – Virginia Beach, Virginia (March 20, 2011)

Race morning was much colder than expected. We had two beautiful, warm days in a row so to wake up Sunday morning to 44 degrees and 20 mile per hour winds made for a very chilly morning.  I brought tights to wear, but I figure if it got hot I would be much better in shorts. I was not thinking like this at 6:15 AM while I was freezing my butt off waiting for the race to start. I snuggled with complete strangers and was OK invading others personal space.  I guided four people that had trash bags over them to keep them warm to stand in front of me to block the wind; cozy start to the morning. This is probably one of the only times I thought it would be alright to start a race early.

They finally corralled us into our respected “cattle” pins, meaning we had to predetermine what we hoped our finish race time would be and we lined up accordingly. I was in Coral 3 for hopeful finishers of the ½ marathon in 2 – 2:15 minutes.  The race started, but by the time coral 3 hit the start mat, it was 5 minutes behind the first coral.  While waiting for the race to start I did not see many Team Z’ers, but in the first .5 mile I found a Team Z’er Lynne. We ran together for the first 7 miles.  Since I did not train as diligently as one should to prepare for a ½ marathon, I was viewing the run as a training run with the hopes I would come under 2 hours. I have run numerous of marathons, so to me running 13.1 miles was mentally much easier than 26.2. I knew I could do 13.1 even if I did not train, so I was not nervous.  Lynne and I chatted the entire first 7 miles and we were on a 9:50 mile race pace. I knew in order to get under two hours I needed to pick it, so at mile 7 I left Lynne. By mile 8 my I was running an 8:55 mile. At this point, I was on my own I found a couple to hop in behind. They had a great pace going, so I asked if they would mind if I used them to pace me. At mile 11.5, I saw Team Z’er’s cheering us on.  I was very excited and it gave me an extra boost of energy. Coming into my twelfth mile, I was running an 8:24 mile pace, but unfortunately that was not good enough for an under two hour finish.  I finished in 2:03:19. I felt very good about my finish and I know now that if I really train and I pick up the pace a bit in the first 7 miles, I will be able to make it under two hours in the future.

My husband and son were waiting for me at the finish, which I love and always make for a great ending to a wonderful race and weekend.

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