Luckily I found my race write up that I did shortly after running this marathon. Oh how we look back with rose colored glasses. I had forgotten about those miles of desolation and boredom! Still, even after reading my write up I look back with great fondness for this marathon.
So here it is, my write up from 2009...
I am going to try really hard to make this a short summary, I promise!
The Va. Beach Shamrock marathon has been on "the list" because I went to high school in Virginia Beach and the course runs along where I used to live and "hang out" as a teenager.
Toby and I flew in on Friday and headed straight to the expo. The usual expo experience. Off to the hotel, nice, oceanfront, facing the finish line on the Boardwalk. Sweet. Later, dinner and a little too much wine. The next morning, so much for sleeping in, since that sweet oceanfront finish was busy with the Saturday 8K finishers...oops.. I warned Toby that there's not much to see and do in Va. Beach, so our tour didn't take very long! Saturday was pretty calm and uneventful, which is what you want the day before a marathon, right?
On race morning Toby left for the 7:00 am half marathon start a few blocks down the road, while I had to wait another full hour for mine. My start was right outside the hotel, so I paced around the hotel room, changing things like sunglasses, no sunglasses, hat, no hat, long sleeve, short sleeve, gloves, mittens, pee, and repeat. I looked out the balcony to the finish line and said "see you soon" and headed out.
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| The Finish awaits! |
I got down to the start and lined myself up with the 3:50 pacer. Couldn't find a 3:51 pacer. (The joke here was that I was consistently running marathons right on the 3:51 mark back then). The weather was perfect, cold, sunny, and no wind. Great day for a marathon!
And we're off! Before I knew it the 3:50 pace bunny and his little minions were pulling away into the horizon. Mile 1: 8:27 for me, so his split had to have been 8:00 or so. Bad bunny! He corrected himself though, because I caught them around 3-4 and stayed slightly ahead of them then. Around mile 7 we ran right by my old neighborhood.
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| So many Wadsworth stories...has its own FB page |
We even ran along the street that we used to hitchhike to the strip-boardwalk! Yeah I know, we did that years ago...things were different then! We headed north, back to the strip, where I saw Toby, as we continued towards the 2nd half that he had just run. I told him a sub-4 is all I'm going to do. No time to chat about his amazing race, which was a 1:25!!!!
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| Running on the Strip! |
At mile 16 we turned off the strip, which was lively, onto a quiet, tree lined road, heading into First Landing State Park. Strangely enough, 30 years ago this park was called Seaside State Park, and memories of being there came back to me. It was a peaceful and pleasant stretch, but it got old and started feeling endless after a couple of miles. Even with funny signs like, "Elevator smells are different for midgets".
At mile 19 I had to make a pee stop. When I came out my pace bunny friend came by, so I glommed on for about a mile. But then I got a side stitch, and lost my will to hold on. Off he went. Low point in the race. The scenery wasn't improving. Those were some really...ugly....miles...Ugh... I am ashamed to admit it, but a band playing music or even some simple bongo drums would have been awesome, heck, give me a little "Eye of the Tiger" out of a boom box, something! As we all shuffled along in silent agony I had that moment where you see the beauty of the marathon. (Not sure where I was going with this thought here, ha). Before too long we were back on the strip with the much needed stimulus of the community.
With less than a mile to go they put us onto the boardwalk for the finish, which was nothing short of spectacular. Truly one of my favorite finishes ever! Time: 3:53:20.
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| Neptune Statue in Background |
Toby quickly found me and I rushed to get cleaned up and checked out of the room before we headed back down to the beer tent. They had a great finish area.
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| A bit more lively than in the morning! |
People were out on the beach in the sun, enjoying the pretty day, telling their war stories. I wonder what I would have said back then, 30 years ago, if someone had said to me that I'd be running a marathon in this very place, 30 years from now. Probably something like, "what are you smoking?"
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