Virginia Beach Shamrock Half Marathon
This is a annual race for me in some format for the past few years. I have run the marathon and the 8k a couple times but really like the half. My wife also runs the half and my son does the mile so its a family affair. My inlaws came in town and on Sat I took my father in law down to watch Roy run the mile while my wife, Jen, took her mother to see my daughter play her soccer games. There was a massive amount of kids running the mile and all of them were having a great time. Roy had a good run and had a lot of fun. He was happy that he did have to stop and walk like he had done in "training". I have been trying to make sure that he was having fun running and keeping it from becoming work but I did make sure he ran a total of 25 miles before his run so he could complete his marathon. The rest of the day was dedicated to watching the rest of the soccer games and basketball. Had my normal pre race dinner of waffles and a Guiness since it was St Patrick's day.
The next morning we were up early I had my 2 cups of coffee and half a bowel of cereal and we were off to the race. While walking to race start ran into Dave Whiddon who had come back from PA to do the race. Good to see an old friend. Managed to get into position in the first corral with 2 minutes to go. The start was steady and I fell into a 6:40 pace. (My plan was to run somewhere around 6:50-pace for the first 4 miles and then try to drop it by 5 seconds or maintain. My goal was a sub 1:30 and i figured I would PR or blow up.) At mile 2 I took stock and was feeling good. i had been having some right foot pain on my last 2 training runs and this was not bothering me a bit. Picked it up a little running 6:35s knowing that I probably shouldn't but it just felt good. However my GPS started losing signal. My pace was going from sub 6s to 8s between miles 4.5-6.5. So just tried to keep pace with the people in my area and run by feel. Well GPS came back when we made the turn right around the halfway point. Still feeling good but backed off to the 6:40s since i felt good about getting my PR and not blowing up. Miles 10-12 were long and painful. Still keeping my pace between 6:40-6:50 but working hard and could feel my form falling apart a little. Last mile really hurt but the finish felt really good. My watch time was 1:27:10. The chip time was 1:27:37 not sure how that happened but whatever still a good run.
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