Shamrock Marathon
Virginia Beach, VA March 22, 2015
The Shamrock Marathon was the
breakthrough marathon for me as far as finally feeling like I was back close to
where I was in Dec. 2012 when I ran CIM in 3:47 and then fractured and
dislocated my shoulder skiing a week later. Looking at past results, I thought
I might be able to place in top 3 if I was under 3:50, but I wasn’t confident that I’d gotten in all the training
that I would have liked. In fact, I was pretty pessimistic the week before, but
I woke up Sunday morning feeling good and looking at some optimal conditions. I
had gotten 2 nights in a row of 8 hour sleep and had a nice turtle sundae for
dessert the night before and the weather was in mid 40s with some breeze. I had
run Shamrock back in 2007 (3:42) and knew it was a flat (34 feet total
elevation gain) course and that the wind should be at my back the first and
last 5 miles.
The race didn’t start until 8:30 so
I had plenty of time to park, see the start of the half, and then go wait in a
warm hotel lobby near the start. It was great to use their rest room and get
out of my sweats in a warm spot before going to the start. I was in the 2nd
wave and was in the front row at the start, 2 minutes after the first wave.
(Note that exact 2 minute difference between gun and chip timeJ).I tried to do as
I coach my runners and let the pace come to me. I found myself easily running
around 8:45 and having to keep my “happy feet” from going faster.
The course is a double out and back
looking like a figure 8 so the wind was with us at the start. I hit 10k with a 8:47 average and it felt
really comfortable. Heading back toward the start on the southern loop we went
through an army base, and then I hit the halfway mark by the Cavalier Hotel in
1:56:45. We headed north on a road closed to traffic with some nice tree
protection and I started to accelerate feeling like I wanted to go! From 15-20,
I had 2 miles at 8:22 and 2 at in mid 8:30s. Then we went by the landmark Cape
Henry Lighthouse and through the Fort Story military base and I kept hitting
sub 8:40s. Getting back into the city itself I hit mile 24 at 8:25 and 25 at
8:37. Somewhere in there the sounds of the Giants’ unofficial theme song,
Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” was playing, getting me even more pumped. Running the last
mile of the race on the boardwalk, I got an 8:19 for my fastest mile of the
marathon. Such a great feeling to finish that strong! I had negative splits
with the second half being about 5 minutes faster than the first.
I was quite excited and thrilled to
actually feel so good throughout the race unlike the way I’ve been running in
general the last two years when I’ve been sore and achy so much of the time.
The thrill was backJ!
I had seen a couple of guys who looked like they might be in my age group in
the second half of the race so I wanted to be sure I stayed ahead of them.
Interesting to see the results later in the day and see two guys in my age
group who ran 3:50 something. Not sure if they were the ones, but fun to know that
I really did need to run as hard as I did to beat them and finish as an award
winner. (As you all know, I’m not competitive. lol)
When you look at the pictures on
Shutterfly, you’ll see that on Sat. I visited the colonial town of Williamsburg.
I also drove to the nearby Jamestown, seeing the first settlement in American
history and replicas of the three ships that the settlers came in. They also
had a weekend festival showing soldiers from various wars and eras. Then I went
to Yorktown, the scene of the British surrender to George Washington and the
Continental Army. In the pictures, you can also see the blood blister on the
second toe of my left foot. The toe has been bothering me for a couple months
and it bleed quite a bit as you can see by the sock and the spot on the top of
the shoe. Fortunately, I wasn’t really aware of it until after the race.
This was Marathon #140;20 states on 2d go round; 8
provinces.
