On Sun Mar 17 2019, I ran the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach, Virginia. This would be state #45 for me. As usual, I didn't train very well for this marathon. I had plenty of time since
the last one in Iowa and I had meant to train well. But it really didn't happen. At least it would be cool and flat, which would help. I expected to be right in the range of all my recent marathons, which would mean a time of 4:25 to 4:30.
I drove down to Virginia Beach from my home in New Jersey the day before the race. At about 350 miles, it was the farthest I've driven for a marathon. But it was nice not to have to worry about a flight and the hassles at the airport. I chose a hotel that was right on the beach in the tourist-y section of Virginia Beach. It was convenient to the start and finish of the race, and to various places to eat and drink.
The race fell exactly on St Patrick's Day, and the city of Virginia Beach was quite decked out for it. Lots of green everywhere. This was a decent-sized event, with almost 1700 runners in the Full Marathon and almost 6000 in the Half Marathon. Many of them were dressed in green for the occasion, while I stuck with my normal 50 States Marathon Club attire.
There were a bunch of corrals. I'm nor sure how many. I was in #8, and there were still a few behind me. They let each corral go a minute or so apart. The race started at 7:00am, and my corral was a few minutes after that. We began on Atlantic Avenue a few blocks north of my hotel and one block inland from the beach. We would run the same route as the Half Marathoners for almost their entire race. So the first half of the race was pretty crowded. But not so crowded that I couldn't find the pace I wanted to run at. I was able to maintain a consistent pace between about 9:30 and 9:40 per mile for quite a while.
About 6 miles into the race we reached the northern-most section of Virginia Beach right along the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. At this point, we entered
Fort Story Army Base and ran through the base. After exiting the base, we were back on Atlantic Ave and were heading back south along the same road that we had run up north.
Just before Mile 13, the Half Marathoners turned off to head towards the finish line on the boardwalk next to the beach. We continued south on Atlantic Ave for a little while longer before also turning onto the boardwalk. Obviously the crowd of runners had thinned out quite a bit at this point.
I had still been maintaining a consistent pace, although it had slowed to around 9:50 per mile. I crossed the halfway point in about 2:06:30, which is right on track to what I usually do.
Just after Mile 15, we turned away from the beach and headed over a bridge that spanned a small channel of water. The bridge had a bit of an incline to it, and it was about the right time of the race for me to start working in walk breaks. So I slowed to a walk for the first time up the incline. As a result, I completed Mile 16 in 10:43, by far my slowest of the day so far. Of course, there would be slower ones still to come.
We continues straight for a few miles in a southwest direction. We passed the Virginia Aquarium. At some random point near Mile 18.5, we reached a turnaround and headed back the way we came. I was mixing in short walk breaks every now and then, and was completing the miles in the range of 10:30.
On the way back northeast, around Mile 20 we took a detour in and around Camp Pendleton, our second jaunt onto a military base. Just before Mile 23, we reached the same bridge as before, and I took another opportunity to slow to a walk for a while. Soon thereafter, we were back on the boardwalk next to the beach and were headed back north towards the finish.
The miles went slowly here, but nothing atypical of what I usually do. Very close to the end, we briefly left the boardwalk to head back to the street so that we could turn around and approach the finish line from the north. The finish was next to the beach, right near the statue of King Neptune that is apparently the most famous landmark in Virginia Beach. I made it to the finish line in a time of 4:28:15, which is right about what I was expecting.
I can't complain about this race at all. It was flat and the temperatures were cool. I suppose it was sunnier than I would have liked, but it wasn't bad because it was so cool. The course was fine. Nothing spectacular, perhaps. But it was nice. And the crowd support was good. The city of Virginia Beach takes the event seriously, so they were well prepared for it. There was a party tent set up right on the beach for the runners with a few bands playing. Yuengling was the title sponsor of the race, and they gave four free beers to each runner. So there were a number of inebriated runners dancing after the race.
The finish line was right in front of my hotel, so it was an easy walk back after the race. I hung around town for the rest of the day and drove the 350 miles back home the next day. All in all, it was another successful marathon trip.
Next up will be the Boston Marathon in a month. I am thrilled to be doing the Boston Marathon as my first marathon in Massachusetts. No, I did not qualify based on my time. I am much too slow for that. But I was lucky enough to be chosen for a charity team for my first college alma mater, Tufts University. It's been a long time since I've run two marathons less than a month apart. I'm fairly sure that I can handle it okay, but I suppose that remains to be seen.
And now the photos. Click any image to enlarge.
No comments:
Post a Comment