Shamrock Half Race Report

[CallingAllAngels]

Woohoo, I am back from Virginia Beach.  What a fun weekend!  I went with three other girls from my running group, and we met up with about 10 other people from our group at various points during the weekend.  We ate and drank so well. 

I ran the 8K on Saturday and the half on Sunday.  I basically stuck with a guy from my running group for the 8K.  We shuffled/walked the first 4 miles and than ran the last mile.  We finished around 1:01, which was fine.  We weren't doing it for time - just the medals.  It was really fun though.

The half was Sunday.  My goals were to PR (previous PR was 2:36 from January) and finish under 2:30.  One of the girls I run with was also trying to PR.  Her previous PR was 2:23.  I decided to try to stay with her for as long as possible.  We do almost all of our training runs together and are very similar paces, but she races faster than I do.  I knew 2:22 would be stretch for me, but I thought I would go for it.  When we started the race, her watch was messed up, so I basically made sure we were on pace for the first 6 miles, and we kept right around a 10:45 pace, which would be right on the money for her to PR.  Around mile 7, my legs started to feel heavy. I think they were cold (it was pretty windy at this point), but I was starting to worry I couldn't keep that pace for the next 6 miles and I didn't want to screw up my race.  I told her to go ahead and leave me behind.  I slowed down between miles 7-10.  It was a more boring part of the course, and since my legs were starting to fade, I was trying to take it a little bit easy to save some for the end.  Around mile 9, I got really bored and was looking at my watch every 15 seconds so I put my music on.  At mile 10, I got back in my groove and realized if I stuck with it, I would finish under 2:30.  The finish line was around 28th street, and when we hit 67th street, I just started ticking off blocks in my head, which really helped me to judge how much further I had without constantly looking at my watch.  I hit the boardwalk and could see the finish line.  Fortunately, I knew from the previous day that it seems a lot closer than it really is at that point.  I turned it on, and finished at 2:27:xx (11:16 pace).  I am really happy with my time.  It wasn't the ideal race since I started out faster than I probably needed to, but it was nice to run with friends.  It was also good to overcome the mental barrier at miles 7-9 when I just wanted to phone it in.  I knocked off over 8 minutes from my half PR in 2 months, and I feel like I still have a lot more in me if I keep training well. 

The fun thing is that everyone from our group PRed - except one woman who usually just runs for fun and didn't even know what her half PR was until she looked it up after the race, and this was her second fastest half.   Our training has really paid off.  Bottom line, the race was super-fun.  The swag was great.  The party afterwards was nice.  The weather was almost perfect for the half (could have done without some wind), but started to take a turn for the worse in the afternoon for the marathoners.  It got colder, cloudier and windier as the day went on. 

My next half marathon isn't until October, and I am hoping to finish under 2:20.  It's going to take hard work, I think.  I am going to try to focus on speed work more now that I am more comfortable with the distance.  And...(gulp) I am thinking about putting a full marathon on my list of long-term goals, maybe at the end of 2015.

[Deleted]

Congrats on your PR!!! Very inspiring

[hannahb]

Congrats!

[venice2007]

Excellent job!

[CallingAllAngels]

Here is a pic from the after-party. Cheers!
poof

[thom]

Great job! Sounds like a wonderful weekend & an awesome PR for you.

[breezy8407]

Sounds like fun! Congrats

[shelbyann]

Congrats! I love this race, it's one of my favorites!

[skwcm80]

Congratulations on a great race!

[mrshandy]

Awesome!! Great job! I'm hoping that this race will be my BQ race a year from now. It's pretty flat right? I'm from that area Norfolk. But I don't go back much since my parents moved to Fl.

[CallingAllAngels]

Mar 18, 2014 9:33:18 GMT -5 mrshandy said:

It's pretty flat right?

Yes, it's flat.  The marathon route has a bridge on it that you run over twice and it adds a couple small hills.  The elevation profile is on the map here: www.shamrockmarathon.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Shamrock-Marathon-2014-vF1.pdf

The only thing with the marathon is that you don't get to enjoy the party as much because you start 1.5 hours after the half and you run longer.  I felt bad for the girl with us that ran the marathon because by the time she finished, we were all almost drunk and ready for a nap.

[Vally]

Great job, Congratulations!!

[lb2006]

CONGRATS!!!

[phillyrunner]

Congrats on the PR CallingAllAngels! I also ran the half on Sunday and had a blast! Wasn't getting to the boardwalk and seeing the beautiful beach at the end the best feeling?? I absolutely loved the post race beers and music.

[libbygrl109]

Sounds like such a great, fun race! Congrats on your PR!

[coconutbug]

Fun weekend! Congrats!

[Deleted]

Great PR! And you are a brave, brave woman for considering a full! Go girl

[cinco]

Mar 18, 2014 8:53:58 GMT -5 CallingAllAngels said:

 I hit the boardwalk and could see the finish line.  Fortunately, I knew from the previous day that it seems a lot closer than it really is at that point.  

YES! I remember it taking forever. I'm glad you had a fun race! Congrats on the PR!

[sassystace]

Good job on the new PR!

[runblondie26]

Congrats on the PR!

[MrsE]

Yay! Congrats!

PS: I hope you enjoyed my home town!

[kams]

Fantastic job!!! What a cute pic!

[shauni27]

congratulations on a GREAT and well-earned PR!!!

[shauni27]

Did you guys hear that a 16 year old girl ran this half and then collapsed and died right after finishing??? So sad!

[CallingAllAngels]

Mar 19, 2014 8:55:37 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

Did you guys hear that a 16 year old girl ran this half and then collapsed and died right after finishing??? So sad!

Yes!  That is so terrible.  I had no idea until I read something on FB later that night. 

spunkypenguin, how was your race?

[spunkypenguin]

I had a ton of fun! I realized before I even crossed the start line that I had no chance of a PR, so I just ran for fun and enjoyed myself. It was nice to not worry about time It snowed 10 inches at home Sunday/Monday, so we stayed until Tuesday AM. I got one last run in and my pace was faster than I've run on my own all winter and faster than any mile in either of the races. I guess it's time to get my butt back in gear and train for the CB 10miler next month. My friends have talked me into doing the full 26.2 at Shamrock next year, so I guess I'll be going after the Whale Challenge next year!

Glad to hear that you had a great race! This was my second year and still definitely my favorite race.

[CallingAllAngels]

Glad you had fun! I kept an eye out for you, but I didn't see you. I probably walked right by you at one point though. I would love to do this race again next year, but there are also many other races I would love to do. I need to focus.