Virginia Beach Race Report

We were up bright and early to beat traffic and get good parking. We left my brother's house at 5:45 and had plenty of time to park. Minus the idiots that let us in a parking garage that was full. We found a nice lot about 5 blocks from the finish which would give a good post race walk. It was SUPER cold this morning! 44 degrees and crazy wind. Luckily the wind died down for the most part and the sun was out the whole race. We did run into a head wind the majority of the race.

Taking off finally! There was a 15 minute delay to prevent the halfers from bumping into the full runners. I started off great and was keeping sub 10:00 min miles easily. I was hoping to at least PR by a few minutes. Miles 1 - 12 were uneventful. I Gued at mile 5, ran thru Camp Pendelton around mile 8 and loved the support, met some nice people at mile 6 and talked for awhile, gave my top shirt to my mom at mile 12 and peed (which is something I usually don't do)

During the first place I had enjoyed talking to two guys. When they stopped to pee at mile 11 I was worried I would not see them again but they caught back up with me at mile 14. I knew they wanted a sub 10 average so we hung together from 14 to 21 and had a blast! Their names were David and David. We did the pony dance at mile markers and stopped to dance at the band and told jokes to pass the time. Making friends is the way to go! I hate people that take is all serious and won't joke about stuff. I also loathe tutu wearers but that is another issue in itself. Lets just say I make it a personal mission to pass people in annoying clothes : ) Mile 21 the slower David started having a real hard time and the faster David wanted to get closer to a 9:30 pace. So I was left solo again.

However, I was able to stay strong mentally and push thru. My pace slipped and I would guess I was averaging more of a 10:15 at this point. Crowd support finally started coming back at mile 23 and the run down the boardwalk was great. Everyone screamed your name and I wanted so bad to run as fast as I could but apparently 10:24 was all I had left.

Clock time was about 6 minutes fast so I am thinking I was a 4:23 something which would be four to five minutes better than my previous time.

Found my mom and brother at the fish. Had some calf cramps AGAIN so I drank some water and ate a banana before walking to the car. Marathon #2 is much easier than #1. I will update this post when official time is posted or texted to me.

Thanks to everyone that has sent messages and commented!

*Official time 4:23:12 which is 4 minutes and 34 seconds faster! Which is a 10:02 pace. My last marathon was a 10:14 pace. I was really hoping to be sub 10; even if it was 9:59 pace but I apparently did not have it in be today. I could blame the head winds but it was probably the result of 2 crappy long runs and the weeklong stomach bug! OR I am just a 10:00 minute kinda girl : )