Take Two
It’s been about a week since I ran my second half marathon in Virginia Beach on September 1st, so I wanted to tell you all a little bit more about that experience through a race day recap!
Actually it’s going to be more like a race weekend recap because we drove down midday Saturday to pick up our race packets, check out the fitness expo, and do some VB sightseeing before tackling the running part. I did this race with my friend Alyssa who has done some other halves too, so we both knew what we were getting into. Here goes!
Like I said, we drove down to Virginia Beach on Saturday and got to the convention center where packet pickup and the expo were located around two. I had thought the expo at Shamrock, my first half in March, was big, but this one was way bigger – and yielded so much more free stuff! Plus there was so much awesome merch from Brooks. Sadly that was not free and my bank account definitely wishes I had more self-control at this point [but then again if I had much more self-control would I be doing two-possibly-three races this fall?]. I am now a proud owner of, among other things, two training shirts, a growler, a lei, a beer cozy, a Run Virginia cup, a weird amount of gum, two chapsticks, a multitude of stickers, two free Orange Theory classes [low key a real win], and bright green plastic sunglasses. At least I am rich in largely useless items!
Once we got tired of chatting with vendors with no intention of paying for anything, we left the expo and checked into our hotel which was only mildly sketchy. Last time I ran a half in Virginia Beach, my group stayed with a friend’s family, but I am reserving that privilege for the Shamrock race in March again, so for this time Alyssa and I picked a hotel about a ten to fifteen minute walk from the boardwalk and the starting point of the race. We put on some cute outfits and headed out into the world to do some sightseeing which included a mid-afternoon meal at a seafood buffet [also only mildly sketchy – and shockingly filling], walking on the beach, and investigating the fishing pier. Also eating ice cream, an important part of healthy pre-race prep.
You might be thinking, two twenty-one year old girls hit Virginia Beach, must’ve been a wild night! It was not a wild night and that is a very good thing because we woke up at 5:30 in the morning for the race the next day. Luckily for us, we were both happy to be grandmas and were in bed at approximately 7:30 watching movies. Got to get a good night’s sleep before waking up to run thirteen miles!
Having accomplished getting over eight hours of sleep on a Saturday night, we woke up Sunday morning surprisingly energized considering the early hour. However, despite the time, it was extremely humid when we left the hotel at six to walk over to the starting line. After eating a banana on the way, we alternated jogging and walking to get our muscles warmed up, and we arrived at Corral 4 with time to pee and slather our thighs in Vaseline – in other words, perfect timing. At Shamrock, I recall standing around for what seemed like forever in the corral waiting for the race to start, but this race was much more punctual with sticking to the starting time, and it seemed like we had only just abandoned our race day Vaseline when they started the first corral. Oh yeah, and we accidentally started with Corral 5.
Now to the really interesting stuff: THE RACE! Starting with the wrong corral actually worked out great for us because we got a little rush from being able to pass a bunch of people right at the beginning. Something I love about these big races is that it’s both supportive and competitive – it’s fun to pass people, but it never feels malicious or superior to do so. In other words, I don’t look down on people that I pass for being slower than me, and I like to think that the people who speed past me aren’t silently laughing at me because I’m slow. It’s nice to have both the opportunity to feel fast and a general atmosphere of support. In the race recap I did for my first race, I broke it down mile by mile, but this time I think I’ll just give a general summary because you guys get the gist – there’s thirteen miles and somehow they’re all different.
During my first half marathon, I ran with two other people and we didn’t listen to music – we just talked the entire time, which made the beginning, at least, go by very fast. This race was super different because although Alyssa and I ran together, we both wore headphones and didn’t do much talking, which made the first three miles drag for me. I always find on long runs that the first few miles are some of the most difficult because it takes me about three miles to get into my groove, and the same held true for this race. My foot randomly fell asleep around the marker for mile three, but I quickly forgot about that and went on to crush the teeny hill that brought us into the fourth mile.
One of the many awesome things about this course was that it was super shady almost the whole time and, in classic Virginia Beach fashion, beautifully flat! It felt like we reached the halfway point super fast, and actually we did hit some of our fastest paces between miles six and nine. Miles eight and ten were spent inside a military camp, a feature reminiscent of Shamrock, which ran through Fort Story. This camp seemed smaller, but it was the sunniest portion of the race, which made for some serious sweating! I was glad to head out of that area and see the ten mile marker when we got back to the shaded main road.
The last few miles were definitely challenging, but the last 1.5 miles from midway through mile 11 to almost the end of the race really took a toll on me. I knew that there was going to be a hill in the middle of the eleventh mile, but I had sort of forgotten about it until we suddenly stumbled upon it and I was so not ready. Most of the time when I’m doing long runs I try to stay calm about hills, just take them in stride, and not change my pace. This time though, I felt that I just needed to get through this hill as fast as possible, so I sped up a little bit and pushed my way up it. My mom, who has been doing Pilates for a while, told me this trick about shifting focus to the “back body” – as a non-Pilates-doer, I don’t know the technical way to practice this, but I like to think about pushing myself up hills from my heels and engaging my hamstrings. Even if I’m not doing it exactly right, it always seems to help me and it at least moves my focus to some of my less-used areas from the muscles, like my quads, that are really hurting at that point.
So we made it over the hill and turned a corner to where we could see the mile 12 marker, and I felt a sense of massive relief wash over me because we were finally near the end. And then, I felt a very strong scent of seafood wash over me and I genuinely thought for a moment that I might puke because it was so overwhelming. Spoiler alert: I retained the contents of my stomach and the seafood smell dissipated but truly it was a risky moment. Shortly after that, we took a turn onto the boardwalk. I estimated that were probably half a mile from the finish line – but then I looked up and I could actually see it, so I figured maybe we were closer than I thought. And then I did something stupid: I started sprinting. Not all out sprinting, but definitely ratcheting up my pace more than I should have.
Here’s a little reminder about this race: it finishes on the boardwalk. The long, flat boardwalk on which all sense of perspective is totally diminished by its flatness and things that seem close are really ten or twenty blocks away. I think you probably get where this is going. I sprinted way too early! It literally felt like walking up a down escalator – you’re moving but you don’t seem to be going anywhere. I was running, but the finish line did not appear to be getting any closer.
Once I started going faster, it felt like there was no going back to a normal pace, so I just committed to it. When the finish line stayed far away, I just bumped up my pace again in order to get even the tiniest bit closer – until finally I saw the banners indicating I’d hit thirteen and the fence separating runners from spectators for the last tenth of a mile. It’s amazing how even when you feel so totally exhausted and you’ve been running for two hours the sight of the finish line inspires a new level of masochism and you find it in you to seriously let go and sprint it out. My running pals and I always call it “bounding strides” – when your start taking massive strides to hone in on your power and speed, and it really does feel so powerful.
At the end of the day, my crazy sprint situation was totally worth it, because I finished the race in two hours, nine minutes, and 52 seconds – slower than my race in March but still averaging a pace of under ten minutes per mile, which is always my goal. Side note: my Fitbit actually tracked that I’d run 13.35 miles with a 9’45” average pace, and I think that’s because I didn’t make a point of taking the inside of turns throughout the course. Race courses are measured so the shortest possible distance will still get you that 13.1 – an important thing to remember if you’re trying for a PR, but less important if you’re just doing it for fun like I was! And my friend Alyssa actually beat her time from this same race last year by nineteen whole minutes! Thank goodness we had each other to help push through!
All in all, it was an amazing weekend and an amazing race – one that I would definitely do again! I love running in Virginia Beach – honestly for anyone out there beginning to run and looking for some good races to start with, it’s a great place to do it because it’s beautiful and flat and fun to stay at for a weekend. I’m looking forward now to my next race in October in Hampton (the Crawlin’ Crab half marathon) that I’ll be running with my mom, and I’m also thinking of doing a half in Richmond in mid-November. I’ll be keeping you all posted for sure!
One last thing before I sign off: thank you all so much for your continued support of me, this blog, and above all, my running adventures! It was so heartwarming how many people reached out the day before or the day of the race to wish us good luck. That’s the kind of stuff that I think about when I’m struggling during a race or even just during a run, and it means a lot to me. I might have run 13.1 miles, but I definitely did not do it alone!
After one half marathon, it felt like a fluke in some ways. Sure, I had been running and training for months, but I wasn’t a runner, I was just a person who had ran and somehow stumbled into running a race. Of course, that isn’t true - it was purposeful, a result of hard work rather than a fluke, and I could call myself whatever I wanted, including a runner. Finishing the second half really confirmed those things for me. One could be some accident, but two - I have run two half marathons. I have chosen to do two races, committed fully to them, and produced results that I am so incredibly proud of. It’s not a fluke, and I’m grateful to this race for reminding me of that.
