On March 17, I ran the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach,
VA. I ran this marathon once before, but
that was 17 years ago. I had a tough
experience that year, because of unseasonably hot weather. I didn’t realize how hot it was going to be,
so I went out at a fast pace. By the
halfway point, I was already experiencing symptoms of heat stress. The second half was a struggle just to
finish. I also had a bad airline
experience that year. My first flight
had a long delay because of a mechanical issue.
That caused me to miss my connection, so I had to wait five hours for
the next flight. Then, on my return
trip, I discovered the airline had cancelled my ticket. After that, I vowed never to fly AirTran
again.
None of the problems I experienced in 2002 were the fault of
the race organizers. I’ve heard from
others who had a great time at this race, so I decided it was time to go
back. Also, I knew some friends who were
going to there this year. Sadly, two of
my friends couldn’t make it. Their
flight was cancelled because of the grounding of all the Boeing 737 Max 8
planes.
I flew to Norfolk on Saturday. I had to make connections in Atlanta, so I
didn’t arrive until mid-afternoon. I
rented a car and drove to the Virginia Beach Convention Center to pick up my
race packet. Then I continued to my
hotel.
Other than the expo, all of the other race activities were in
the downtown area, near the beach.
I stayed at one of the beachfront hotels. I had a balcony overlooking the beach. I could even see the finish line.
After unpacking, I went outside to explore the area. At first, I didn’t know if I could get onto
the boardwalk. It was already fenced off for the race, since that was our
approach to the finish line. Then I
found an opening near the King Neptune statue.
I had dinner at a nearby brewpub with two friends who I
bumped into earlier at the expo.
This year, I didn’t have to worry about it being too
hot. A cold front moved through on
Saturday. Friday afternoon, the
temperature was in the low 70s. By the
time I arrived on Saturday, it was only 55.
Overnight, it got down to 40. It
didn’t warm up much during the race.
The temperature was similar to my last race, but there were two
important differences. On the plus side,
there wasn’t any rain. The wind,
however, felt much colder than I expected.
That’s something I noticed on Saturday too.
This race was held on St. Patrick’s Day, so we were
encouraged to wear green. I wore my
green Seattle Quadzilla T-shirt and a pair of tights. Ordinarily, that would be warm enough for
these temperatures. Wary of the cold
wind off the coast, I started the race wearing a Tyvek jacket and gloves.
I’ve been trying to improve my times by a few minutes in
each race. I ran my last marathon in
3:43, so 3:40 seemed like a reasonable goal.
There wasn’t a pace group for 3:40, but I saw a 3:35 group at the front
of my corral. I decided to keep my eye
on them, but I wasn’t planning to run with them.
I was hoping to average about 8:20 per mile. My first mile was 8:09, which was a little
fast. I was right behind the 3:35 group,
so I eased up a bit and let them get farther ahead of me.
By the end of the second mile, I was once again right behind
the 3:35 group. That mile was also 8:09.
We started out running parallel to the coast, and the wind
was at our side. In the third mile, we
turned left and started running away from the coast. With the wind at my back, I immediately
started to feel warm. I took off my
gloves and stuffed them in my fanny pack.
My third mile was a bit slower at 8:19. That was the pace I had intended to run, but
now I was disappointed that I slowed down.
I was trailing the 3:35 group by about half a block. I made an impulsive decision to gradually
work my way back to them, so I could try to keep up with them for the rest of
the race. That was an ambitious goal,
but I’ve had some encouraging training runs recently, and this is a flat race.
When I reached the chip mat at the 5K mark, I wanted to make
sure my jacket was unzipped far enough that it wouldn’t obscure may race bib,
which held the timing chip. I had
intended to keep it zipped at the bottom, but I accidentally unzipped it
completely. I couldn’t get the zipper
started again without stopping, so I left it that way.
By the end of the fourth mile, I caught up to the 3:35
group. That mile turned out to be eight
minutes even, but now that I was back in the group, I could throttle it back to
their pace.
The first time I reached an aid station, I was still cold,
so I skipped it. At the second aid
station, I drank water, before seeing there was Gatorade near the end of the
aid station. I skipped breakfast, so I
needed to start drinking Gatorade, as much for the sugar as to get fluids.
Midway through the fifth mile, I saw volunteers with
Gatorade, but each time I was about to reach for a cup, the runner in front of
me grabbed it. I was almost past the
Gatorade tables when I finally had to stop and grab a cup off the table. That caused me to fall behind the 3:35 group
again. I worked on gradually catching
up. I got back into the group just as we
were finishing the fifth mile.
Between five and six miles, we made a sharp turn onto a road
that took us through Fort Story. More
importantly, we were now headed into the wind.
It felt cold and slightly tiring, but I was able to mitigate the effects
of the wind by drafting behind the large pace group. There were about 50 of us running together.
There were traffic cones in the middle of the road. One of the pacers was warning us each time we
approached one. I chose an inopportune
time to cross over to the left side of the road, and I didn’t see we were
coming up to another traffic cone. The
pacer yelled, “cone,” and the runner right in front of me narrowly avoided
it. I brushed my knee against it, before
adjusting my trajectory so I wouldn’t trip over it. That caused me to expend enough energy that I
suddenly found it difficult to stay with the group. I worked to keep up the pace, and after a few
minutes the pace got easier.
The group had two pacers, and they each did a good job of
talking to the group. They yelled out
the time at each mile marker, told us when we were approaching aid stations,
and also kept us informed about other aspects of the course. As we continued through Fort Story, one of
them pointed out the Cape Henry Lighthouse.
There are actually two lighthouses.
The original lighthouse was built in 1792. It was the United States government’s first
federal construction project. It’s no
longer in use, but is preserved as an historic site. Near it, there’s a more modern lighthouse
that’s used today.
We eventually turned back onto Atlantic Avenue to return to
the downtown area where we started. As
we got close to the halfway mark, runners doing the half marathon turned to run
toward the finish on the boardwalk.
Those of use doing the marathon continued south. We also made a turn onto the boardwalk, but
not until after passing the finish area.
Before reaching the boardwalk, we passed the halfway
mark. I got there in 1:46:56, putting me
on pace to break 3:34. We started out
right on pace, but now we were about 30 seconds ahead of schedule.
Along the boardwalk, the wind was stronger. It was blowing inland from the coast, so we
didn’t have to run right into it. By
now, it was a few degrees warmer, and the sun was higher in the sky. I was starting to feel warm, but I was
hesitant to take off my jacket. Then one
of the pacers said we would be returning to Atlantic Avenue, where we wouldn’t
feel the wind as much. That’s when I
decided to take off my jacket and tie it around my waist.
After a few turns, I found myself getting a little ahead of
the group. I started talking to another
runner who was also a little ahead of the pace group. Exchanging stories made the miles go by
easier. I wasn’t as conscious of my
effort.
Soon, we made another turn and ran over a big bridge. This was the only hill on the course, but we
would have to run over it twice. Because
I was ahead of the group, I could afford to slow down on the bridge without
having to worry about falling behind the group.
After running south for several miles, we reached the
southern turnaround. It was a 180 degree
turn around a traffic cone. As I made
the turn, one pacer was right behind me, but I could see the other trailing by
about 30 seconds. He was there to help
stragglers stay with the group. The two
pacers made a good team.
As we reached the 20 mile mark, I joked that the 20 mile
warm-up was over and the 10K race was beginning. A spectator saw the 3:35 group passing and
yelled, “Good work.” One of the pacers
responded, “Not work. Only fun.”
After my 10K remark, it occurred to me that I actually did
feel like I could pick up the pace. I
wasn’t going to go crazy with six miles to go, but I sped up by a few seconds
per mile and gradually pulled away from the group.
Next, we ran through Camp Pendleton before eventually
turning back onto Atlantic Avenue to run back toward the downtown area.
Soon, I saw the bridge in the distance. I had a lead on the group, so I could afford
to slow down a bit. I didn’t want to
wear myself out climbing the bridge. At
the beginning of the bridge I saw a sign.
It had a picture of a pink flamingo and said something like, “Run the
Flocking Bridge.” At the high point of
the bridge there was a large group wearing pink tutus and holding plastic
flamingos.
On the downhill side of the bridge, I tried to pick up my
pace. After crossing the bridge, we
retraced our route back to Atlantic Avenue.
As I reached the 23 mile mark, I looked at my watch. I could still hear one of the pacers talking
to the group. He told them they had a
one minute cushion. I was ahead of them,
so I was easily on pace to break 3:34. I
just had to keep it together for three more miles.
After a few more blocks, we were back on the boardwalk
again. It was the same section we ran
before, but now we were going in the opposite direction. I tried to keep up with the fastest runners I
saw, while passing everyone else.
When I got to the 24 mile sign, I could see a large white
tent in the distance. That was the
finish area. I knew it wasn’t two miles
away, so we would have to leave the boardwalk again before we got there.
Eventually, I saw where we left the boardwalk. We returned to Atlantic Avenue. We had to keep running north until we were
well past the finish area. Then we would
return to the boardwalk to approach the finish line from the north.
At 25 miles, I checked my watch. I ran that mile in 7:56. That was encouraging, but I couldn’t let
up. Knowing I could break 3:34, I now
had a more important goal.
I still didn’t have a qualifier for next year’s Boston
Marathon. I could qualify with a time of
3:35, but just qualifying doesn’t guarantee you’ll get into the race. They always get more applications from qualified
runners than the number of available race bibs.
This year, to get into Boston, you had to beat the qualifying standard
for your age group by 4:52. For next
year, the standards are five minutes faster.
Simply qualifying might get you in, but most likely, you need to be a
minute or two faster. That was within my
grasp.
I really wanted to pour it on in the last mile, but I had
already been pushing an aggressive pace for several miles. I didn’t have any gas left in the tank. It didn’t help that I was now running away
from the finish area. I didn’t know how
many more blocks I had to run before I would make the final turn back onto the
boardwalk. Not being able to see how far
it was made it harder to gauge how hard I could run without exhausting myself
too soon.
When I eventually turned toward the beach, I had to run into
a stiff headwind, but only for one block.
Then I turned onto the boardwalk.
At first, I thought I could see the finish line. What I actually saw was a series of green and
while banners that lead to the finish line.
By the time I realized that, I could see the finish line beyond
them. I made my final push. In my head I kept chanting, “Every second
counts.”
I crossed the line in 3:33:24. That a Boston qualifier with 1:36 to
spare. That might be fast enough, but I
won’t know for sure until next September, when registration for the Boston
Marathon closes.
The finisher medal had artwork depicting the King Neptune
statue.
In addition to the medal, I received a hat and a
blanket. I also got a long-sleeved shirt
at the expo. I’ve only done one other
marathon where I received a blanket.
That was the Richmond Marathon, which is also in Virginia. Maybe blankets are a Virginia thing.
When I did this race in 2002, it finished at the convention
center, which is about a mile inland. I
much prefer the beach as a finish line venue.
After finishing and putting on my jacket, I walked to a big white tent
on the beach where they had the post-race party. They had soup and beer, but more importantly,
we were sheltered from the wind.
I couldn’t be more pleased with my time. I had a long-term goal of qualifying for
Boston, but I didn’t think I was ready yet.
I only took a shot at it because this is such a flat course. I was planning to keep making incremental progress
in each race and then take my shot at this year’s Boston Marathon. I’ll still try to improve on this time, but
now the pressure is off.
Race Statistics
Distance: 26.2 miles
Time: 3:33:24
Average Pace: 8:08
Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:
369
Boston Qualifiers: 122
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