Shamrock 2009
Shamrock 2009 Race Report
Writing this because everyone keeps asking how it went so will start at the beginning.
Sometime in December I remember sending out an email inquiring who was running Shamrock. Not many people responded but enough did to convince me to try running it again in 2009 because 2008 literally sucked (even if it was a marathon PR for me).
On Saturday, my friend Trina drove us down to Virginia Beach; made the expo just in the nick of time to pick up my race packet and then jetted over to ‘Pi’zzeria for dinner with Jamie and Becky. Becky was running her first ½ marathon and Jamie was running it with her. While we waited for our table we got to talking, and drinking and talking and somehow convinced Trina to run the ½ marathon with absolutely no training.
Fast forward-hotel was too warm, bar next door was boom, booming until 0200 so had a very restless night. Was also very worried about what we’d talked Trina into. Race morning 0600, alarm goes off. Wake up, get dressed, figure out where the start of the ½ marathon actually is and get Trina out the door and to the start line in time for her race to begin. What were we thinking?! After getting her on her way, I jogged back to our hotel to scarf down some breakfast. Conveniently, for the hotel, the continental breakfast didn’t begin until 0700 when most of the runners would be gone. . . What?! After the pre-breakfast adventure I was grateful for the waffles since I’d given Trina my food so she had energy to run. Seems like I can put anything in my stomach before a marathon these days and be okay. After breakfast I stripped off my warm-ups, got everything packed for ‘after’ and then jogged down to start the marathon.
The temps were perfect, 35 degrees, if I remember correctly. For some people this would be cold but for me it was going to be a good day, I could feel it. At the start line I found the 4:00 pace group , wiggled my way into the shoulder to shoulder crowd (?!what?! why was it so packed?) At this point I hear someone ask me, ‘are you from Fredericksburg?’ ugh. ‘yeah’. A a girl I’d helped finish Sweethearts 4-miler was running her first Full and recognized me. (Her story is crazy, and can be an appendix to this race report if requested). Then the guy next to me taps my shoulder and points to the ground. . .three of us standing next to each other had on the exact same pair of men’s ASICS blue nimbus Xs. (sorry, my marathons are in these kinds of details. . .who pays attention to heart rate, posture, etc.?)
0800 – Race starts – and off we go. Don’t remember much about the first couple miles except that I kept asking myself, ‘Holly, what are you doing?’ and reminding myself that it’s only a marathon and heck, I’ve done this 8 times in the past year and a half, I damn well belong here. Saw a marathon maniac that I see everywhere, a girly woman that wears hot pink leopard skin tights and skirts. Jogged up to her and asked if she’d run National the day before and of course, she had run it in 4:05.
Missed Mile 2- Fredericksburg girl caught up with me around Mile 3 and we ran together until the ½. All in all, the first half was pretty uneventful. . .oh, but seeing Lynne, after forgetting she was going to be there made me happy, really happy. Then seeing McGee at the ½, that made my day.
Back to racing – my plan was to run to every mile and then walk for a minute, crank it, but conservatively for the first half, and walk & drink every mile. It took me a couple of miles to get myself into the habit of doing this. Yeah, yeah, I know, have a plan and stick to it but it’s just really difficult to walk at Mile 1 of a marathon. Jumping ahead now – just before the ½ I decided that I was feeling good and really just wanted to run alone. Does this make me a bad person? Nah, I didn’t know the girl and she was doing ‘A-okay.’ My heart rate was good, my legs were barely starting to cramp, it was time to push on.
At the ½ I saw Ms. McGee, gave her a quick hug, soaked up her words of encouragement and then trotted along on my way. Now came my favorite part of any marathon/race, running the course out while the top runners are coming in. Everything just seems to fade away, the miles just fly right by as I’m waiting for the next runner to come speeding by, yes, speeding by. It’s very exciting and focusing on them seems to propel me to run faster and stronger. Go figure! Was surprised to see Wardian, figured he’d of run National the day before (which he had) and wouldn’t be out for Shamrock (which he was).
Fast forward to Mile 17-18 – this was my slowest mile at 10:40. Didn’t really experience a wall, but did slow down for a bit. I remember turning around and running backwards at one point because I was tired of the monotony of running on the flat surface. At this point I realized I was just kind of plodding along and not really running. Took heed to Debi’s comment from Friday about cadence and started counting out my steps, pulling my shoulder blades together and wouldn’t you know it, I dropped a minute from that mile. The next few miles are a blur, my chrono says I was running consistent 9:50s but I can’t tell you anything about them except that I was picking a point on the horizon and counting and running to the next mile marker. Occasionally I would talk to someone running next to me, like a guy at mile 24. Hilarious – So we’re running and I’d remembered that the finish was at 30th street, and right around Mile 24 was 52nd street. I made a comment that there were only 22 blocks to go and he asked me how many of those blocks he could walk. I responded, ‘pick a hotel and run to it,’ which was what I’d been doing. His response, ‘excuse me!? Uhm. . ’ Poor guy thought I was propositioning him at Mile 24. I explained that the hotels were the finish and focusing on them would help to keep him going. He acted kind of dubious but thanked me at the finish. Which brings me to my finish; at this point I’d been actively running for 5 minutes and walking for 30 seconds before running again, and pulling down 9:50s. Just before rounding the corner to the boardwalk, I took my last walk break and then coasted/sprinted it on it. It’s a beautiful feeling to be able to finish a marathon in top form, sprinting. Could I have pushed it harder, probably, but did I enjoy it regardless? Yes. Brought home another marathon PR 4:18:30 (4:18:24 by my watch) and took 7 minutes off the Shamrock course.
After the race, I showered while Trina got us pizza and we enjoyed the best post-marathon meal. . .pizza and free beer on the beach. Oh, and she brought home a 2:05 ½ marathon on her first attempt without any training.
Writing this because everyone keeps asking how it went so will start at the beginning.
Sometime in December I remember sending out an email inquiring who was running Shamrock. Not many people responded but enough did to convince me to try running it again in 2009 because 2008 literally sucked (even if it was a marathon PR for me).
On Saturday, my friend Trina drove us down to Virginia Beach; made the expo just in the nick of time to pick up my race packet and then jetted over to ‘Pi’zzeria for dinner with Jamie and Becky. Becky was running her first ½ marathon and Jamie was running it with her. While we waited for our table we got to talking, and drinking and talking and somehow convinced Trina to run the ½ marathon with absolutely no training.
Fast forward-hotel was too warm, bar next door was boom, booming until 0200 so had a very restless night. Was also very worried about what we’d talked Trina into. Race morning 0600, alarm goes off. Wake up, get dressed, figure out where the start of the ½ marathon actually is and get Trina out the door and to the start line in time for her race to begin. What were we thinking?! After getting her on her way, I jogged back to our hotel to scarf down some breakfast. Conveniently, for the hotel, the continental breakfast didn’t begin until 0700 when most of the runners would be gone. . . What?! After the pre-breakfast adventure I was grateful for the waffles since I’d given Trina my food so she had energy to run. Seems like I can put anything in my stomach before a marathon these days and be okay. After breakfast I stripped off my warm-ups, got everything packed for ‘after’ and then jogged down to start the marathon.
The temps were perfect, 35 degrees, if I remember correctly. For some people this would be cold but for me it was going to be a good day, I could feel it. At the start line I found the 4:00 pace group , wiggled my way into the shoulder to shoulder crowd (?!what?! why was it so packed?) At this point I hear someone ask me, ‘are you from Fredericksburg?’ ugh. ‘yeah’. A a girl I’d helped finish Sweethearts 4-miler was running her first Full and recognized me. (Her story is crazy, and can be an appendix to this race report if requested). Then the guy next to me taps my shoulder and points to the ground. . .three of us standing next to each other had on the exact same pair of men’s ASICS blue nimbus Xs. (sorry, my marathons are in these kinds of details. . .who pays attention to heart rate, posture, etc.?)
0800 – Race starts – and off we go. Don’t remember much about the first couple miles except that I kept asking myself, ‘Holly, what are you doing?’ and reminding myself that it’s only a marathon and heck, I’ve done this 8 times in the past year and a half, I damn well belong here. Saw a marathon maniac that I see everywhere, a girly woman that wears hot pink leopard skin tights and skirts. Jogged up to her and asked if she’d run National the day before and of course, she had run it in 4:05.
Missed Mile 2- Fredericksburg girl caught up with me around Mile 3 and we ran together until the ½. All in all, the first half was pretty uneventful. . .oh, but seeing Lynne, after forgetting she was going to be there made me happy, really happy. Then seeing McGee at the ½, that made my day.
Back to racing – my plan was to run to every mile and then walk for a minute, crank it, but conservatively for the first half, and walk & drink every mile. It took me a couple of miles to get myself into the habit of doing this. Yeah, yeah, I know, have a plan and stick to it but it’s just really difficult to walk at Mile 1 of a marathon. Jumping ahead now – just before the ½ I decided that I was feeling good and really just wanted to run alone. Does this make me a bad person? Nah, I didn’t know the girl and she was doing ‘A-okay.’ My heart rate was good, my legs were barely starting to cramp, it was time to push on.
At the ½ I saw Ms. McGee, gave her a quick hug, soaked up her words of encouragement and then trotted along on my way. Now came my favorite part of any marathon/race, running the course out while the top runners are coming in. Everything just seems to fade away, the miles just fly right by as I’m waiting for the next runner to come speeding by, yes, speeding by. It’s very exciting and focusing on them seems to propel me to run faster and stronger. Go figure! Was surprised to see Wardian, figured he’d of run National the day before (which he had) and wouldn’t be out for Shamrock (which he was).
Fast forward to Mile 17-18 – this was my slowest mile at 10:40. Didn’t really experience a wall, but did slow down for a bit. I remember turning around and running backwards at one point because I was tired of the monotony of running on the flat surface. At this point I realized I was just kind of plodding along and not really running. Took heed to Debi’s comment from Friday about cadence and started counting out my steps, pulling my shoulder blades together and wouldn’t you know it, I dropped a minute from that mile. The next few miles are a blur, my chrono says I was running consistent 9:50s but I can’t tell you anything about them except that I was picking a point on the horizon and counting and running to the next mile marker. Occasionally I would talk to someone running next to me, like a guy at mile 24. Hilarious – So we’re running and I’d remembered that the finish was at 30th street, and right around Mile 24 was 52nd street. I made a comment that there were only 22 blocks to go and he asked me how many of those blocks he could walk. I responded, ‘pick a hotel and run to it,’ which was what I’d been doing. His response, ‘excuse me!? Uhm. . ’ Poor guy thought I was propositioning him at Mile 24. I explained that the hotels were the finish and focusing on them would help to keep him going. He acted kind of dubious but thanked me at the finish. Which brings me to my finish; at this point I’d been actively running for 5 minutes and walking for 30 seconds before running again, and pulling down 9:50s. Just before rounding the corner to the boardwalk, I took my last walk break and then coasted/sprinted it on it. It’s a beautiful feeling to be able to finish a marathon in top form, sprinting. Could I have pushed it harder, probably, but did I enjoy it regardless? Yes. Brought home another marathon PR 4:18:30 (4:18:24 by my watch) and took 7 minutes off the Shamrock course.
After the race, I showered while Trina got us pizza and we enjoyed the best post-marathon meal. . .pizza and free beer on the beach. Oh, and she brought home a 2:05 ½ marathon on her first attempt without any training.
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