Yuengling Shamrock Marathon Race Report

I hope everyone is enjoying their spring break and isn't slacking off on the training too much. I had the Yuengling Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach this Sunday and it was nice to see the ocean. I got there on Saturday and the expo was awesome. A whole convention hall with big name vendors and running stores for all the gear you wanted. It was also nice to try samples of some new products and sports drinks. Big events like this usually have giant expo's and great discounts on lots of gear. My sister got a pair of bright orange Newton running shoes. As Adam would say "2 Flashy." Anyways like the 5 other marathons I have done I wasn't healthy. The night before I felt a lot worse than just a simple sore throat and went to a walk in clinic. Doctor said I had a sinus infection. In 2009 I had a sinus infection the day before this same race. I really don't know why I am so unhealthy for marathons and healthy for all my triathlons. Anyways I knew I would finish but it wouldn't be easy. Race morning was quite chilly. It was about 40 degrees and very windy with the beach being only a block away. The Half Marathon started at 7am and the Marathon at 8am. The start of the race was fairly organized with corrals based on finish time being released every minute. Starting thousands of people at once is very overwhelming and it is easy to accidentally roll your ankle on someone (Philly 2008). I made sure to not go out too fast but with thousands of people around you it is not easy. Even with your Garmin telling you your pace it is so easy to go out too fast. In a 26.2 mile race this is something that you cannot do. If you expend too much energy in the early parts of a race, you will pay for it later. I maintained my pace and kept trucking along. The first few miles things started to spread out and there was room for you to run. The spectators were great and the aid stations were well staffed. By mile 5 everyone was stripping off their long sleeve shirts and hats/gloves they started the race with. I settled into my pace and tried to take my mind off the fact that I couldn't get a deep breath and my legs started to hurt only a few miles in from the lack of oxygen flow to my muscles. I just kept rolling through motivational quotes in my mind like "3 letters not in your alphabet are DNF" and "you can quit and no one will care, but you will always know." By 17 I was in my runners zone and just kept putting one foot in front of another. This was the hardest part of the race since mile 17-21 there were very few spectators since we were on part of the Naval Base. There were soldiers earlier in the race but not now. It became hard to keep motivation. By mile 20 things got bad for a lot of people since this is the time people hit "The Wall." Miles 20-23, the side of the roads were littered with runners walking, stopping to stretch or simply bent over grimacing in pain. These are some of the people that went out too fast and I have been that person in past races. I always tell people, If you are feeling good at mile 15 and want to pick up the pace, wait until mile 20 to do it, when you hit mile 20 you WILL be hurting and won't want to pick up the pace and will be glad you conserved that energy. Once you hit mile 20 it becomes "oh it's only another 10K" but it is a long 10k. What becomes even worse is at miles 22-24 people saying "You are almost done!" It is a long last few miles and one girl had the correct sign that read "Classic spectator lie: You are almost done." Once I got to mile 24 I was running parallel to the beach and mentally it messed with you since you were at 70th street and had to get to the 30's. Of course you tell yourself "don't look at the signs" and you wind up looking at every single one. I tried to tell myself that my knees and legs weren't in agony and needed to toughen up! Those last few miles are simply mental. Before I knew it I was turning onto the boardwalk and running right along the beach. There were spectators for the last 3/4 mile and that really helped. Knowing there were kegs of Yeungling and Irish Stew at the end also provides motivation :). The last mile with all those spectators you feel invincible and with hundreds of people cheering it is an awesome feeling. I crossed the finish line with an official time of 3hrs 57min 27sec which is about 9 min miles. It was nice to finish my 6th marathon and healthy or not, once you cross that finish line, that can NEVER be taken away from you :)