My ‘Race Report’ for the Virginia Beach Shamrock Half Marathon

To be filed under the 'better late than never category,' finally a training related entry!

On March 16th I participated in my second half marathon, the Yuengling Shamrock Sportsfest in Virginia Beach. When I registered for that race I was pretty excited for it – I wasn’t afraid of the distance anymore and even have quite a few longer runs under my belt. The prospect of getting out of Buffalo and going some place warm was very appealing – also, very inaccurate, but I promised no more weather related entries! – and after having my best per mile pace in a 10 mile race in February I had high hopes for a good showing St Patrick’s Day weekend.

It was nice too that after signing up for the run it didn’t take much convincing to solicit some company and one of my training partners, Becky, made the trip with me and we picked up my nephew, Nick, on the way down. It was Becky’s first race since suffering a broken pelvis in a bike crash in early November and it would be Nicks first Half and longest run to date – so we all had a little bit to prove.

For my part, I can say my optimism had pretty much vanished by the time I got in the car and headed south. The two weeks before the race I had a pretty hectic schedule (see Springsteen post below) and also got sick with a cold and things were picking up at work. I missed quite a few training sessions and the one week taper was more like three – and far less than ideal.

Since I was committed to doing it, and had friends and family along for the ride I just thought I’d make the most of it but figured I had to shift my expectations. I had originally hoped for sub 9-minute miles – not fast by most runners standards, I know, but a year ago that pace was not even on my radar – especially when dealing with any kind of distance run. I still held a glimmer of hope for finishing under 2 hours, but given how fatigued I was, I knew that was really just wishful thinking on my part … so I set my sights on a more attainable goal that would still require quite a bit of effort – to best my pace from my first half marathon this past October – on a very flat course I finished that one in 2:08:15 a 9:48 per mile pace – so I thought maybe 9:30 min/miles were doable.

I don’t know what happens when that gun goes off and you head out over the start line, but I’m always amazed that I’m able to perform better than I ever could in training … uh, but not quite as well as Becky & Nick! Congrats to them both on their great performances – way to go you guys! … Here are our results and links to the race page.

Place Bib# Name G Age City St Chiptim Pace Guntime Div /Tot Div Gend/Tot G

1480 8251 Rebecca Ashare F 26 Tonawanda NY 1:55:38 8:50 1:59:32 130/705 F25-29 497/2962 F

1783 9911 Nicholas Hoffman M 27 West Chester PA 1:56:39 8:55 2:03:05 190/367 M25-29 1133/2315 M

1755 8407 Mary Lou Hoffman F 44 Lockport NY 1:58:53 9:05 2:02:46 74/346 F40-44 635/2962 F

While I missed the 9 min/mile mark, I did finish under 2 hours and considering how I felt going into it I was very happy with the result. It’s not gonna get me a 3 hour marathon and I’m sure it doesn’t compare to my colleagues in this contest, but a little perspective helps me appreciate how far I’ve come in the last 4 years, not to mention the fact that 13.1 miles is a long way to run!

And as fun as the run was, I have to confess that taking advantage of Yuengling’s sponsorship and tossing back a few with Nick at the post run tent party beat the hell out of having to run all that way! Oh, and Nick, don't worry, we'll discuss your race day 'nutrition plan' in a later post! :-)