2019 Shamrock Marathon Race Report
This marathon was in Virginia Beach, VA, on Sunday, March 17, 2019.
I chose this marathon as my second marathon because the time of year pretty much guaranteed cool weather, the course is flat, and I've heard good things about this race.
I drove down to Virginia Beach from Maryland the day before. I stopped by the expo to pick up my bib and get a corral change. When I registered for the race long ago, I put 5:00 as my goal time, but DopeyBadger predicted I should run between 4:25 - 4:35, so I changed to the 4:35 pace group, in corral 9. This seems to be a "fast" race, as most runners complete it in pretty fast times - the last pace group is for 5:00 and there are only 11 corrals. This is in big contrast to my first marathon, the MCM in 2017, where there are a lot of runners finishing well over 5 and even 6 hours.
The expo was blissfully uncrowded, so I actually looked around for like 10 minutes, which may be a PR for me at expos.
I picked up some merchandise and went to my hotel. My hotel was right on the beach (Holiday Inn & Suites North Shore), and so I did a short walk along the boardwalk. I saw the Neptune statue, which is where the race ends.
I was carb loading that day, following DopeyBadger's plan, which I had tested a month or so previously. I ate exactly the same thing that day. I also brought all my food for breakfast, since I had a fridge and microwave. The hotel was quite nice for what I needed. I got to bed around 9:30pm.
I woke up at 4:30am and ate my usual full breakfast and 24 oz water. I went back to bed and dozed from about 5 - 6am. Got up and got dressed. Went outside to find the start line, which was about 2 blocks from my hotel. I did some very easy running for about 15 minutes or so. At about 15 minutes before the start time, I went back to my hotel room for a final bathroom break and took off my throw-away clothes. I have never had a hotel at the start line before, and I have to admit that it is really nice.
The weather was perfect. Dry and about 40 F to start. It was breezy, so I decided on the v-neck long-sleeved shirt and shorts. I probably would've been fine in my short-sleeved shirt. It was sunny, but the Sun didn't get high enough until about halfway to heat things up much. It was high 40s F by the time I finished.
Found my 4:35 pace group. Our pacers were Cathy and Tim. Cathy was 45 years old (my age!) and started running about 10 years ago after she had twins. She was 100 lbs heavier then and started running to improve her health. Now she had qualified for Boston with a 3:27 marathon. She was pacing us for her last long run before Boston. She was amazing and somehow managed to talk non-stop throughout the race, telling stories, cheering everyone on, and so. Tim had to work a bit to get a word in edgewise, but he was also very good at the pacing. We had about a dozen in our group to start.
I started with 2L of Tailwind in my hydration vest and over 0.5L in a throw-away bottle. In my previous and only marathon, I ran out of the 2L I carried too early, so I didn't want that to happen here. I also had two packs of Jelly Belly sport beans.
The start was 7:30am, and the race started on time, but since we were corral 9, we didn't cross the start until about 7:45am. Our group took off. We needed to keep a bit under a 10:30 min/mile pace. Cathy and Tim did an awesome job of this. My splits look more uneven than they really were, since my GPS kept flip-flopping between being early and late compared to the race mile markers. They double-checked our elapsed time on every mile to make sure we were on schedule.
The first few miles were easy.
Mile 1: 10:39
Mile 2: 10:27
Mile 3: 10:23
Official 5K split: 32:49 (10:33 pace)
We turned inland a bit and ran through some woods, which was pleasant. Somewhere along here we passed a 75-year old man who had started running sometime in middle-age or later, and he was on 100+ marathons. Wow.
Mile 4: 10:29
Mile 5: 10:19
Finished my throw-away bottle of Tailwind. Started drinking from my hydration vest every mile.
Mile 6: 10:23
Official 10K split: 1:04:57 (10:28 pace)
We turned around toward the shore, although we were just enough inland to not really be able to see the ocean. Cruising along. Ate one of the Sport Beans packets during mile 7.
Mile 7: 10:21
Mile 8: 10:81
Mile 9: 10:21
Mile 10: 10:24
Mile 11: 10:14
Mile 12: 10:14
The half-marathon runners had been running on the same course as us marathoners. They split off after mile 12 to go to the finish line. The race hadn't been crowded before, but even so, it really thinned out here.
Mile 13: 10:10
Official 13.1 split: 2:16:23 (10:25 pace)
Mile 14: 10:26
The end of the marathon was going in the opposite direction right beside us in the other half of the street here, so we started seeing the first marathoners coming in for their last mile.
Mile 15: 10:17
Somewhere between miles 15 and 16 was the Rudee Bridge, over a bit of water. A short, but steep climb. We were starting to turn inland for a bit. I ate my other Sport Bean packet.
Mile 16: 10:24
I was still keeping up with the pace group, but it was starting to get a lot harder. I was getting the sinking feeling that I wasn't going to be able to stick with the pace group for the rest of the race, but hoped I could do it for a while longer.
Mile 17: 10:19
Mile 18: 10:23
Somehow I missed the 18.4 split...
After mile 18, I didn't really have to decide to fall back from my pace group...my legs just wouldn't keep turning over fast enough to stay with them. My heart rate was getting up pretty high that I knew I wouldn't be able to sustain that for another 8 miles, although my breathing wasn't that bad. So I gradually slowed down. During this mile, we hit a u-turn in the street to start heading back toward the shore, so I got to say good-bye to the others in my pace group, ha ha.
Mile 19: 11:14
I still wasn't really recovering enough and had to keep slowing.
Mile 20: 11:51
We started doing some zig-zagging through Camp Pendleton. This part of the course was really barren - no crowd support - and no shade. It is a rotten area to be running alone and trying to keep going. I pulled out one earbud to start some music to try to distract me and maybe get a pick-me-up. My legs felt like lead. Nothing in particular was hurting, just overall dead.
Mile 21: 12:19
Mile 22: 12:37
During mile 23, we had to cross back over the bridge. I was a little worried that if I ran the incline, although short, it would sap the energy I had left in my legs. So I briskly walked the incline and then ran from the top - the only walking I did in the whole race, which I am very proud of. I think it was a good decision, because it actually gave me a just a bit of rest.
Mile 23: 13:06
The next few miles were the reverse of what we'd run before, but there were no marathoners left going the other way to cheer me in. In fact, it felt like there weren't many racers left at all, which was kind of depressing, since I was still on pace for a finish well under 5 hours. But was still some crowd support, and I certainly appreciated everyone cheering for the remaining runners. Whoever came up with the idea of letting you print your name on your bib was a genius, because it was so awesome hearing people cheer my name, even though I know they didn't really know me.
Mile 24: 12:36
The course turns out right along the shore going north on the boardwalk. I knew that the course ended on the boardwalk, so I got excited that I was on the homestretch. But no, you turn inland for a few blocks again. Not there yet!
Mile 25: 12:46
Official 25.2 split: 4:37:42 (11:00 pace)
Just a bit before hitting mile 26, the course turns to go right out along the shore on the boardwalk, this time going south (we had circled around the finish line when we went inland). I knew that meant I was almost there, so I did manage to convince my legs to pick things up a bit.
Mile 26: 12:22
Extra bit: 11:06 (almost 0.4 miles on my GPS)
Official finish time (chip): 4:49:29 (11:03 pace)
Collected my medal and fleece blanket along with some liquids and snacks in the finishers' chute. Unfortunately the chute walked me even farther away from my hotel, so I had a 20-minute walk back. My core temperature dropped almost immediately, so I put the blanket to good use right away.
Turns out that I had about 0.75L left in my 2L reservoir. I probably didn't drink enough Tailwind, although I sometimes felt like I had too much. My ear was plugged up at the end, suggesting not enough hydration. While showering and changing, everything wanted to cramp up. Fun.
I had paid for a late checkout at 2:00pm, so I could go back and take a shower. Lovely. And then a 4-hour drive home, which turned into a 5-hour drive with a big backup on I-95. Sigh.
So this race did not go as well as I had hoped and planned for. I had been very confident going into the race, as my previous 10K race performed exactly as predicted, and I felt like I followed my training plan very well. But, marathons are hard. I certainly did much better than my previous and only marathon, where the wheels fell off by halfway through. I feel like I managed this race much better, keeping myself going at the end. My 4:49:29 time is over a 35-minute PR, which is great. I will do even better in the next one!
I finished 1148 out of 1675 runners (68.5%). With how empty the course was as I was finishing, it's hard for me to believe that 1/3 of the runners came in after me! I was 434 out of 720 women (60.3%) and 45/89 in my age group (50.5%). Those stats could all use some improvement.
Overall, this race was well-organized and supported. There was good crowd support along a lot of the course, and a lot of the locals were out with signs or food or high-fives. There were lots and lots of aid stations, it seems like, although I carried all of my own stuff and didn't use them. The race wasn't so crowded that it was hard to run on the course, and as I commented before, my pace leaders were awesome. I will certainly consider doing this race again, if it fits into my overall goals.
