It's been a year now since Mandy ran her first half-marathon, and in a little less than a month, she will be running her first marathon! She ran her first 5K in 2012, the Give Thanks for Lebanon 5K....she then ran her first 10K in October 2013 which was Levi's Run. So....she ran her first 5K, 10K AND half-marathon all with me....and beat me in all of them! (especially the Levi's Run...my first, and so far only, DNF) I'm a little sad that I won't be joining her on her first marathon, but we've both moved on to different jobs and places in our lives (insert tear here)....BUT we have plans to run a half-marathon together this fall, we just need to determine which one.
Megan (who also worked with Mandy and I at the Dauphin County Conservation District, and who also has moved on to another job and lcoation) ran the 2014 Anthem Half-Marathon as well....the three of us and our "other halves" all made it to Virginia Beach at some point the day before the race. Bryan and I had our travel plans slightly altered due to Zoda having his first episode of idiopatheic vestibuar disease that Friday night when we had originally planned to leave and drive halfway before finding a place to stay and then finishint the trek Saturday morning, but luckily by Saturday morning he came back around enough that we felt comfortable enough to be on our way to Virginia Beach. We made it to the race expo towards the closing time, and I was a bit disappointed that although I had registered for an x-small race shirt, by the time we had gotten there all they had left was small shirts because they were allowing people to trade from the original size they registered for. The small was pretty big on me, and so I did end up e-mailing the race organizers and they acknowledged the problem and did order extra shirts after the race and then mailed me an x-small, which definitely made me appreciate their effort to go out of their way to fix it. At the expo I also picked up a cute car window decal of a girl and a dog running....but I vowed that I wouldn't put it on my car until I started to run consistently with Pippy or Timber....it still isn't on my car...
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| The obligatory "feet in the water pic" the day before - the water was freezing! Atlantic Ocean, Virginia Beach 3.15.14 |
Bright and early Sunday morning Bryan stayed behind to find himself some breakfast (or something....he didn't even watch any of the race!), and the three of us girls and the other two guys loaded into Mandy's Jeep and headed to the start line. We got as close to the start line as we could and the three of us jumped out and headed to the start line where we took shelter from the cold in an underground parking deck until the start of the race. Somewhere around this point I panicked when I realized I didn't have my iPod (I had left it in Mandy's Jeep).
The three of us started together, but it wasn't long until the young'uns left me in their dust. Running without my iPod wasn't as bad as I thought it would be - the course was pretty flat and scenic. After we got out of the town we ran through a nice wooded area (Shore Drive/Highway 60) for a bit until we turned onto Atlantic Avenue and soon entered Fort Story (an Army base) which was right about the half-way point and I was feeling pretty good and on track to PR. The Cape Henry Lighthouse was a nice landmark to see, and as soon as we left the base we were running down the northern part of Atlantic Avenue; up until that point (except for the start), there were not a lot of spectators, but soon they lined the road, many offering beer to the runners, and some of them graciously partook (it was St. Patty's Day weekend, after all!). Spectators (and the classic signs they hold) always help to boost the sprits and help with the final needed push. Around 40th Street we turned onto the boardwalk, and there was a lot of wind to deal with coming off of the ocean. At this point, I knew that as long as nothing completely broke me, I was set to PR.
Once I crossed the finish, all the runners were forced through a chute to collect their post-race goodies. It was REALLY congested, and since I do have issues sometimes with my blood pressure plummeting once I stop running, I really just wanted to get out of the crowd and find somewhere where I could be closer to the ground (and without an audience) in case I passed out. I remember getting REALLY grumpy because I was starting to feel sick, and then I saw medics run past me with a girl on the stretcher...sadly, the girl had an unknown cardiac condition and collapsed at the finish line and later passed away. Once I found that out, I felt awful about my negative attitude about the crowding in the chute area which I'm sure was only exacerbated due to the emergency.
Mandy soon found me (she had finished about 20 minutes earlier) and I caught up to Megan, too (who had also finished well ahead of me). We found a place to sit dow next to a nice fire pit and tried to get warmed up. Eventually we made our way to the tent on the beach for our finisher's beer and Irish stew. Even though I typically don't prefer beef, I drank the majority of mine. I was anxious to get on the road since I knew we had a long drive ahead of us and I had to teach the next day, so I soon said good-bye to everyone and started walking out to a location where Bryan picked me up. I have no idea what he did the whole time, even he admits he can't remember much about the weekend and what he was doing during the race.
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| Mandy, Megan, and I right after the race. It was so cold! And the picture is taken from the worse angle ever, from my perspective! But, alas, it is the only picture I have of the three of us... |
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| Mandy and I trying to get warmed up. |
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| Mandy and I (and some other random people) in front of the sand sculpture. |
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| I ran the race in my running skirt, and at this point all I cared about was being warm, and not the fashion statement of my pants under my running skirt... |
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| Finisher's Swag :-) |
