Cheers to new PRs

Four new PRs set by trigirls!

Today was the Shamrock 1/2 Marathon that I ran in my friend Fave's stead. I was a little worried about the race (and had weird "showing up for the race naked" dreams last night) considering that I wasn't feeling too great after yesterday's 3 hour spin class. I had called Jen almost in tears, griping about this that and the other--nothing specifically that I could put my finger on--and didn't know at the time if I could race today. But this morning, the diabetes gods took pity on me and we felt comfortable leaving Joey at 6am without the fear of any hypoglycemic episodes. I felt pretty good this morning, despite the strange dreams, and Joe and I made it to the start line with 5 mins to spare before the Star Spangled Banner. Time to run!

I have never run this course, but if anyone wants to PR, this is the course to do it on. FLAT!!! After all those damn hills in Tucson, it was sheer bliss. The first 6 miles lead north out of the resort area of Virginia Beach, winding west through the pine forest to the far side of Fort Story. The weather was quite cool (about 37 degrees at the 7am start), and everyone's breath hovered like fog above their heads. It warmed up just enough to shed one layer of clothes and at the light houses in the Fort you turn into the direct sun and head back to the hotels. Joe ran the entire way with me and was nice enough to wait for me at mile 8 while I took care of some unfinished business at the porta potties. At mile 10 he said I had a good chance of running a 2:05 (neither of us had a watch on though), so I cranked up my tunes to drown out the pain and tried to turn my legs over just that much faster. Miles 11 and 12 were tough but Marit had given me some good mantras on which to concentrate. Et voila, a new half marathon PR by 10 minutes! 2:07:34! Next time I've got to figure out how to eliminate that bathroom break that cost me about 3 mins...


It was a fun too for the post race party on the beach with fellow racers Jill, Sharon, Bethany, Bart, sherpa Lynn, and long lost high school friend Bob, wife Katie, and sister Lynn. Beer and Irish stew were consumed, then it was time to high tail it home to spell the kids and nap. Someone please tell me I have a rest day tomorrow...