Easiest
title to pick yet…
The Rock
and Roll race series is the big leagues…their venues are grand, they call in
bands that you have actually have heard of…Third Eye Blind for us! Their Expos
are crazy big and their race medals are straight legit!
Virginia
Beach for the second time this year as I was here in March for the Shamrock
Half Marathon to which I battled 43 degrees and strong wind…albeit loving the
whole thing. Today was to be very different…
The
beauty of this whole weekend was that I was on vacation during and afterwards
to recover in the Outer Banks with my wife and our close friends…good
motivation if there ever was. Picked up my race packet on the way down that
Friday and spent the first night in OBX then the next night at my mom’s in
Portsmouth. An easy drive in that morning of the race…only about 20 minutes or
so and dropped off right near the start line by the convention center in the
city.
This
race was marking a friendly rivalry that had been growing for some time…which
even included a poster and bragging rights in the end of course. Sara certainly
had the upper hand as this was her third Rock and Roll race and knew what to
expect…I had salt…yeah, I’ll get to that. Our clinic was enveloped in our
taunting’s and jabs here and there making it all the more fun for us. The loser
was to be shamed in holding a sign proclaiming the other one the superior
runner. So a lot was on the line as you see.
The sun
started to show through directly upon us as we waited in our corrals…the heat
and humidity already causing the sweat to start…temperature was around 74…the
finishing temp for the previous weekend’s race. So we began…
We had a
light breeze starting out that is always a good thing especially when the sun
is already upon you…and as always….many people cheering us on. Much of the
beginning is a mental race…the first couple of miles you have to convince
yourself that you can do this even though you have done it five times before
and in this case, the weekend before. The streets of the city we’re a little
narrow and we have to make lots of left and right turns right away which caused
a little bottle-necking as you want to cut those corners close to shave the
inches of distance off the whole race…like I said…mental race. Steadily and
evenly the temperature and humidity crept up upon us as the miles continued and
it was getting to me so I did it…I took the salt. Yes…yuck…wash that down with
water ASAP…but I can honestly say that it was very helpful. You lose a lot out
there in that kind of heat and it has to be replenished just as quickly or you
risk dangerous results to your body. The course was covered very well with
water stops and took good advantage of each one…even one that was handing out
giant sponges soaked in ice water…brilliant! One of the best things I encounter
on the course is the helpful spectators…One gentleman was carry a cooler around
mile 10 full of ice for us…thanking him graciously as I grabbed a hand-full and
tossed it in my compression shirt right against my chest…YEAH!!!! That will get
the heart going!
The
miles continued to climb as well as the temps…it was getting bad. I was seeing
fit runners along the course and at medic tents with oxygen along with the
occasional ambulance. You mind starts to really go into action…look at
them!...they are way more fit than me…but you push on. The water from
sprinklers and sweat has completely soaked my tube sock rendering it useless
and my glasses are fogged and dripping as well that I have to set them at the
edge of my nose just to see out ahead of me.
I
rounded the corner of mile 12 and found myself on the boardwalk on the last
stretch to the finish and I told myself that I wasn't going to walk near the
end at all. So I trudged on down the what seemed to be a never ending pavement
strip with my head held back to help with breathing closing my eyes for short
periods to imagine myself sitting in a walk in freezer or something and hit the
finish line at 2:37:37…noting that this was faster than my previous weekend…but…13
minutes behind Sara. I was somewhat relieved…I had a feeling I was going to
lose to her…but would have kicked myself if it would have been by like 2
minutes or something…nope…this was a blow out and she had me from the start!
This did not diminish my feelings about running one bit and made it even more
memorable as a fun competition. I had noticed that with so much moisture that
the dye in the tongues of my shoes had come off on my socks…which had in turned
had rubbed a couple of blisters on my feet…that’s the price sometimes, but
luckily I had a week of rest and relaxation at the beach for recuperation so I
put my windows down and cranked the rock and roll all the way back down to OBX…in
my flip flops of course.
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| Come one come all! |
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| Tube socks and Tiaras |
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| Paying my dues |
