Rock and Roll...

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.

Come one come all!

Tube socks and Tiaras

Paying my dues