Shamrock 8K Race....Virginia Beach

Last weekend I was in Virginia Beach and ran the Shamrock 8K. In past years I have done the full marathon, but this year I decided not to since I have two marathons in April.

The reason I was going to Virginia Beach was
to go to a St. Patty’s Day party to reunite with old work friends. I thought since I was down there anyway I should run one of the races so I didn’t have too much FOMO!

Since it was not a goal race of mine I ended up running 12 miles the day before. Now I normally wouldn’t run the day before a race, but I haven’t had many long runs during my marathon training for Boston, so I couldn’t pass up running with my best running buddy while I was down there.

My 5:30 am wake-up call came way too soon. I woke up to a pleasant surprise of warm weather. Usually this weekend is so cold and miserable (another reason why I didn’t want to run the marathon). I made some breakfast and had some coffee and we were out the door. My friend didn’t run this year  but he was my support crew. I lucked out again with a great parking spot a few blocks away from the start. If you remember my post from Rock n Roll race, my friend is a realtor and was selling a house near the start during that time of year. Well this year it just so happens he was selling a house on another block this month….score! I was able to use the bathroom before walking to the start.

While waiting at the start, Meb Keflezighi and Bart Yasso were there cheering everyone on. Soon we were off. The first mile I thought to myself “Oh my, my legs are pretty sore after those 12 miles yesterday.” My first mile I clocked in at 6:45, well no wonder I was feeling it. I did slow up a bit the next miles but started to get in a groove and my legs were not hurting as much as they were at the start.

Soon we were on the boardwalk and I saw a guy I knew that looked to be pacing a few runners, so I tried to keep up with them. This was prefect because they were tall and it was windy during this time. We got back off the boardwalk for a few blocks then looped back around from the other side. By this time I pretty much lost my pack I was running with. It was time to eye some other people ahead of me. There was a lady running who I remembered being at the starting line with me. She was probably 100 yards ahead of me but I knew I could catch up to here because she looked like she was slowing down and may be in my age group, so that is exactly what I did. After we crossed the finish line she came up to me and asked how old I was. I thought that was funny and I am glad I am not the only one that eyes up the competition. Luckily we were not in the same age group. Another man at the finish line came up to me and said hey you are Lacey the Flight Attendant from IG, funny how people recognize you.

After the race I went into the tent to get my beef stew and listened to the band for a bit. It was way too early for alcoholic beverages so I gave my 4 Yuengling tickets to some friends and we were gone. It was not until later that morning that I looked up the results and realized I actually placed first in my age group.- 1/478 Female- 30/4067 Overall Place- 198/6846 Time 34:35 Pace 6:58.
Regardless if I would have placed or not, it was still a fun race that I never ran before and we had beautiful weather.

Maybe I should stick with this distance rather than the marathon next time.
Did you run a Shamrock race this past weekend?  -L

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