Shamrock Marathon

The 2009 Shamrock Marathon was held on a gorgeous spring day. In Virginia Beach it was clear as a bell. The whole weekend probably had 15-20,000 people attend; i think the biggest draw was the half-marathon on Saturday. Maybe 3,000 people competed in the marathon on Sunday.

At the 8am starting time it was 35F in the bright sunshine with just a very slight breeze. It warmed up about 5 degrees each hour, so that soon it was 45, tailing off to reach a high just over 50F.

I ran instrumented and was very happy with the results. I managed my oxygen debt well and took short slow-down breaks when it was getting too high. I was very pleased with that. I figure it added five miles to the race for me.

I ran well through about mile 21, but then i was just pooped and started taking regular walk breaks. That corresponded to the start of a hill on the second half of the race, leading out to Fort Story (a working US Army Fort) and an old lighthouse. We gained about 50 feet in altitude - not that much, but enough to really drain me.



My finish time was 5:10, for an average pace of 11:37. Not what I would like, but certainly what I had expected. Too many cookies and not enough long, slow runs will do that. Now that the weather is getting nicer I can fix that easily!