It's been a few days since the
race, so I've had time to reflect enough to recap it properly. I
signed up for this race because I was returning from my deployment to
Africa and upon learning my return date, I had to stay in the Hampton
Roads a few extra days to handle some personal matters and visit
family. The race was scheduled the day after our flight landed in
Norfolk and having done one other J&A race in the past, it was a
no-brainer to sign up.
I started following a Hal Higdon
training plan in conjunction with a marathon plan back in October
after signing up, never done a 10-miler before so I was pretty
excited. The training conditions were no where near what race day
would feel like, Djibouti was always over 85° and the heat index put
it near 100° up until mid-November. Everything with the return trip
went smoothly, the flight left Djibouti early Thursday morning East
Africa Time and arrived in Norfolk at 0200 on Friday EST. That day
was the first since July 1st that I didn't get to run at
least a mile, which turned out to be a good thing. After getting
through customs and getting to the airport, I waited around until
Hertz opened and got out of there. I needed to take care a few
things after getting the rental: a haircut, holiday shopping, lunch,
and a real beer were all in order.
The expo was at the Virginia Beach
Convention Center, it was small but very well organized. They handed
out the customized bibs with built in timer, a reusable tote bag, a
santa hat, and a long-sleeved hooded shirt for the 10-milers, 5Kers
got a short sleeve tech T. I didn't stick around long, the hotel was
right next to the convention center and I needed to get a shower.
Afterwards, I just relaxed, had a few beers, got everything race
ready, and went to bed around 10:30.
That was best night of sleep in 6
months, was up around 0630 to have a bite to eat and get ready.
Here's the fun part, the day before it was around 75° and all I had
as far a running gear was meant for hot weather, this race wasn't on
my radar when packing for Africa. Needless to say, the race day
temperature was 45°, rainy, and winds gusting up to 25 mph. I did
have the foresight to order some arm warmers before leaving Africa,
but they were useless with the rain. The race kicked off in front of
the convention center and headed down 19th street towards
the Oceanfront. The course turned on Atlantic Ave with a brief stint
on the Boardwalk. The course headed back towards the convention
center where the 10 mile and 5K course split off, we headed back down
19th towards the beach again, but this time we ran
Atlantic Ave all the way down to Rudee Inlet. This was at the 5.25
mile point and where the suck began. The next 2.5+ miles were on the
Boardwalk in the rain with a 20 mph head wind, which you can see
reflected in the lap splits below. I was having abdominal cramps a
good portion of the race and this didn't help. The route turned back
to Atlantic shortly after passing the King Neptune statue on the
beach then turned back down Atlantic until finally running back to
19th towards the convention center, where the finish line
was inside.
I finished in 1:22:18, which is by
far the best pace I've had for a longer distance, it's amazing how
much easier it was to run after training in horrid conditions for
months. Unfortunately, my entire body was numb when I stopped, could
barely open the bottle of Gatorade they handed me. They also had
water, fruit, and some other snacks. My first goal was to find a
place to sit and thaw out a little. They had Sam Adams as the beer
sponsor and we were allowed three, barely got one down because it was
so cold. After that, back in to the cold to head back to the hotel
and get cleaned up and ready for lunch with family. The results were
posted in real time and I finished 232 out of 1893. No complaints
from me, looking forward to getting even faster for the next one. It
was a great race, just wish the weather had been a little nicer. Now
it's time to get ready for the ½ Marathon on January 26th!