Hot, Humid, and Slow!

That was the story of the Rock n Roll Half Virginia Beach Half Marathon!  I'm happy I did it (now that it is done!), but it was a really rough half.  Not just for me.  I've been reading comments on RnR VB's Facebook page, and that seems to be the overall story.  I was very thankful for the overcast sky- the sun only peeked out for a few minutes, and you could definitely tell a difference in temperature during those few moments.

It all started with a 4:15 am wake up call, I've learned to lay out all my clothes the night before so that I don't forget anything, got dressed and then headed out to take all of the carseats out of my car so that I could fit all the adults in :)  It was then that I discovered the humidity was a bit suffocating.  I'd been watching the weather for the past week, so I knew it wasn't going to be a very 'nice' day for a half, but I wasn't expecting it to be quite so humid for the start.

We got to the shuttle pick up point and then rode the shuttle over to the start line.  Took a few pictures, had a porta-potty stop, and then made our way to the start corrals.  As they were starting the corrals, the advice given to everyone was not to try to make this a PR race.  It was already that hot and humid.  I took that for what it was- great advice!

I started off with my sister and my friend.  We ran along for a while and eventually all fell into our own pace.  RnR races are usually very well organized, and for the most part, this one went off without many issues.  Only a couple stick out to me....the first water stop seemed behind in getting set up, so I did have to wait a bit for water there.  And the water stop at mile 5 was out of cups when I got there.  I heard they ran out of cups really early.   The course support didn't seem to be as good as last year- more people just standing and watching, not as much cheering.  That is, until I got to the neighborhoods- the locals were a bit more supportive.  Positives....I loved the wet sponge around mile 11, and really didn't mind running through some hoses that many friendly neighbors were providing.

All in all, it was a  good experience.  Definitely not my favorite half so far and not a new PR like I was hoping for.  But, training through this summer has proved to be a lot more difficult than I anticipated, so I had gone into this race not expecting a PR.  I am really looking forward to my next half The Crawlin Crab...in just 4 weeks :)  Maybe that'll be a new PR...

Just a few pictures:

My friend kelly from Ohio 

 Darlena from Run Find your Happy Pace

 Half Marathon #7

Kelly, sister Katie, Darlena, and I