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

Just another Friday!

It's hard to believe that we are already towards the later part of August! My next half is sneaking up on me quite quickly. It's been a little harder to keep up with training over the summer than I had expected. But it'll all be ok- I'm really looking forward to a fun weekend with family and friends!

Things are really coming together for The Great Cupcake Race! 60 people are now registered and we have our final artwork for the center of the medal! If you haven't registered, you have until August 3o to do that. Only 40 more people and I will run in a cupcake costume!  If you haven't registered yet, details are here and you can register using the dropbox to the right at the top of the page! 

I'm starting to work with my coach from TNT for the Tinker Bell Half Marathon. She has been really great about communicating with me about the half marathons that I have scheduled for the fall and how to get the most out of both my training and my scheduled races. My training schedule officially kicks off tomorrow!

I am anxious for the Rock and Roll half....it should be my last half before my husband comes home. Even though I did decide to change up my original goal of a half marathon every month, I am still very happy with what I did accomplish this year so far. I have a ways to go before I meet my ultimate goals, but I am very happy with how things have gone so far. Running half marathons and blogging about my experience have really taken me out of my comfort zone and I could not be happier that I decided to take this chance! I thank you all for your support!