Shamrock Half Marathon Weekend - Race Report

Click here for the race map and my splits

I woke up at 5:00am on race day and had my breakfast and a warm shower. I had slept fairly well and was grateful that the Hotel maintenance man had managed to fix the A/C unit (it had been blowing out hot air) and get the hotel room down to a comfortable temperature. I attached my chip to my shoe and for the first time when using a D-Tag, I managed to remember to not fold it over and break it!

Elizabeth, Kristin and I left the hotel at 5:45am and made the 2 mile walk to the start line. The temperature was around 50F (10C) with very little wind and humidity and I wore my fleece top over my bright yellow race singlet that I had bought the day before. We did stop along the way so that I could use a random hotel bathroom and also at a gas station so I could buy some bottled water to replace the strange tasting water I had filled my water bottles with at the hotel. I was anxious to get to the start but wasn't feeling nervous about the actual race at all.

We walked past the huge lines of people waiting at the Portable Toilets and arrived at the Corrals at 6:45am. I removed my fleece, put on my Fuel Belt and entered Corral #1. The race start had been split in to five Corrals based on expected finish time (that runners had been asked for at registration). I really liked the staggered start as it meant that I wouldn't get caught behind slower runners (or walkers) who had decided that they needed to be at the front. Runners who expected to finish under 1:50:59 had been placed in Corral #1 with the Elite runners given space right at the starting line. The start had been placed on a four lane road. The organization of the entire event was great, and this is just another example of how the organizers had obviously thought how they would get everyone across the start line and through the first mile safely. I moved to the left side of the Corral and found a curb to do some stretching. I set my watch for 7:55/mile knowing that if I managed to stay ahead of that pace, I'd finish in just over 1:44:00 and achieve my goal of a sub 1:45:00 Half Marathon.

50F-60F may be the perfect running conditions, but I felt a little chilled on the start line as I was only wearing my singlet and shorts. However, this is exactly what I wanted as I knew I'd quickly warm up and if I had been wearing anything more, I'd have trouble keeping my body temperature down. I consumed my first GU and stretched and bounced just to be doing something as the starter gave us a count down from 10 minutes. The US National Anthem was performed (fairly well) and we were told to move up nearer to the start line.

I remember thinking to myself that I didn't feel nervous at all, I actually felt confident and couldn't wait to get going. 2010 had been great so far, I had set new PR's in every race and had fully completed my training without injury or missing any runs. I knew I could complete 13.1 miles and the weekend had gone to plan so far. I couldn't be any better prepared! I glanced over to my left and noticed the 1:45 pace group had formed. I made a note of what the pace leader and the runners around him looked like and told myself that this would be the last time I would see them until the beer tent at the end of the race!

At 7:00am exactly the horn went and the Shamrock Half Marathon was underway. The runners around me were quickly into their stride as we ran over the start line (which is fairly unusual in large races). I started my watch and double checked that it was actually started (you'd be surprised how many times I have looked down at mile 1 to see that my watch still reads 0:00). My watch was running, and I relaxed in to my stride and navigated past a few runners that had either lied on their registration, or had decided to go out slowly!

I had been told to expect lots of groups of people along the sides of the road cheering the runners along, playing music and ringing cow bells and it didn't take long for them to appear. The race bibs had the runner's names on them, and the race watchers made a point of shouting out the names of the runners as they passed by ("Looking great Dave, keep it up" is so much better than "Looking great, keep it up").

I passed through the first mile in 7:46 and felt comfortable. I had told myself that I didn't want to be under 7:40/mile, but anything around 7:45-7:55/mile should be okay (as long as I wasn't struggling to hold the pace). I had found a group of 8-10 runners that seemed to be running at the same pace as I was and decided to run with them as long as they were holding the same pace.

The first water station was huge. I didn't need any water or Gatorade so I stayed in the middle of the road to allow the other runners to get access to the volunteers. The water station was very loud and everyone had smiles on their faces and offered encouragement to the runners. Mile 2 (7:43) and mile 3 (7:47) passed by quickly and at the mile 3 marker we came up on a beer tent. Yes, a beer tent, with people giving out cans and cups of beer to runners that wanted them! I passed by with a smile on my face and no intention of drinking beer whilst running, but, to my surprise a few runners did grab beer!

At mile 4 (7:41) a mobile DJ van was parked and music was being played at high volume! I had no idea that there would be music out on the course, and I heard it from quite a way away as I approached the mile marker. I thought it was a great idea! it can be lonely and boring running mile after mile so far away from the start/finish area where the majority of the supporters are and this certainly bought a smile to my face! I took another GU at 35 minutes.

Between mile 5 (7:47) and mile 6 (7:46) there was a live band playing!

At the half way point I felt comfortable and strong with some slight pain in my calves. The pain was nothing serious, but enough for me to take note of it. I expect it was the increased pace compared to my typical long runs as the road surface was no different to what I typically run on.

We passed more water stops filled with loud and excited volunteers, a couple more mobile DJ vans and numerous groups of random race watchers. There wasn't a time on the course that I felt alone. I think that makes a huge difference to the attitude of the runners - it certainly motivated me.

Miles 7 (7:35) and 8 (7:39) went well, and as we turned to begin to head back to the finish line, the wind got up slightly from right to left. It was the first time that I had noticed the wind at all during the race, and it probably accounts for my slower mile 9 (7:53). I took on my final GU with 35 minutes left to run and passed by the psychological mile 10 marker at 1:17:25 knowing I had 5K left to cover in 27:30 to achieve my goal. I knew I'd just have to keep turning my legs over to achieve my goal and I felt a sense of relief and excitement all in one.

I still felt very comfortable. My calves were still a little tight, but nothing that I was concerned about. More and more race watchers appeared along the side of the road and I began to notice runners start to walk as they started to struggle with the distance (most training plans stop with a maximum long run of 10 miles). The race watchers were really good about providing positive motivation and most of the runners quickly returned to running.

I completed miles 11 (7:49) and 12 (7:52) and sent a text message to Elizabeth to tell her I had completed 12 miles and that she should get in to position to take photos of me approaching the finish. Apparently this generated quite a bit of interest around Elizabeth from other race watchers who were surprised I was able to text and run at the same time! (little did they know that my entire text message was the number "12"). It allowed Elizabeth to ask other race watchers whether they had a runner finishing in the next 10 minutes so she could get to the front and also got other people interested in looking out for me.

While I was sending my text message to Elizabeth, I came up on a runner who was running bare foot, carrying his running shoes. We struck up a quick conversation based on our unusual antics and he told me that he had been running for many years with running shoes and often got sore feet, ankles, Achilles tendons and calves which he tolerated as part of running. However, when he came to want to run longer distances (he wanted to run a 50 mile ultra-marathon) he found that his legs wouldn't allow him to get past 30 miles. He took some advice from coaches and started running without his running shoes. He said he started running short distances slowly and gradually built over a couple of months. I asked about his calves and ankles, as I have read that switching to bare foot running or trying to adjust your stride has a knock on effect. He said that he hadn't experienced any real discomfort and 3 months after starting to run bare foot, he completed his 50 mile ultra-marathon and now doesn't even need to stretch before or after running! He told me that many races require running shoes for insurance purposes, and he was required to have them on at the start of this race but took them off as soon as could. That conversation took nearly half a mile and as we approached the turn on to the boardwalk, I wished him luck and kicked on with the finish line in the distance.

The portion of the boardwalk that we ran on was lined on one side by race watchers all the way down to the finish line (probably 500 yards) and we received a warm round of applause from people that were obviously watching for someone in particular. However, I felt like the group of us that were on the boardwalk could do with some extra support, so I started to wave my arms up and down! The crowd responded with cheers and whistles and we got a much louder welcome from everyone as we sprinted down towards the finish line.

I had an idea of where Elizabeth and Kristin would be, but it proved very difficult to pick them out of the crowd (but they got some great action shots anyway). As I approached the finish line I passed over the chip reader and the MC announced my name for all to hear!

I stopped my watch with it reading 1 hour 41 minutes and 40 seconds, beating my Kiawah Island Half Marathon PR by 8 minutes and 20 seconds and my 2010 goal by 3 minutes 20 seconds!

I received my finisher t-shirt, medal and hat as well as a stack of snacks and drinks and I made my way to the end of the chute before stretching and sending a text to Elizabeth to plan our location to meet up. I stretched, washed the sweat off of my face and changed my shirt and then returned to the chute to wait for Pete to finish.

Pete finished in just over 2 hours 11 minutes and achieved his goals of finishing and running 10 minute miles. We all met up and went to the beer tent for some free beer!

I took advantage of the ice cold ocean and used it as a quick ice bath to speed the recovery of my leg muscles. I managed a couple of trips in to the water for a few minutes and my legs felt much better.

Overall, the Shamrock Half Marathon was a huge success for me. I not only achieved my goal of running a sub 1:45 Half Marathon, I ran a comfortable race and smashed my goal by over 3 minutes. I felt a sense of relief after the race, but mainly I felt a huge sense of achievement. I have been training throughout the cold winter months and my hard work paid off.

I am going to take a well earned week off of running this week to allow my legs to recover, then I will pick up my Marathon training program and slowly build up to 26.2 miles in October!