Shamrock Half Marathon Weekend - Saturday

This morning we walked from the Hotel to the finish area to decide on the best route for tomorrow's walk and work out how long the walk would take. We left the hotel at about 9.30am and walked along 19th Street to the beach. It was a lovely morning in the low 60's with clear blue skies and no wind at all. You can see the finish tent in the distance here.


Today's events included an 8K, a kids run and Operation Smile Final Mile. The 8K started at 8am and was complete by the time we made it to the finish area, but we were in time to see the kids getting ready for their run. There were 5 different kids races for ages 1 through 5.



It was good to watch the kids and their parents having so much fun







Next came Operation Smile Final Mile. Nearly 3000 elementary school kids from all over Virginia had completed 25.2 miles after school and/or at home over the past few months and had come together to run the final mile of their marathon in front of hundreds of screaming parents and other runners. More information about Operation Smile can be found here, and it truly is an excellent cause, but what was the most inspiring was that in a time when children spend very little time exercising and being happy to exercise, it was great to see so many smiling faces as they approached the finish line.







After lunch, we headed to the Expo to collect my race number and shirt. There are over 8000 runners in the Half Marathon and plenty of things to pose for photos with!