Location: Virginia Beach, VA
Date: September 6, 2009
Placing: 41st Overall, 20th Amateur, 5th Master
Race Photos
Results: Click Here
Here's one record that I'm glad did not get extended...see how many times I can register for the same event - and NOT do it. Yeah, this is the third year I've tried to do this one and it finally came to fruition. Two years ago, I signed up with my friend and teammate David Duchan and if memory serves me correctly (which it rarely does these days) we both were lacking - what do you call it - motivation. Yes, that's it. Then last year I was just starting to run well again when I got IT. And when I say IT, I mean iliotibial band problems in my left leg. That killed last year. But they say the third times the charm...and so it is.
After 3 years of trying, I finally make it to this race.
Now fate sometimes has a wierd way of playing dirty tricks on you; at least it does for me at times. I have just started training for the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. and it's been going great. Most marathoners will run a half marathon a month or so before their full marathon as a stepping stone in their training. Based on my training, I felt as though I could break 1 hour and 17 minutes, which would be a personal best for me. And being the student of statistics that I am, I summized that meeting this goal would put me as first or second - and certainly no worse than third - in the Masters competition. A 1:17 flat would have taken 2nd place each of the last 2 years that I DIDN'T do the event. I had visions of a cool trophy and $$$$ (yes, there was money to the top 2 Masters runners!). I merely had to follow the task as prescribed and I'd be renting a U-Haul to carry home my trophy and using my winnings at www.graeters.com to buy a year's worth of the best ice cream in the world...but here is what ACTUALLY happened...
Janis and I both actually hate "big" races. It's not that we 'don't play well with others', it's just that 20,000 racers - plus their family and friends - can bring a town to its knees. And we're a bit more laid back than that. We don't like spending 2 hours the night before a race trying to make a plan of attack just so that we can arrive at the start line waaaaay too early. Last year I did another one of the "Rock n' Roll" race series - the San Antonio Rock n' Roll Marathon. Fortunately, I was doing it for fun with my brother because our shuttle bus didn't even depart the pick-up zone until AFTER the race had started!! We ended up getting to the start line with only a few of the 33 corrals left to be released. One of the many reasons why I'm not a fan of races that size. Now if I am doing the event as one big party with friends, then sure - 20,000...50,000...bring it on.
We packed our bikes for this trip. A spectator on a bike often can move around a lot better on race day and I thought Janis could take advantage of that. We enjoyed a nice ride around town on Saturday afternoon after I picked up my race packet (which went very smoothly). This is where we learned that when you ride a bike in a beach town - you make up all your own rules, like "feel free to ride the wrong way down any road in the middle of the lane" or "if cars are in your way, use the sidewalk". Don't waste your time with a helmet; it will simply ruin your tan. We must've looked like some kind of 'forners' with our helmets and hand signals. It was one of many adventures we had over the weekend.
At least at these huge races, someone got smart and invented the corral system. Although it is not infallible, it is the sole reason I will do an event this big. Runners are seeded into starting corrals based on projected finish times or submitted results. It's easy to know if someone is in the correct corral because their race number corresponds to their corral number. ie everyone in the first corral had a 1000-1999 number. In corral #27 were numbers 27000 - 27999. Each corral in this event had about 850 runners (which explains why there were 27 corrals but only 20,000 runners). Theoretically - and I say that while making the double-quote hand gesture - nobody should have to be tripping over the people in front of them. And since everyone in the world is honest and NOT self-centered, they all put a completely accurate estimate of their finish time, right? It works much like estimating your swim time for a triathlon that has a pool swim. Some people intentionally put a faster time estimate down. After all, they shouldn't have to swim over anybody, right. I mean, it's OK if people have to swim over them because they are more important than everyone else, right? I digress. For the most part, people ARE honest and the corral system makes it better for everyone.
"Release the hounds!"
One last thing about the corral system is that it's fun to look at the people in the first corral. Janis and I make a game out of it. These are supposed to be the top x number of runners according to their time estimates...but they don't all look that way (I'd ceratinly go so far as to say that I don't particularly think that I look fast). We try to pick out people who may have "fudged" their time estimate. It's great to be right at the end of the race, but it's way cooler when one of the people we picked - because he is wearing long socks, no shirt and looks like a weightlifter - passes me at mile 10. This rarely happens, but when it does it always makes me laugh. Maybe I'll start dressing like a first-time runner at my events and have some fun with it.
Contrary to my fears, the shuttle system worked like a charm and Janis and I arrived at the start with no stress. Plenty of food and drinks and plenty of bathrooms made things almost too stress free. With a couple of Fall-like days in Greenville before we left, I was dreaming that Winter would suddenly be in full swing. It was not. Temps were nice however (upper 60's) especially when many of your training runs have been above 90 degrees. As usual, my warmup was short and simply entailed running the first half-mile of the course and back. As we waited in the corral, the wheelchair athletes were sent off first; then the pro(elite) women. The pro(elite) men and the first corral would start together. With the road being 5 lanes wide, the bodies in our corral had a good bit of room and we were not packed in like sardines (like I was at the Boston Marathon). The gun went off and away we went.
In the first hundred yards I already got anxious when I found myself 'trapped' near the middle of the group. From way back in my cycling days, I learned that if you aren't with the leaders, you aren't in the race. That's something that is not necessarily true in running but it is a hard habit to break and it's why I've never been able to start slower and finish faster. My brain always tells me that the race is ahead of me. It's the same reason you will never see me look back in a race. I can't worry about what's behind me - I need to worry about what's ahead of me. I had my trusty Garmin on for this event and if I was going to meet my time goal, I had to make some deals with myself. The first deal was - no sub-5:30 first mile! I glanced at it about a quarter-mile into the race...5:25 pace. I backed down ever so slightly and held steady. Half a mile in, I saw Janis in the crowd and I moved to the side of the road so she could get a good photo. Already, a "fast group" had formed ahead of us; and at the same time, several of the runners who took off too fast were shooting backwards. I crossed mile 1 in 5:35 and already I had assumed my position in no-man's land; between the true elites - and everyone else. This time however, I had a few fellow no-man landers just ahead of me and as the road behind me became more and more quiet, I could visualize myself pulling away from the masses behind me.
Already establishing my dominion over no-man's land. The runner in front of me pulled away at mile 2 and slowly gained time on me until he disappeared around mile 8 or 9.
Miles 2-3: It was basically me chasing one other runner who was chasing the fast pack (the pros were already way out of sight). As I passed the crowds of people, I would wait to hear them cheer for the next runner(s). It was a good gap.
Miles 3-5.5: I crossed the 5k timing mat at 17:40. My Garmin said I was averaging 5:40 and that I had settled into about a 5:45 pace. The runner ahead of me was slowly gaining time...and now I could hear some runners behind me. I could hear - and sense them for over 2 miles and when the two runners finally caught me at mile 5.5 they told me that they had been just several yards behind me for a while. Since they had caught me, I decided to duck in behind them and let them set the tempo.
Miles 5.5-8: I chatted with one of my newly-found companions a bit. He was obviously a very good runner who didn't seem the least bit strained. He mentioned running sub-5:00 miles at some of his track workouts in the past and I said that I've never run that fast. He commented "yeah, but I'm sure I can't swim and bike like you." I laughed and said, "There's 2 things I'm sure of and that is: yes, you CAN swim like me and no, you can't bike like me". We had a bit of a laugh about that and it helped pass miles 6 and 7 by. At this point, we had caught a few stragglers and shortly before mile 8, we were caught by another runner and that split us up as everyone adjusted their pace. I crossed the 8-mile mark at almost exactly 46:00...5:45 pace.
Miles 8-10: I was on a good schedule but shortly after mile 8 were the first signs of weakening. Both of my cohorts had left me - one was flying up the road - the other was inching ahead of me. For the first time, I noticed one of the bands actually playing as I neared. They were palying Tom Sawyer by Rush and it helped to egg me on a bit. I remembered my GU energy gel that I brought along and quickly sucked it down. As I neared mile 9, I turned back onto the huge wide road from the start of teh race and on the other side of the grass median were thousands upon thousands of runners. I could barely hear myself think - and that was good. My pace suffered slightly during these two miles and I crossed mile 10 at exactly 58:00. This left me with a 5k left to do and 18:59 to do it in to reach my goal. That's just over a 6:00 pace.
Miles 10-12: As we began mile 11, we were confronted with our only hill (which we also had at mile 2). It was a moderate-sized causeway overpass. It actually felt kind of good to run uphill for a minute and I started to feel the GU kicking in a little bit. I was passed by 2 runners just before the hill, but slowly reeled in one of my original running mates from back at mile 6. The crowds were huge now that we were on the ocean "strip" and the 2 runners who had recently passed me were not making much headway on me. My eyes were glued to my Garmin. I just ahd to keep it under a 6:00 pace. The Garmin read 5:58 when I finally hit mile 12.
"C'mon...can't this watch move any slower?...cause I sure as hell can't move any faster..."
Mile 12-finish: Shortly after mile 12, I was passed one last time and followed this runner onto the beach boardwalk. Holy...sh**! There was about a 20mph wind blowing right into our faces with jsut under a mile to go. At this point, it was purely just "sucking it up". I looked at my watch - would I break 1:17? Unfortunately, the view on my watch that showed my elapsed time was no longer showing seconds (since I had been running over an hour). So when I saw 1:14. I had no idea if it was 1:14:01 or 1:14:59. Seconds mattered, dammit! For the entire length of the boardwalk, I could hear a runner behind me, and see the other runner just in front of me. None of us could make up time on the other in that wind. When I was finally close enough to make out the time on the finish clock, I knew I had succeeded. The finish clock read 1:16:49. Shazam!
The last band was playing "Jessie's Girl" as I ran by. I thought to myself, I wish that I had Jessie's legs...Jessie Owens, that is
I walked through the "Hall of Goodies" - where they ahnd you all kinds of free stuff when all you really want to do is eat a hamurger and sit in a pool. Finishing early really has a lot of advantages. Janis was easy to find. So was my dry-clothes bag. I was changed and on the shuttle bus in no time. I was extremely happy with my performance...and we still had the rest of the day to enjoy.
As they like to say..."and now for the bad news"...my joy turned a bit sour later in the afternoon when Janis logged on to view the official results. Wow, I was the 20th amateur out of 20,000 runners. But wait, what's this...4th in my division?! (40-44 age group) Not only that, but the last runner that passed me and finished 7 seconds ahead of me was in the 45-49 age group! Not only had I failed to make the top 3 in my age group but I was the fifth place Master! Egads! Out of the top 20, 5 of us were over 40. I would have placed in the top 3 in ANY other age group besides the 25-29 age group. there's no other way to put it other than: that sucks. How could I be so happy about my time and now be so disappointed. Statistics be damned! I guess that's what happens when you offer money to the old guys - you get old guys that make me look like a slug ;-)
Maybe there was no big trophy or $$$ but I can't really be unhappy with either my time or placing at what is touted as the largest half marathon in the country. At least when people ask me how hard it was, I can honestly say it was a day at the beach...
Race Notes:
* As I crossed the finish line, they announced me as Chris Giordanelli...from Richmond, Virginia. Even my hometown got gyped on this one.
* We found a really awesome park in town. A unique one-of-a-kind place called Mt. Trashmore Park. It used to be a landfill and they turned it into an awesome park. We went over there later in the day so Janis could get her exercise in.
* You will never again hear me say that roads around Greenville suck. Virginia Beach makes our roads look as smooth as ice and as wide as the Champs-Elysees.
* Two words: awesome seafood.
Next up: Blue Ridge Relay - 208-mile running race - NC
