Crawlin' Crab Half Marathon in Hampton

My first half marathon was the Shamrock, back in March of this year at Virginia Beach. I trained for my first half right through the winter and, by March, was ready for the 13.1 miles. It was a great event and I enjoyed finishing what had been the longest race I had ever run. The Shamrock was followed by the Flying Pirate on April 22, 2012 in Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks. Despite the rain, I improved my half marathon time by several minutes.

Once I had completed the Flying Pirate, I began to wonder if a full marathon was within my reach. Before I ran Shamrock, I could not imagine running 13 miles, so was 26 really beyond my grasp. I finally decided to give it a try and figured that I would wait for the Shamrock full in March. Until, I talked to my friend, Katie, who was really pushing the Richmond full in November. She has done over 20 marathons and claims that Richmond is her favorite. After pondering it for several weeks, I decided to give the Richmond full a try. After all, Richmond is my home town and what better place to run your first full. In an upcoming post, I will talk more about getting ready for Richmond.

In the meantime, I heard about a new half marathon being promoted by the folks from J&A Racing, who do the Shamrock. It was a new half to be held in Hampton in October. As it turned out, it fit nicely into my training schedule for Richmond, so I signed up. October 7 turned out to be rainy and chilly. A group of us from Cornerstone Striders met up and drove over together and it rained the whole way. It looked like I was in store for another wet half marathon, just like the Flying Pirate. By race time, it was still cold, but the rain had stopped. I really wanted to PR, so I hooked up with the 2:00 pace group and stayed with them. The course was nice and mostly flat through downtown Hampton and along the river. By Mile 11, I was still feeling strong and I quickened my pace. The rain started again about Mile 12, but I could feel a signficant PR and I kept pushing myself along. In the end, I accomplished one of my goals - a sub 2:00 half marathon. Official Time: 1:57:56.