Rock n' Roll Half Marathon

I ran the Rock n' Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach on the 31st. This was my second year running the race and although I was really excited to run it again, the race itself turned out to be far from my expectations. Leading up to the race I had a hard time keeping focused and training properly, due to the heat, knee pain, and also being out of town so often for wedding planning. On the day of the race, I was far from prepared. With temperatures in the high 70's at 5 am, I knew it was only going to get hotter by the time the race started.

The first few miles started out okay, but by the time I got to the 3rd or 4th mile, I had a severe cramp under my right rib cage. This forced me to walk/run until about mile 7. I'm very competitive, at least with myself, and walking during a race is something I just don't do. By the time the cramp went away, my ankles were bothering me from switching back and forth and my motivation to continue wasn't there except for the fact that I had no where else to go.

Besides the pain, I was also extremely thirsty the entire race. At each water stop I had to have at least 3 or 4 cups of water and that still wasn't enough. I finished a depressing 10 minutes slower than 2007. I'm debating running this race again next year due to my inability to train properly this year, and predict it may equally as difficult to train in 2009.

I have, however, signed up to run the Shamrock Half Marathon again. This was the race that I had Sean run with me last year, and the race that he proposed at the finish. I haven't convinced him to run the half again, although he has agreed to run the 8k.