Road Trip To Virginia Beach
Saturday morning, I drive to Audra‘s mom’s house in NJ so we can begin our road trip: Loren, Audra and I, Loren and Audra having driven down from NYC the night before.  Loren greets me with “I’ve got diarrhea” which was the theme for the weekend.  We bundle into Loren and Audra’s car and off we go, a little after 9am so we can get to the Expo by late afternoon.

I’ve printed out Google’s directions which tells us it’s a 6-hour drive to Virginia Beach but the route is slow with many stop lights.  I didn’t really check out the directions since Google has always been good for me in the past, so when we get to the bottom of NJ and Audra reads out the next direction “ferry to Lewes – 16.5 miles”, I’m thinking “oh, that means turn off by this port here, not really take the ferry”  No.  It meant take the ferry.

How did we end up on a ferry?

Not only does Google slip in the stupid ferry (which was an unexpected $45.00) but it only runs 4 times a day!! We got there just as they were boarding, if we had been 10 minutes later, we’d have been absolutely screwed.  Plus, Google says 37 minutes for the ferry but it took over 1:30, so now we’re beginning to worry if we’ll get to the Expo before it closes.

More crappy directions from Google (slowest route EVER) and we get to Virginia Beach at 4:15.  We meet Kat at the hotel and get to the Expo with about 15 minutes to spare.  Whew!  On the way, Audra had spotted an Italian restaurant, so we eat early which meant I didn’t have time to fit in a run.  I was a bit worried about this since I’d taken Friday off and I never take 2 days off in a row, plus I was planning on a shakeout run.  Oh well.

My Big Toe
On my 20-miler last Sunday, something happened to my big toe and I’ve had pressure on it all week though there wasn’t any visible bruising.  It’s been a worry for the race but I figured it’d go away by Sunday…alas, no.  So we come back from dinner and on a whim, I take one of the safety pins meant for the race bib and stick it under my nail.  Voila, clear liquid comes out.  There had been a blister there the whole time and finally, the pressure was gone.

With that, I knew it could be a good race.

Team BQ Babes - Audra, Loren, Me and Kat

The Race
We jog to the start, thanks to Kat getting us a great hotel just a few blocks from the start and finish, we didn’t even have to check our bags.  It’s a beautiful morning.  Us Halfers got great weather – the Full folks weren’t so lucky, it got up to 70 degrees for them, but for us, 50 at the start finishing around 60.

7 a.m. and the gun goes off.

As you know, I’ve been pretty worried about the whole race scenario and what I’d be able to manage since my tempos have been so-so and Tuesday’s was just plain awful.  I was thinking 7:19s for a target since that was my last good 5mile tempo run.

My first mile is 7:21 and I’m hyper-vigilant of how I feel, “can I hold this?” “should I stay here?”  “how exactly am I feeling?”  I haven’t a clue, really.  But I think I can go a bit faster, so I do.

If anyone thinks Philly’s flat, it’s a mountainous region compared to Shamrock.  This thing is flat as a pancake and I loved every inch of it.  Woody sections, beachy sections, a lighthouse, beer (though I didn’t partake), just a lovely course.  But I didn’t pay attention to that as much as to a bunch of girls butts.

Girls Butts
There were 2 lithe cute girls in green plaid running skirts who had started before me.  They looked fast and I knew I’d never pass them, but I just tried keeping those skirts in view to keep the gap from getting too big.  Around mile 4, I passed them.  OK, butt set #1, down.

Next was some woman in capris and pigtails, a tiny, fast looking thing, but I overtook her without any ado. Then I followed some chick in navy Race Ready shorts (it really was all about the butts) for a couple miles till suddenly, boom, gone.  And it kept happening.  I’d see another girl in front of me looking strong, follow a while  and poof, I was in front.

For the longest time there was this one girl in light blue shorts.  I was pretty close to her for several miles – again, not expecting to pass her, I just wanted her to stay close was all, she had great form so I actually thought at one point “I don’t need to pass you, just stay there as my carrot” so again, huge surprise when I gave a little push, got alongside her and she said “great running” to me, to which I replied, “me?  I’ve been chasing your ass for miles now, great job yourself!” and then I passed her.

A few more butts, including one at 1.5 miles to go that I was reticent about passing because I thought she’d give me a run for my money, but no…she didn’t try to catch up.  It was weird, actually.  I’ve never picked off people like that in any race before.

Finally, and god I hope the race photographers got this, on the stretch of boardwalk about .25 mi from the finish line, some woman comes out of nowhere, an older woman (these others were all a lot younger which is why I was ok with the idea of them beating me) and kicks right in front of me.

“Oh no you di-unt, bitch” is what goes through my mind and I have no idea where this extra gear came from, because I was already busting a gut that last stretch, but we ran neck and neck like 2 crazy old madwomen for a really good piece, till I finally had to let her go.  I couldn’t keep it up but wow, I sure thank her for appearing because she got me a faster finish time.

My splits were this: 7:21, 7:11, 7:09, 7:14, 7:15, 7:17, 7:11, 7:13, 7:22, 7:15, 7:14, 7:17, 7:09 and whatever’s left over for the extra bit (didn’t stop my Garmin, as usual).  The slower middle mile coincides with the course as it curved around and met some wind.  I carried my 12oz handheld and took 2 gels at miles 5 and 10.

Final Outcome
We had no idea how we’d done!  They didn’t post results anywhere or have an awards ceremony so it wasn’t till we were driving back that we got a call telling us how we did.  I did 1:35:02 which got me #1 in my Age Group, Kat and Audra had huge-ass PRs and Loren did amazingly well considering she was diarrhea woman.  Together, our team got #1!  3rd overall behind 2 mens teams, so what a fabulous surprise bonus.

Meredith and Elizabeth
Yet another high point of this most stellar weekend was meeting two wonderful women I’ve known through the forums but never had a chance to meet.  Meredith (aka MereRunner) on RW is just plain fucking fast.  That’s all I have to say about her.  She got a 1:25:59 in the Half.  OK, I have more to say…she is so sweet!  Just an absolute doll of a girl.  Really glad to have met her.

Elizabeth, aka Greenlee, is someone I’ve been wanting to meet for about 2 years now, she’s another babe from the Women’s BQ thread and we got to see her on the course though it broke my heart for her that she was not having a good day.  As mentioned above, it got really hot for the marathoners (why did they start them an hour after us?) so she was burning up.  Kat and I ran with her for a few steps then we had a short chat and some hugs.  She ended early but will be victorious at her next one, I’m sure of it!

Epilogue
Dear Kat, Audra and Loren,
I had the time of my life these last couple days.  Thank you so much for making it an incredibly fun weekend.  I’ve eaten just about all the salt water taffy so my tummy’s full, but so is my heart.  Much love to you and I hope we can do this again many more times and soon (though maybe we’ll skip the ferry ride next time).

Lobster Mammogram

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