Shamrock Yuengling Half Marathon Recap

I made it back safe and sound with lots of pics, swag, stories and a PR!!

1st time I saw these at the Exp!!  Wouldn't a band aid work?

Packet Pickup

The Good:

• Lots of cool swag: technical race short sleeve shirt (long sleeve for the full marathon), backpack, finishers hat, finishers medal, finishers sweatshirt, plenty of food at finish and 1 gel stop on course, plenty of water, Gatorade and possible 2 beer stops put on by the hashers (I might have had one at mile three which might have been the reason for my PR, hmmm)
• Plenty of room on the road for all of the runners I was afraid it was going to be really crowded but I didn't have to do too much dodging.
• Walked to race start 1..7 mi from our hotel there were plenty of hotels near the start just depending on how much you were willing to pay.
• Overcast and a little chilly for half start which meant the humidity didn't bother me as much
• Very flat course at sea level which may have had more to do with my PR then the beer
• After party on the beach with beer, ocean and the sun finally came out, oh and stew if you weren't vegetarian 

The Bad:

Look at all the cool stuff!

• They started the full marathon 1.5 hrs after the half which meant some people were running in really hot and muggy conditions once the sun came out, I believe there was 1 death at this race
• Only the last quarter of a mile was along the actual beach (but that was due to the ample roads that were used instead which if you see above is one of the good things)
• Most restaurants were overbooked the night before the race and really hard to get a pasta dinner (impossible if you are vegetarian) so I bought a microwaveable pasta dinner that I ate in the room
• Totally due to our poor planning we ended up flying in to BWI instead of Norfolk which added 4 hr drive to our 4 hour plane ride which made for sore legs 

I was wanting a time faster than 2:16 so that I could call it a PR and apparently if you bother to train it works because my "official" time said 2:04:29 I PRd by 12 minutes!!!!  This gave me the confidence boost I needed for my triathlon training that officially starts today!  We had 3 PRs in the group of 4 so that was awesome!  Had fun hanging out with my running buddies!

I have started a FB page for my blog please like me if you are so inclined.  I will add all the pictures from my weekend there!   Also stay tuned I have SEVERAL exciting giveaways coming up very soon!!  Who else raced this weekend?

Pre Race 6 am

Post race, very sweaty humid race, but I'm a desert girl so you east coasters are probably use to it.