Shamrock Weekend Recap: Expo and TowneBank 8k

Shamrock Weekend is underway!

Last night I went to the expo with my parents and another guy who is running with my dad and me. Since I had two races to run, I had two bibs to pick up, and I went to the marathon table first since there was no line. The guy working the table handed it to me (the challenge bibs are different than the regular marathon bibs, that way the volunteers at the end know to give me an extra medal) and said, "You must have done this running thing before." Ha! After getting all of our stuff we wandered around the expo for a bit. My sweet mom bought me some charms for my shoes and 2 new shirts, one for each race!

The best thing that happened though? I saw one of my former students, and talking to her for a few minutes made my day! We had talked about running a little when I had her in class and I was happy to see that she is sticking with it. She also ran the 8k today! She saw me first at the expo and came up to me to say hi and tell me how much she and my other students miss me, how sweet is that?! They like their teacher now but she said she's excited to get to the next level because she'll get to use all of my materials again (I made all of my materials on my own so knowing that the students like and appreciate them is a big deal). 

We went to dinner afterward and honestly, I was feeling pumped! Shamrock is such a huge event and it is put on so well that it would be really hard not to get excited. 

When I woke up this morning, that excitement had faded away. I wasn't dreading it, but I was a little intimidated by the number of miles I had to go this weekend. Getting to the race was fine, except that I had 3 bad omens right before I started: 1) my Garmin took forever to sync up (I didn't think it was going to at all) and then the signal kept going out, 2) I hit shuffle on my playlist and the first song that came up was "All Downhill From Here" by New Found Glory, which is a great song BUT I didn't exactly want things to go downhill right from the start, so I changed songs just in case, 3) as my corral was about to leave, the DJ started playing "Wake Me Up" by Avicii. I would almost rather take a needle to my eardrums than listen to that song, I hate it so much. 

But, bad omens aside, the race went about as well as I could have expected. It was pretty uneventful. The weather was perfect and running down the boardwalk, the ocean was just beautiful! My quad bothered me last night and this morning, but not during the race (it only hurts after I've been sitting for a while, but the longer I walk/run on it the less it hurts until it goes away). Every other part of my legs seemed to nag me at some point or another, but I think that's just because I haven't run much the past couple weeks and my body is like, "Oh...this? Again?" It took me a couple miles to warm up but after that I felt better and better. I didn't break any records, but that was the point. I ran the first 2 miles at 10:22 average pace, and I would be lying if I said that felt ridiculously easy. I picked up some speed after that but kept reminding myself to take it easy. I probably should have run even slower than that, but if I'm being 100% honest, I was kind of trying to pass someone I knew, haha. By the end I felt great and ran the last mile at 9:37! I finished feeling confident and strong.

I did a lot of thinking during this race. I had never run it before but I had spectated it once, 2 years ago. It was the day before my very first half marathon and I was a Nervous Nelly! I thought back to that moment and how I thought the half I was about to run was going to be a one-and-done deal. Running a marathon never even crossed my mind, and I never imagined I'd be back 2 years later with one full under my belt, running then 8k AND the full the next day. I say this not to (completely) toot my own horn, but because honestly the fact that I am here is astounding to me. Running Shamrock 2 years ago completely changed my life. I can't wait to go out tomorrow and prove just what I'm capable of. And I can't wait to look back on this weekend in another 2 years - I can't even imagine what I will have done by then. Seriously people, there's nothing you can't do. The sky is the limit!