Double Race Weekend: Wicked 10k Recap

This wasn't a weekend to update my PR board, but any weekend when I can update my list of completed races is a good one! I realized after the fact that it was a pseudo personal record in that, although I've done a race challenge once before (with an 8k on Saturday and marathon on Sunday), this was the first time I've run 2 totally different races in the same weekend in 2 different cities (in 2 different states at that!). Who says I can't have new experiences even with almost 60 races under my belt?

Just so we're all clear here, I should just go ahead and tell you that Wicked is my FAVORITE race of the year. Except you wouldn't know that if you were Alyssa or Lisa because when they asked me on Saturday night how it was I blandly said, "It was fun." (sorry for the lack of enthusiasm at the time but I just wasn't feeling very well!). But anyway, I love the time of year and the Halloween theme and the post-race beach party and literally everything about it from start to finish. It's put on by J&A Racing, who host several races from 5k to full marathon throughout the year. If you find yourself in the Virginia Beach area or are looking for a racecation, I can't say enough good things about these events! Wicked was my first 10k in 2011 and I've made it a point to come back every year since (same for their other big race, Shamrock weekend in March).

I was particularly excited for this race this year because I lived at the Oceanfront over the summer and spent I don't even know how many miles running from the convention center to the beach and up and down Atlantic Avenue and the Oceanfront. I hadn't been back at all since August so I was excited to get back to my old stomping grounds!

My dad was assigned Corral 4 and I was assigned Corral 2, but I started in 4 with him even though we didn't plan to run together. I had exactly zero expectations or aspirations for a PR, which was good because if I had, starting in a higher corral would have been a mistake. The crowd was so thick that I did a lot of bobbing and weaving, especially since a lot of people dress up and run in groups, so there were a few times I got stuck behind 2 or 3 different groups who had unintentionally made a human shield. It was really congested up until we made the first turn at 3/4 of a mile, and then it started to thin out a bit. Once I was finally able to settle into my own rhythm and pace, I realized I actually felt really good! I was honestly surprised when my watch beeped with an 8:30 Mile 2 - mainly because I was sure that wig was going to weigh me down!

Source

So, if you look carefully at the course map, you can see that the only time there are runners going in both directions on the same street is for a short few block stretch after mile 1 (heading south) and before mile 3 (heading north). After I jumped off the boardwalk and was back on Atlantic Avenue heading north, I took note of the runners still heading out in the opposite direction. There are so many participants in this race (close to 6000!) that the sea of people seems never-ending!

Now we need to pause for story time!

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I have really tried to make it no secret that I have had to work very hard at my running throughout the last 4.5 years, and that when I started I was not good. Actually, I kind of sucked at it for a long time. The first year I ran Wicked was in 2011, right at 6 months after I started Couch to 5k. I actually signed my dad, Ben, and myself up for Wicked in June of that year as a father's day present to my dad, since I knew he had run it before. I was only 6 weeks into C25k at that point, but I knew that by October I would be done with the program and I thought should be able to keep going and be ready to run 6.2 miles by October.

...it actually took me until August to finish C25k (because life and also because RUNNING IS HARD), then I ran 2 times total in September, and then all of a sudden it was October and I was supposed to run 6.2 miles at the end of the month. I ran more in October than I had in September, but prior to race day, I had only made it up to a maximum of 4 miles.

Ben and I decided we would stick together and commit to running at least the first 4 miles, and then see what happened after that. This is the part where I should also mention that even though I could run up to 4 miles, I could only do it verrrryyyy slowly. So our wave took off and I crossed my 3rd starting line ever and I was running and I just kept thinking to myself, "...I don't think I can do this." After the first turn, during that first stretch on Atlantic Avenue, heading south around mile 1ish, Ben (who is a foot taller than me and naturally a better runner than me) kept getting a little ahead of me, then he'd slow down and I'd catch up. We did that a few times before he finally said to me, "You have to run faster or I can't stay with you. I physically can't run at this pace." Womp womp. (This is the only part of the story that's important for now, but it was a happy ending: I made it to mile 4 like we had planned and I actually finished all 6.2 miles without stopping once!).

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So where was I? I was running Wicked on Saturday, almost to mile 3, and watching the runners who were heading in the opposite direction. I looked down at my watch and saw that I was at 24 minutes, and then my thoughts drifted to the runners on the other side of the road...their waves probably started at least a few minutes before mine, so they were roughly 20 minutes in, and I knew they hadn't made it to the mile 2 marker yet so I was able to estimate that their pace was probably in the 12-13 minute per mile range. And then it hit me: that was me. Four years ago, I was one of those runners struggling through 12:30 miles, not even at mile 2, and I could see runners on the other side who had seemingly effortlessly made it almost a mile farther than I had. It choked me up for a second to realize that, because if you had told me back then that one day I'd be on the other side, I never would have believed it. 

After that the race really flew by. I remember briefly thinking, "Meh, this could be over now and that would be okay" right before mile 4, but then I got over into and got back into the zone. I was really just happy to be running at the oceanfront, and my thoughts kept going to all the different times I've run there, either in training or in races. Before I knew it we were turning onto the boardwalk, and I looked down to see that I had been running for 42 minutes already even though it felt like it had only been 5. After that turn it's about a mile and a half to the finish on the boardwalk, and there's nothing to do but keep putting one foot in front of the other and stare at the ocean. The end can be deceptively long, but it's not a bad way to end a race! We passed my BFF King Neptune with less than a mile to go, and even though I had been riding that line between comfortable and hard for a while, I was ready to kick it into gear a little bit. I was still shocked when I saw that I had run mile 6 at 8:09 and averaged 7:45 for the last quarter mile to the finish! 

BFF.

Official time: 53:23 (8:36 pace)

So, there I was, crossing my 58th finish line, and I still hadn't run out of sappy feelings about running and racing. Logically, at this point, 10k shouldn't be a big deal. I've run at least that distance probably hundreds of times now. I finished a half Ironman 2 weeks ago, I've finished 2 full marathons and 2 half marathons on that very boardwalk, and still I couldn't help but feel like, "Wow! I did it! I just ran 10k!" Sometimes it feels like a lifetime since those early running days and sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday, but either way I can never truly forget where I started. Finishing a race is always a humbling experience that fills me with gratitude.

It was an amazing day with perfect weather and a perfect celebration afterward! I'm one little mermaid who always looks forward to coming home to the ocean.

And lucky for me, I had another opportunity to feel that way this weekend! Check back for Race #2, the City of Oaks Old Reliable 10k, and Alyssa's first marathon finish tomorrow!