My last half marathon for the year! Now I almost did not do this race because I had a full marathon to run on that upcoming Saturday so I am sure you can understand my hesitancy. When I was at the Virginia Beach Rock N’ Roll Expo back in September they had a table set up offering the lowest price entry into the race. When I saw how massive the medals were that were laying on the table it made me want one! They don’t call it the massive medal half marathon for nothing! I ended up telling the person I would think about it and possibly come back. I called my friend to make sure he was doing the race and he was also running the Full marathon that same week as well so I just wanted to make sure we weren’t over doing anything. I, of course, ended up signing up. It was a good opportunity for me to visit my college friends that weekend as well. It is always nice being back in the Hampton Roads area.

After work I had quite a drive to Norfolk. Traffic is always horrendous on Fridays, especially in the Northern Virginia area. I ended up arriving pretty late and just in time to see a movie with my friends. I drove straight to the theater and it was past 10pm. It was quite the long day having been up since 5am! I swore I drove over 5 hours that day. When I saw my friends I happily skipped to hug them all not knowing where I get all this energy from (yippy!). Since I do not watch TV it was nice to be able to do something different for a change. We saw Suffragette which is a British historical drama based on the early feminist movement. Now I am no movie critic, but the film did an excellent portrayal of what women had to endure back in the day to fight for their right to vote. I have always been a huge history buff, so I love movies like this (yes, we are those losers).

The next day was a pretty relaxing day which is something I don’t get very often, so it was much needed. It was a gloomy rainy Saturday and I met up with my friends for lunch at a local café. It was pouring tremendously and we dashed into that café laughing so hard everyone stopped to watch us. Made me really miss being in the area with my friends again. After, we went back to my friend’s place and brought out the board games! I couldn’t think of a more perfect Saturday! I feel like I am just rambling now haha, I’ll get to the race.

I woke up pretty early of course and did not sleep very well, per usual. My friend and I went to the Fresh Market the day before and got some fancy organic healthy food so I made my morning toast from that since I left my bread in my car. I quietly got ready, thanked my friend for everything and was off. It was another cold morning. I had never been to Christopher Newport University before so this was my first time seeing the campus. I parked in a parking garage and it was a bit of a walk to the start. I jogged towards the sound of the loud speaker to warm up my legs. I picked up my race packet, checked my bag,  and jumped around to keep the legs warm. I debated on using the bathroom, but when I saw how bad the lines were I realized I did not have to go anymore, funny how that happens. I ran into my friend and we talked about taking the race super easy since we had the Full Marathon to run just 6 days away. I started off at a nice easy pace trying to remember what happened to my legs last time when I started off too fast.

As seen by my splits, I started off a lot slower than usual and gradually increased my speed along the way.

           

Thankfully I had no problems during this race. It was another pretty course and another city I got to run through. I almost forgot to take pictures so I took one of the finish.

I seem to stay pretty consistent with my results. This race was just a minute slower than my Fall classic Half Marathon just the month before. I know I could have done much better, but I was quite happy with my results. I needed to save my energy for the Full Marathon.

The medal is pretty massive! It is as big as my face! Definitely my biggest medal yet! Another Half Marathon down, now to tackle the Full Marathon!!