{"id":1165,"date":"2016-04-11T18:45:46","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T18:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adventurewithashley1.wordpress.com\/?p=1165"},"modified":"2016-06-06T17:15:21","modified_gmt":"2016-06-06T17:15:21","slug":"shamrock-2016-townebank-8k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventureswithashley.com\/shamrock-2016-townebank-8k\/","title":{"rendered":"Shamrock TowneBank 8k"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n It was great to be back in Virginia Beach! I had my eye on these races for a while and was so tempted to\u00a0do\u00a0one of the challenges, but I\u00a0ending up deciding not to do it. I kicked off the start of the race season with the Rock ‘N’ Roll DC Half Marathon<\/a> just the weekend prior. I am making it a goal this year to not over do anything and at least TRY to not get injured (keyword try!). I still have the rest of the year to race, but I just want to do it all!! (urgh!!)<\/p>\n Since my half marathon went very well I decided to do the 8k (despite how\u00a0much I wanted to do the half!). Traffic was horrendous that weekend and took me around 5 hours to get down there after work! I was very thankful that my friend was able to pick up my race packet for me (I don’t think I could have handled any more driving). \u00a0I arrived at the oceanfront around 6:30am and surprisingly did not hit any traffic. I lucked out\u00a0with parking and was able to park in the deck right next to the starting line. I did not have any pins to put my bib on and I frantically walked around and found some. I had some time to kill so I hung around\u00a0King Neptune and probably saw the best sunrise over the ocean that morning. It could not have been a more perfect sunrise to start the day!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After the sunrise, I went back up to the top of the parking garage where I parked to stretch and warm up. I did not even bother doing bag check because it was out of the way.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n I could see everything from the top of the garage\u00a0and\u00a0I watched as a\u00a0sea of green started filling up\u00a0the streets.<\/p>\n <\/a>\u00a0I started in Corral 2.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Loved how there was absolutely no elevation for this race! Virginia Beach is pretty dag on flat! The only thing I really struggled with during this race was running against the wind. It was\u00a0VERY windy that morning and I really felt like I\u00a0could have been blown away. I groaned a few times running against the wind, but I powered through it!<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n I started off\u00a0a little\u00a0fast for this race. I scaled back a little bit remembering the pain I was in the last time when I ran the Rock ‘N’ Roll Virginia Beach Half Marathon<\/a>. I increased my speed as I felt fit and listened to my body.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The famous Shamrock Marathon\u00a0sandcastle.<\/p>\n