Soooo…Virginia Beach. That was an interesting trip!
We cashed in all of our miles to book this birthday trip for Erik, which fell during Labor Day weekend and during the Great American Music Festival. To keep things affordable, we flew into Washington DC and decided to drive to Virginia Beach.
A road trip would be fun! We love road trips! However, this was a road trip like no other. A 3:30 drive quickly turned into a 5 hour trip, and it being on the heels of a red eye made it even harder on the driver (him). We napped at a rest stop along the way to make things a little easier.
Then, on top of that, our Airbnb was pretty awful, so we had to book a new hotel at the last minute. Our race weekend was off to a pretty rocky start.
We got to the expo though and did our usual rounds – photos and bib pickup. I even got to sign the wall this time, and got my race shirt personalized!
After securing a place to rest for the night that wasn’t terrible, we prepped our stuff and relaxed. The air was heavy, warm, and dewy. It felt like we were swimming where ever we walked. It was weird, almost like Nashville, except without the heat.
The next morning, we headed to the race start. Thanks to our hotel, it was a quick 15 minute walk. That was probably one of the closest hotels I’ve ever stayed at…with exception of the one at Rock n Roll Vegas in 2013 probably, when I stayed on the same block as the finish line. That was just dreamy. I seeded myself in the back corral, since my training in August was completely off. I think I completed a handful of runs, but definitely no triathlon training. I felt a bit unconditioned than usual, so I figured I’d hang out with the cool kids.
Most of the corrals were pretty low energy. It seemed like the even the emcee was having a hard time getting them pumped up, and she is always super enthusiastic and every single race! When it came time for us, at least we got into the rock ‘n roll spirit.
Apparently the slower folks save their energy for the party?
Anyhow, the race conditions were miserable, so I didn’t take any photos. The mugginess always bother me, that and headwind, so my phone didn’t make it out of my hydration pack. I’ve been sticking to my handheld water bottle lately, and the phone barely fits inside of it. Taking it out is more trouble than it’s worth, and the route wasn’t too scenic towards the end anyways.
The course itself was fairly flat. As I was finishing up my second mile or so, the winners of the race were finishing up. I saw the first, second, and third place men and women. Pretty cool. It reminded me of Liverpool! I kept going and the environment changed quite a bit, going from beachfront to a lush forest. We ran through a residential area, and then around an army base, back up a bridge, and then along the waterfront for a pier finish. The sun came out and I didn’t put on a lot of sunscreen in the morning, so I decided to gun it towards the end and run the last 2-3 miles continuously (as opposed to sticking with my run/walk intervals). I just wanted to get out of the sun so that I didn’t burn!
I ended up finishing my ninth race with three medals: the half marathon medal, the 9th challenge medal, and the Beach to Beach medal (San Diego and Virginia Beach medal). Sweet race bling!
After a disco nap, we headed back out for some pizza and the music festival on the beach.
And then, we were back off to Denver.
Since this was my 9th Rock n Roll race this year, this also means that I have 6 more to go: 10) Philadelphia 11) San Jose 12) Los Angeles 13) Denver 14) Savannah or San Antonio 15) Las Vegas.
Next stop…Disneyland Paris!
Amara in Training 