I got to the race a little later than expected and found parking. Weather today was 40 degrees, sunny, with a little wind. This was almost perfect running weather. I decided on shorts, long sleave shirt, baseball hat, and gloves. I didn't really have a finish time goal today. I figured I would just let the race develop. My guess for time was between 1:55 - 2:00.

After checking in, it was time to hit the potty line, which was very long. The race was due to start in 5 minutes and they didn't have enough 'johns' for the number of people in the race. The long time in lines forced me to run from the "johns" to the starting line. I missed the pre-race announcements and arrived just as the gun went off. Oh well, no warm up for me.

First mile will have to be my warm up. Things were pretty crowded along the first mile and I had to weave my way in and out of other runners as I started at the back of the pack. I finished first mile at 8:07, which was much faster than I wanted.

I tried to slow down during Miles 2 & 3, but the road was a little narrow and I had to keep pace with the group around me. My times for miles 2 & 3 were around 8:15's. I ended up running with a couple of people I ran with last week during the 25K. About mile 4 I made the decision to let them go ahead, as I felt we were running a little too fast. I thought I would see them later in the race.

The next couple of miles were 8:30 - 8:50ish. However, when I got to the Mile 6 marker, my GPS Forerunner said 7:30 and only 5.85 miles. I decided to take my next mile mark at 1.0 on my GPS. I figured everything would work out at Mile 7. Once again, Mile 7 was short in distance as well. Mile 8 seemed right on, so I figured I missed something and the distance would come out at the end, as this was supposed to be a certified course.

I managed to keep a good pace for the middle part of race and felt pretty strong as I hit Mile 10. For the first time in the race, I calculated my potential finish time and realized that with 9's for the last 3 miles I could finish under 1:50. 1:50 would be a full 6 plus minutes better than my personal best.

It was now time to do some passing. My goal for the last 3 miles was not to be passed. I started using people in front of me as pace rabbits and tried to catch them one by one. At mile 12, I caught my friends who I let go back at mile 4. With 1.1 miles to go, I only need to run a 10 minute mile to break the 1:50 mark. I was very tired on the last mile and did not have anything left to pass anybody, but I was fast enough to keep my pace. Finally, I saw the finish and pushed hard to the end. Arriving a the finish line, I stopped my forerunner and read the time clock as it said 1:48:17. I couldn't believe it. That time was a full 8 minutes faster than my race in January and 24 minutes faster than my best race in 2004.

While walking around to catch my breath, I finally looked again at my Forerunner. I noticed the GPS distance read only 12.7 miles. I checked with someone else with a Forerunner, and he had the same distance. WTF? What happened? I asked my friend and he told me that last night the City of Virginia Beach told race officials that they could not run into Virginia Beach city limits. As a result, the race was shortened. Why didn't they extend the race in Norfolk city limits? Why did they only find this out the night before the race?

Oh well, other than the distance issue, this was a great race for me. If I add 4 minutes for the .4 miles that I missed, my time would be around 1:52. That would have been a personal best - too bad. I'll just have to find another half marathon in the near future.

Run a full 13.1 miles.

Walking around.


A little bit of head wind at points.


Other than the distance, this was a pretty good course. The volunteers along the course were great! Next year, they just have to get permission from appropriate City officials ahead of time.