Hampton Half and Rockfest 10/26 (Read 344 times)

Ok.So we get to the race site bout an hour before the start. Had a pretty good parking spot near the start and what we thought would be near the finish. DW decides we can get the car even closer. So we move the car and of course all of the "great spots" were taken so we ended up even further away. We get suited up and are headed towards the start when I try to start my sigma HR monitor/watch ( which I NEVER run without) and it locks up. Does not work. DAMMIT! Ok, so I run without it, why don't I run this back to the car so I don't have to worry bout it during the race. Don't I get to the car and find it LOCKED! With the keys in it! Well isn't this just ducky!! we are approximatly 2hrs from home , not that it matters as we do not have a spare key for this car, and it's less than 20 minutes to the start of the race. I spot a local cop up the road and run over and tell him my story. Sorry sir, can't help you. (damn!) There's a garage up the road, don't know if they are open. Guess what. They weren't. So I run about a half mile back down to the start and tell DW the story. She flags down the next officer and pleads her case. No help here either. So she plays her cop card. ( she's a dispatcher for our PD) This bought her a phone message delivered to one of our boys who was coming down to watch our race. ( hopefully he gets the message ) "All right racers, line up!" DW falls in behind the 10:00 pacer. I ended up behind the 8:30 pacer. The Hampton course is a great course to run. Mostly flat, No real hills to speak of, that starts along the coast and then winds into suburbia for a bit and then turns back onto the coastal route for the last 5 miles back to the finish. Well, a couple of miles in I was running pretty well, felt pretty good, but the conversations of runners just behind me started bugging me ( I was really just in a foul mood ) so I picked up my pace to get away from them and found myself well ahead of the 8:30 pacer. Somewhere around the 5-6 mile mark I recognized the spot where a runner died back in February when we ran the Hampton Hlaf. I made the sign of the cross and said a silent prayer as I ran by and pondered the fact that there was no marker or memorial here. Anyways, mile 8 came and I was on the 5 mile coastal run now. There was an awesome surf rolling in! Then by mile 10 I started slowing up a bit. I think at 11 the 8:30 crew passed me. I wasn't getting winded but my legs were starting to scream. You know that feeling you get when you think something is right around the corner but when you turn the corner you find that there's still another corner up ahead and so on? Yeah, that's how I felt. That finish line kept getting further away. Finally with the line in sight I see the Ironman! our buddy that DW called just before the . He cheered me on and I rounded the last corner to the finish with a 1:55:11 and a new PR! DW came in shortly after with a 2:06:25 and her PB! We had to laugh because now at the finish line our car is 3miles back instead of the half mile it would have benn had we not moved it. Our friend gave us a ride to our car and had the tools to break in to it to boot! So all in all things ended well, but it was a rough start!