It was great to return to VA beach again for...yes, another race! However, this time it was not I who was running, but various friends of mine. And also, running in her first half-marathon, my wonderful girlfriend! She had been training for this for months...and this was the big weekend where we'd see if she'd cross the finish line in glorious victory, or be carried away in a broken, dehydrated, nauseous heap. Only time would tell...
Friday night, Jessie called me and asked if it was cool if I drive, because Lisa got sick and couldn't go. I had some reservations, because my car needed to go in for some maintenance, and I didn't want to put all the miles on it. But I figured it would make it ok, so I agreed. When I got to her house in the morning, Jessie decided that she wanted to drive too, just in case something happened to my car on the way. I agreed, and we headed down there. We actually made great time, getting down there in a little over 3 hours. Once we were there, we met up with Corie, Matt, Joneil and Carla. After seeing Corie's new place and talking for a bit, myself, Jessie and Kasia headed down to the convention center to pick up Jessie's race packet and to shop at the runner's expo. I love those expos...there is always all kinds of cool stuff; makes me wanna run more races just so I can buy the stuff!
After picking up the packet, we headed down to the beach to do some exploring. We also met up with Kasia's friend Erin and the four of us walked around the boardwalk, exploring the shops and the boardwalk area. It was a lot of fun; Erin was really cool and fun-loving.
Eventually, Kasia left with Erin to get ready for their dates later that evening. Jessie and I headed back to the apartment, and we met up with the rest of the group, including Elaine and Shannon. We hung at the apartment playing Spades, one of my favorite card games. I had to teach Jessie, Elaine and Shannon how to play, but they all did very well once we got going. We were all just hanging out, waiting for the big dinner we had planned for that night. It turned out to be really crazy. I thought it would just be our group and some other people from the VA Beach church, but it turned out to be a whole BUNCH of people from the VA Beach church...our group ended up being over 20 people! This translated into a monster wait for our tables. Jessie did not want to wait that long, because she didn't want to be up really late, what with the race early in the morning and all. So she, myself, Roxy and Dave went to Long Star Steakhouse to eat. There was a much shorter wait there, and we got our food rather quickly and ate and had a great time. After we finished, they dropped off myself and Jessie at Corie's place, and Jessie crashed and I picked up my car to go to the household where I would be crashing for the night. I stayed with Kevin Roland and some other brothers from the VA Beach church. They had a nice place, and Joneil and Matt joined me a few minutes after I arrived. We all crashed and got ready for the race tomorrow.
We got up early (around 5am) and got ready to head out. Joneil was running the race, as well as some of the other guys who lived in the house. We packed up and headed down to the boardwalk. After an adventure of trying to find parking, we found some spots and headed to the starting line. It was great to see all the people out there ready to run, even though it was pretty cold and windy outside. There must have been thousands of people there. Some were dressed in really cool costumes...races always draw people in great costumes! Since it was St. Patrick's day weekend, I'm sure you can guess what lots of people were wearing. The race started on time, and myself and Matt saw everybody off. Then we went on a quest to find a clean bathroom to use. We wern't trying to use the port-a-pots, and all the hotel bathrooms were NASTY. Finally, we broke down and used the pots. Then we went out on the beach and prayed. I tell ya, even in cold weather, the beach is beautiful. So peaceful and tranquil. It would be sweet to own a beach house someday. Even to rent one for the summer would be sweet.
A little over two hours later, Jessie and Corie finished the race. By then, Joneil had finished and he, myself, Matt, Kasia, Carla, Elaine, Kasia and Erin had gathered to cheer them on to the finish. I was so proud of Jessie...she finished the race with no problems and made a really good time (a little over two hours I think). After the race, Jessie met up with a couple of her college roommates who had come down to watch her run, and myself and everyone else went to the VA Beach church for service. After service, it was time for the celabratory post-race meal. We had it at Fuddruckers. Mmmm mmmm good!
After Fuddruckers, it was back to Corie's place for a nap. A few of us had to rest up for that long drive back. Overall, it was a fantastic weekend. I had a great time, and I hope my race (yikes!) in Charlottsville will be as fun!
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