1. Schedule lots of long races.
2. Do them no matter the weather.
If you haven't been on the East Coast you may have missed the fact that hurricane Matthew hit this weekend Dumping excess rain fall on Virginia, Florida, and the Carolinas. We were lucky and missed the bulk of the storm, however, our remnants hit Saturday night and Sunday morning. Wouldn't you know it, long run scheduled.
I had the luxury of running this race before but this time went down early for packet pick up and paid for the tour of the museum and Piney Point Lighthouse. How often do you get the opportunity to go up in a lighthouse that was built in pre-Civil War times. History - what I love about the East Coast. The walls to the light house are made of solid brick and are over three feet thick at the base!
While picking up my packet I explained to the race director that I had gotten new shoes and my training runs had been terrible. She introduced me to the new shoes song. Apparently, I had failed to serenade my shoes when I took them out of the box. I decided I'd try it because, who knows?
Woke up to the howling wind and rain on Sunday morning and almost crawled back in race. Local race, already had picked up my t-shirt so I kept thinking do I really want to make the volunteers wait until I finish? Will I be the last one to finish? I get ready, get in my car, and begin driving. There are braces and pine needles all over the road. The ditches are full and up to the edge of the road. Seriously considered turning around. Then I realized that I had to run at least ten miles this weekend. If I ran at home, there are a lot more trees to run between in this wind which would terrify me so I knew I'd end up missing the run. I continued driving.
Upon arrival I parked at the neighborhood about a mile from the start. Didn't see the shuttle so hoofed it to the start. Lots of runners drove by but no one offered a lift. By the time I got to the start I was soaked. I eased into the start and fell into my pace. I was by far at the back of the pack, but I am use to that. I plodded along and thought about taking quick little steps. I was surprised by mile 5 to be maintaining my pace. Then we turned around, oh now the wind was in our face. That quickly tired us out, but I was surprised that while my pace slowed it did not slow as much as I thought. I felt like I had the course to myself. The bulk of the runners having finished well ahead of me. Yet, the volunteers at the water stops were helpful and kind. The bike marshals checked in and made sure that we were ok although they had to be miserable biking in the driving rain. The rain did stop near the end but the wind didn't falter.
Still, despite the conditions....I ran a 10 mile PR by about 4.5 minutes! This course is magical. Well managed and pancake flat (except for the bridge). Oh and don't wear headphones! They are the race directors pet peeve and those of us that are local know that she is very serious about this.