Virginia is for Lovers 14k Recap- Splits, Swag and After Party!

Good morning lovelies! Thank you to everyone for all of your congratulations and well wishes on my last post- it means a lot :)
Isn't the medal from the race lovely? I was looking at my splits yesterday on garmie and though the course was 8.67 miles, we ended up running 8.73. Definitely a PDR for me! :) I feel somewhat lost now that I'm not following a training schedule. I'm probably going to work on my 5k time until I start training for the half in June, but that's a story for another post. The splits were as follows:

Garmin Total- 8.73 mi/1:29:09/10:12 mi average

• Mile 1- 10:34/mi
• Mile 2- 10:19/mi
• Mile 3- 10:14/mi
• Mile 4-10:08/mi
• Mile 5-10:20/mi
• Mile 6-10:04/mi
• Mile 7-10:30/mi- you can tell that I was battling the elements here. It was so windy!
• Mile 8- 10:10/mi
• last .73- 6:46- average 9:17/mi

Max Pace 7.8 mph during the last .73 :)

Thoughts on my splits: It would have been nice to have negative splits, but overall I am happy with my performance. I was trying maintain a slower pace in the beginning in order to not tire myself out. At one point Bri told me to stop worrying about the garmin and to just run! I felt really strong and often looked down to see my pace hovering around 9:40/miles. When I saw this I forced myself to slow down. I think my pace slowed on mile 5 because I was distracted by all of the great signs. Mile 7 was definitely the worst. That was when the snow was coming down pretty hard and the wind was whipping! Bri definitely pushed me to finish hard at the end. The last mile or so was the only point when I felt truly exerted. Now that I know I have built up some endurance, I am going to work on really challenging myself speedwise in the future. To me, this means running consistently at a 9:00/mi pace :-)


At the finish line, we were handed our medals, a flower (females) and this drink coozy:

The phrase "Run Passionately" was everywhere throughout the race. It is even written down the side of our long sleeve tech shirts. Which, by the way, flipping rock- see for yourselves:

Super cute, right? I didn't wear the tech tee the day of the race, as Bri seems to think that you can't wear the shirt until you've run the race, and I tend to agree with him. Do you feel the same way, or is it not really a big deal to you?

After the race, we headed into the large tent for the after race festivities. It was WARM (which was awesome) and the band was playing music.

Bri immediately headed out to the car to grab our wallets. There were booths selling race gear and of course, I couldn't resist. I have a bit of a coffee mug addiction so purchasing this was a definite: I also purchased a long sleeve navy cotton tee that I didn't get a chance to photograph. It's very cute though!

We were stoked to find out that every person wearing a race bib was entitled to two free yuengling beers and food from Moe's. I love Moe's, so this was awesome (even though it was only 10 in the morning)!

The pic is dark, but I'm enjoying my free yuengling. I only had a few sips, being that what I really wanted was WATER! Bri and I both got burritos and nachos. I didn't eat much of it, but I still thought it was cool! We mingled about for a bit, roaming around all of the vendor booths and listening to music. The Rock 'n Roll VB peeps were there, so I picked up information to register. If you register for the Virginia Beach Rock 'n Roll Half before March 31 (I think) using the code "Boardwalk" you get a discount on your registration fee. Sweet!

At this point, my left knee was killing me, so we called it a day, headed back to the car and went to the Exchange to pick up Season 5 of The Office. :) Bri was very embarrassed because I insisted on wearing my medal in the store. Haha :-)

So, there you have it. All in all a fantastic race, cold weather and all! Thank you for following along with me. I can't wait for next year!