Rock Out!

Shelley and I had a blast this past weekend at the Rock and Roll Half Marathon. This race was the best race I have ever run in terms of organization and support. Shelley got here around noon on Saturday, so we headed off to the boardwalk for some lunch and then walked over to the expo. Since we got there late in the day, it was not crowded. There were several booths that actually offered great deals. Sometimes expos can be like outlets. It supposed to be a deal, but it really isn't. One More Mile was there and they had some really cute things. I especially love the shirt that said "Who Moved the Finish Line?" Shelley got a hat. I bought a long sleeve T-shirt (R&R 1/2) and beach capris (OMM "Running is cheaper than therapy) to wear to the beach party later.

We had a great time over dinner catching up that night and then off to bed for a very early wake up.

We were up by 5AM and gone by 5:30 to make the 7AM start. There were about 17,000 runners for this one. The race organizers were really good about checking numbers for the corrals. Shelley and I fell back to corral 4 (out of 24 corrals) to be with another friend since we weren't racing. They started each corral a minute apart. This worked great. I would love to race this one another year. I would have been in the 2nd corral with only a few in front of me so maneuvering the pack wouldn't have been bad.

There were lots of people on the route even at 7AM. They give a $750 award for the best neighborhood support. Cool, huh? The race supplied lots of water and Accelorade on the course as well as goo at mile 10. There were several misting stations and some residents were even out there with the garden hose and sprinklers for us. It wasn't miserably hot, but the water was thoughtful. The last 3 miles was down the boardwalk with people everywhere to include hanging out on the hotel balconies. The announcing was great. There was a big screen above the finish line broadcasting your finish to the world (Fox sports network). As we crossed the finish, we were given a bottle of water and told to keep walking. Volunteers gave each of us a cold wet towel (a first). Then, we got our medals. By the time we had finished our water, we were handed a bottle of Accelerade. Then there were volunteers lined up to cut our chips off so that we didn't have to bend down (a first). Then we got to the food line. Each runner was given a food bag with an orange, protein bar, and a bagel. This is cool because in many races the food is just laid out and the front runners take everything. This way, the back of the pack is taken care of too. Finally, we got our beach slides. This is my only complaint. They offered 2 sizes for slides, small and large. The smalls were a men's 8 1/2! When most races have more than 50% women now, why would they only have men's sizes? Ian is now sporting my slides.

Shelley had to go home that afternoon, but Pete and I had a blast at the beach party that night! There was plenty of food and beer and fabulous music. They had several bands and then did the awards with a cool video of race highlights. In case you are curious...the female winner did a 1:11, and the male did a 1:02! Interestingly, Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo did a R&R Half in conjunction with us. So, we got to see their message from Kosovo and some of their highlights. We finished the weekend with INXS. Awesome! I would love to come back and do this race again.