Surf
N Santa 5 Miler
December
19, 2015
Virginia
Beach, Virginia
Surf N Santa 5 Miler
was my last race I was registered for the year. It is organized by J&A
racing. I have become a fan of this company since completing in Shamrock race
back in March. They know how to do races and how to properly treat race
finishers.Somehow I signed up for 3 back to back races in December. How did that happen?? This was #3.
I had heard about
the race on Facebook through past participants. I truly enjoy themed races. I
kept the race on my radar and kept an eye on the deadline for when the race
entry would increase. I signed up for the race a few months ago. Then I reached
out to my TIFL sister in Charlotte who is solely responsible for me becoming a
fan of J&A racing, Angel Chappell Jonas. I checked to see if she was doing
the race and she was. I went ahead and signed up. Now that I think about I may
have signed up for this race back in the summer. I remember going to
Huntersville packet pick up in Charlotte and running into Angel and we were
discussing hotel arrangements. Yowzer I really did sign up early. That’s the
real way to save $ on race registration.
I booked the hotel
through Hilton Honors because I am on a SERIOUS mission to earn enough points
to stay at the Hilton Oceanfront resort in Virginia Beach during the summer.
Hotel is booked. I was in Charlotte last weekend for Reindeer Romp. Angel and I
were making final logistics for our trip. We decided since she was driving up
from Charlotte. I would drive from Raleigh to Virginia Beach. It really made
the most sense. We drove up to VA beach on Friday evening. Our first stop was
packet pickup. We arrived at the convention center about an hour before race
expo closed. We picked up our packets, hit the J&A store which I truly went
into a conniption back in March buying everything that said 13.1 on it lol.
This time I had much better control. I only purchased 1 shirt and 1 pint glass.
Go me! We leave the expo and head over to our hotel. Siri is leading the way
but everything looks completely different at night. Siri is a tad bit slow in
telling us when to make the turns. We see the Hampton inn entrance AFTER we
pass it. Thanks Siri. I end up turning into the exit instead of the entrance.
No cop sees us so no ticket. We check into the hotel. Then go find some dinner.
The race is on Saturday
at 4:30pm. This is my first evening race. I’m so used to having to get up at
ZERO dark thirty for races. This is a nice change of pace. Get to sleep in on
race day. Where they do that at?? We leisurely get up and thanks to Yelp we
find a local breakfast spot. Carb loading at its best with the egg scramble.
This decadent breakfast menu item is slowly putting me in a food coma. We make
a stop at Walgreen’s on the way back to the room. Then we are relaxing in the
room to get mentally ready for the race. Did I mention the weather forecast at
race time is 45 DEGREES? Baby it’s cold outside. I’m a southern lady who LOVES
the cold. I know go figure. I have brought lots of layering options. We decide
to head over to the convention center, the START/FINISH of the race around 3.
As we head over to the convention center, we see fellow races walking from
their hotel to the convention center. Angel and I are both thinking “once they finish
the race, they will have to WALK back to their room” No thank you. We make a
pit stop at 7-11 so I can get a water for my camel bak. I’m starting to learn
my way around. We park in the lot. Then we make our way over to the convention
center. I’m going to say ALL race participants are waiting inside before the
race starts because it is a gaggle of folks in here. I make my way to the
restroom and based on the line I am not the only one who had this idea. We wait
around and do some people watching. People really go all out in terms of
costumes. I even see a few Star Wars costumes, yeah!! Some folks are really
creative. The one that stands out to me is a guy dressed as Santa in a homemade
sleigh with I’m assuming his girlfriend or wife dressed as a reindeer pulling
his sleigh.
The announcer
comes on over the PA system. “If you can hear my voice, you are in the wrong
place. Head to the start line for the race” We leave the warmth of the
convention center and head into the cold that is the start line. We are in
corral 5. We line up with our corral. There is a wind whipping through which
makes it feel about 10 degrees colder. I’m starting to rethink my life choices
at this point. I’m here and there is 5 miles to get it in before I can call it
quits. Race starts at 4:30pm. They move us out by corral. Our coral makes it to
the start line about 4:41 minutes into the race. When you start a race with the
crowd, you can easily get caught up with the hype of the crowd and start off to
fast. I have had this happen to me a few times. About 5 minutes down the road,
my body tells me to slow it up because this is not our pace. Angel and I are
walking together. We are checking out the costumes while we people watch. We get
passed by another Santa and reindeer. His sleigh has a sign that reads “Santa
and his Ho Ho Ho’s”. Cute. We head down from the convention center and I’m not
sure what the distance is but we are almost at the first turn onto Atlantic
Avenue. I see the lead cars and cyclists turning to the convention center. We
all scream out to the lead guy. Dude is flying towards the finish line. There
is 1 other guy not too far behind him. We think wow he’s already finishing and
we are just starting. I think of the words Melva Peed told me “your race your
pace”. We head onto Atlantic Avenue. We hit mile 1. Right pass mile 1 is the
first water stop and wouldn’t you know it, it’s right by our hotel. A part of
me wants to make a beeline for the room. The way my bling obsession is set up I
have to cross the finish line. Also the Max is parked at the convention center.
We turn onto the boardwalk right behind Hampton Inn. As we turn onto the
boardwalk, we are starting to lose daylight. They have holiday lights set up on
the boardwalk. It is GORGEOUS. I’ve read on the race site that all runners have
to be off the boardwalk by 5:45pm. In my head I’m thinking I can’t really enjoy
the lights because we have to “fly like the wind bulls-eye” so we don’t get
pulled off the course. We pass mile 2 on the boardwalk. I keep an eye out for
The Oceanfront Inn because that’s where we are staying for Shamrock. When I see
it, I tell Angel “there it is”. We booked it last night. Multi-tasking at its
best. It’s right at the finish line for shamrock. You have no idea how HUGE
that is. This years’ hotel was like a mile away. You may think that’s not a
lot. After you have just finished a half marathon another mile feels like 200
miles. We are coming up on another stop. I see all these folks dressed like
gingerbread men. I don’t see any cookies. Turns out they ran out of cookies.
Story of my life for being the back of the pack. At this point, I am so ready
to get off this … boardwalk. It feels like it’s going on forever. I see the
light show is ending. The last light display shows “Living the beach life” I
figure I have time to snap a picture. Picture comes out pretty good. We turn
off the boardwalk and back onto Atlantic. We pass mile 3. We only have 2 more
miles left to go. We head towards the last water stop right by the Hilton
resort that I am obsessed with. The water stop is manned by what I am going to
assume is college students because they are so HYPE angel and I are wondering
what the heck did they have to drink and can we get some of it. We see a cop
car head towards us and he tells us to get on the sidewalk. We get on the
sidewalk. Literally 5 minutes later, one of the J&A race vehicles pulls up
to us and tells us to get on the street because the course is still open. I
tell Angel there must be a breakdown in communication because we have been told
2 different things. We get back on the road. We turn on 19th street
to head back to the convention center. Angel can tell my breathing is getting
really ragged. She gets my chews out my camel back. I was slipping and not
taking my nutrition. I take a few stinger chews and guzzle some water and I get
a 2nd life to make the last mileage to the finish. Angel tells me we
are getting close because we can see the convention center. I tell her so close
but yet so far. The course has going around the back of the convention center.
This reminds of Reindeer Romp last weekend in Charlotte. As we make the last
turn, 1 of the race volunteers walks up to us. She tells us she is going to
walk us in. She tells us “I’m so glad you all didn’t quit” I tell her of course
not this is where the car is parked. She asks Angel if I have been joking like
this through the entire race lol. We are coming to the final stretch, the
finish line shoot is near and then we walk into the convention center and I see
the finish line. I’m so excited that this adventure is coming to an end. It is
so cool the finish line is inside the convention center. I hear the race
announcer calling our names. There are a few folks hanging around cheering us
on. Official finish time is 01:52. My last race for 2015 is COMPLETE.
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