Shamrock Half Marathon 2026, Why Not?

 

Image credit: J&A Racing

 

Preface

Let’s get it started. Enough of me complaining about being fat and struggle ass runner. Ok, so I haven’t technically completed a race since last May, but I have decided to throw my hat in the ring to run Shamrock Half Marathon 2026 in my hometown of Va. Beach, Va. The hubby, dog and I (aka Team Kwablón) will make this a nice extended weekend. That way I’ll have an opportunity to run this half marathon and visit friends and family. 

Jumping Back In

I ran this half marathon a 2-3 years ago and had a blast. The course is pretty flat and easy; there’s a decent amount of crowd support; and there is a pretty cool after party.

 

Image credit: J&A Racing

 

Unfortunately, I could not partake too much in the post-race festivities the last time I ran this half because my father’s car was towed and I had to help him recover his car. The only (very minor) complaint is that I wish the race incorporated more of Va Beach Oceanfront’s boardwalk.

 
 

Random Trivia: did you know that Va Beach holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s longest pleasure beach (35 miles)? I think a pleasure beach is a beach that has a combination of recreational activities and attractions. 

Geez. First, hotels are pricey. Ok, so our hotel is not that much; however, I think it is a bit pricey for the area. Perhaps, I’m a biased because I’m from the area and have the POV of y’all are charging this much for THAT?! Second, hotels are pricey when you need one that is pet-friendly. That said, we booked a place that’s on the oceanfront, but not too far from the start and finish line. Although I wish we were a bit more central to all of the fun on the boardwalk, being in the central section of the boardwalk is NOT worth paying an extra $75+ per night. LOL. Below, I have a random rant about my experience trying to book a hotel. 

Training Plan?

Before I get too excited, I really have to have a come to Jesus moment because this round of training will need to be completely different to my previous half marathon trainings. For instance, I will need to spend about a month to reacclimatize myself to running on a regular basis. Form now to December 30th-ish will be my re-introduction to running. Then, January onward will be my “real” training. Also, another important factor, I must do daily stretches and post-run stretches - no IFs, ANDs, or BUTs. 

Believe it or not, I’m actually very excited to start my running journey again. However, I have to remember not to beat myself up too much when I do not achieve specific goals. When I started running back in 2010, I had an advantage of being in decent cardio shape (e.g., hitting the gym 3-4 times a week, riding my bicycle to work 3-5 times a week, and doing long-distance [30-100-mile] bike tours). Now, I’m starting this journey at 0. Actually, I take that back, I’m starting this journey at -10 because I am in horrible shape. LOL. It’s almost as if I have to get into shape just to start properly training. 

Customer Service/Q&A Rant:

 
 

Before I begin my rant, I know that I can be a bit verbose/longwinded when it comes to this blog. ;) BUT, this medium more less is a representation of my random ass thoughts. Hey, admitting the problem is the first step. However, one thing that annoys the SHIT out of me is when I receive a long-winded, back and forth response in response to a SIMPLE question.

The organizers of the half marathon has a list of participating hotels with discounted rates. Since I’m traveling with a dog, I decided to call hotels before making my reservations to ensure they were dog-friendly. So for that, my simple question was: Is this hotel dog-friendly? In my opinion, this question should result in a simple yes/no response. Calling one hotel lead me down this annoying path of a Q&A session "forcing" me to hang up on the receptionist. Yes, it was rude, but the guy broke me with his 50 million questions in response to my ONE simple question. For my half-assed defense, I did hang up on him while I was on hold. ;)  

Snippets of the dialogue

  • How did you find this hotel? Which dates are you thinking?

  • Are you military?

  • Are you open to staying in another hotel in the area? If we do not have a room available, perhaps, I can book your stay at another place?

  • Ok, it looks like we have ONE pet-friendly room available with a rate ____?

  • Oh you have a discount code? Can I ask where you found it?

  • Please hold while I confirm the booking discount code.

I get the guy was doing his job, BUT I needed only one piece of information. However, I’m sure he was trying to pull a bait and switch. For instance, during that call, I was on the hotel’s website and there were at least 10 available rooms. Also, the rates he posted were way higher than those on the website. Oh, crap, that reminds me to double check if the hotel that I booked is pet-friendly even though the website said it was pet-friendly.

Race Report: PNC Alexandria Half Marathon

 
 

DATE: April 27, 2025

DISTANCE: 13.1 Miles

PLACE: alexandria, Va

WEATHER: 55F

OFFICIAL TIME / PACE: 2:32ISH

FINISHERS: ????

SWAG: Finisher's medal, tech T, ROV ENERGY DRINK, COUPONS FOR FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES

 

The course

 

Quick Thoughts

Pretty nice and easy half marathon that's super flat with old town vibes.

 

Mile 2 - leaving Old Town, Alexandria

 

General thoughts

Although I did not really train for this half marathon, it felt great to get another half marathon under my belt (well, under my shoes).

Expo

Unfortunately, there was not really much of an expo for this half marathon. Bib pick up pretty much was traveling to Pacers Running Store in Alexandria; grabbing a bib, drop bag, T-shirt and; bouncing. Bib pickup probably was low-key because this was the inaugural half marathon, so the organizers probably did not think it would be worth it to have a real expo.

 
 

While I’m not super into HUGE race expos (because I'm a grab and go kind of guy), I was a little bit disappointed by the "low-keyness" of bib pick up. Why? It’s about a 1.25 hr, $7.5 subway ride (each way) from my part of the world to Alexandria, VA. This trip used up all of my little money on my SmarTrip card. ;)

 

SmarTrip card balance

 

Yes, I could have driven to Alexandria, BUT that traffic is NO joke. Now that the organizers know how many folks paid for the 5K and half marathon, perhaps, they can either have an actual expo or have an off-site bib pick (e.g., somewhere in DC). 

While there was not too much to write home about regarding the official bib pick up, I did have an absolute blast at Hard Times Cafe. Primarily, I stopped by this spot to get a bite to eat before 1.5-2 hr subway trip home.

 

Outside Hard Time Cafe

 

I ended up staying at the restaurant/bar for a couple of hours chatting with a couple of locals. The folks in this town (or at least at the Hard Time Cafe) were so friendly because I willingly was roped into several conversations. It also helped that the food and adult beverages were somewhat on the cheap side. A huge chili burger and fries, a margarita, two tall beers, and two whiskeys on the rocks was like $50. Actually, I think the bartender might have forgotten to charge me for one of the whiskeys.

Half-Marathon logistics

 

Bib stuff

 

I think this was the first time in a long time, that everything went right the morning of the race. Preparing EVERYTHING the night before really helped matters...Duh, Kwame. Also, only having to poop twice instead of 3-5 times really increased efficiency during my pre-leaving the apartment for a race routine. I have to say that I am very happy that the organizers worked out an arrangement for FREE garage parking for this event.

Race time

 

Near the start

 

With the exception for running through Old Town, I thought the course was somewhat plain Jane because it was out and in course. I find these courses a bit boring because you pretty much see the same things twice (granted from a different POV). You know, kind of a what have you done for me lately sentiment. ;) Well, one cool thing about these types of races, you can see the super fast people on there way back to the finish.

 

Leader of the half marathon (at Mile 8 or 9). I'm not sure if he actually won or not.

 

On one hand, this is very inspirational. On the other hand, you realize how “slow” you are or how much ground you still have left to cover before reaching the finish line. I think the turnaround point was located around Mile 7.5.

 

Turn around. Every now and then, I get a little bit lonely, and you're never coming around. Turn around.

 

Actually, I’m gonna turn this negative into a positive. I want to use this experience as a starting point to get back into decent running shape over the remainder of this year. Note there might be a lot of complaining for this because kicking this off right before summer in the hot- and humid-ass mid-Atlantic region is no fun.  

My plan for running this half was pretty simple in that I cycled between these two running plans from Mile 2 to the finish line:

  • Cycle A: Run 0.75 miles and walk for 0.25 miles.

  • Cycle B: Run 1.75 miles and walk for 0.25 miles.

Since the weather was perfect for me (about 55F with some cool breezes), I received several bursts of energy that "allowed" me to do fartleks for the last third of the half. Maybe the bursts of energy happen because I wanted to warm up by running a bit faster.

 

Back in Old Town, Alexandria

 

Finish

 

Kwame with his medal

 

The organizers gave us a decent post-race party. Like most races, I did not stick around too long after finishing. I pretty much drank my complimentary beer, changed into my regular clothes, and bounced.

 

Kwame with his medal AND beer (an IPA of sorts)

 

Since I was a bit early for my post-race brunch plans with the hubby and a college friend, my medal "suggested" that we hit up the Spanish bar, Barca (boat; not to be confused with Barça - abbreviation for Barcelona), for a few pre-brunch cocktails. 

 
 

Would I run this half marathon again? 

I think that I would run this half marathon again for a few reasons. 

-Pretty cheap at 90 bucks (early registration) relative to other biggish races in the area. 

-Relatively close to where I live (about a 30-45 minute drive). Although bib pick up is a bit of a pain because there never seems to be a good time to drive to Alexandria during the work week. Hopefully, in the future, the organizers will have off-site pick up somewhere in DC. Since the race was a decent size, I doubt the organizers will have race-day pickup. Or, they might be like some races where race-day pickup will cost you another 30 bucks.

-Held during a decent time of year when it’s not too cold or too hot. The race date (April 27, 2025) is pretty close to The Perfect Date day (April 25th according to Miss Congeniality). ;)

 
 

My "performance"

Since I was taking it very easy, it gave me a chance to really "enjoy" this half marathon. I went into this half marathon just to finish, so I was not too disappointed with my performance. Actually, I take this back a little bit. Since I kind of pushed myself during last third of the half, I was sure that I was going to get a sub 2:30 time. Unfortunately, I missed this mark by two minutes. This was totally my fault because I kind of BS'ed during the first mile.

 
 

Where do I go from here?

Not really sure. However, I have been receiving a lot of notifications on Facebook about Richmond's Marathon. Do I want to work my way back to Richmond over the next seven months?

 

Richmond Marathon ad on Facebook

 

Race Report: Rock n Roll DC Half

 
Run Rock n Roll DC Half Marathon Banner

Image courtesy of Rock n Roll

 

DATE: March 15, 2025

DISTANCE: 13.1 Miles

PLACE: Washington DC

WEATHER:  58F

OFFICIAL TIME / PACE: Like Bruno will not speak of such things.

FINISHERS: ????

SWAG: Finisher's medal and a tech T

 
 

Quick Thoughts:

After running a November marathon with little preparation, running a March half marathon with little preparation is a walk in the park. ;) However, I do not recommend doing this.

 
 

Although training for my first half marathon of 2025 was a little on the weak side, I'm glad that I powered through. Running this half marathon was a slap in the face that I need to do a bit better with my fitness.

Expo:

I thought the Expo, which was held at Walter E. Washington Convention Center, was a bit meh. However, I think the "meh-ness" was due to my crummy attitude. Since the recent Presidential election, I tend to feel a sense of uneasiness for the first 30-60 of arriving to DC. I guess that I feel that DC is now the epicenter of this administration's f*ckery. So, I was kind of team "get in and get out" for the expo. This should tell you the level of my "meh-ness": I did not stop by the Fitvine booth to grab a couple of adult beverages. Y'all know that I enjoy a free adult beverage or three.

 
 

I thought the Expo was pretty well organized, which allowed the runners to grab their race materials and bounce. Although I tend not to buy a lot of things at race expos, I was a bit disappointed that there were not a lot of items to purchase from the official race store. Normally, this is not a big deal for me UNLESS I really want to buy something. Now, I'm in the habit of collecting magnets for marathons and half marathons....even though I convert my finisher medals and mount them on the fridge. Unfortunately, the official race store did not have any magnets for the half. Either the half marathon magnets are really popular, or they did not make enough for this particular half marathon. Buuuut, they did have a lot of stickers.

 
 

Race prices are getting out of control.

I cannot believe folks would pay $215 for a last-minute entry. I think the original price was around $125. Eh, I guess if you got it, flaunt it.

 
 

The fact that the new price was hand-written makes me believe that they were changing the last-minute price on a whim.

Seriously a $12+ online processing fee?!!!!

 
 

C'mon, the processing fee is 13% of the total cost, which is out of control for me. Perhaps, the online processing fee includes taxes.

I thought putting our names on a screen near the expo's exit was a cute gesture.

 
 

Half-Marathon logistics:

Ugh, instead of the alarm going off at 4:30 am, my goof troop a** accidentally set the alarm for 4:30 pm. Not really sure how that happen because I typically use a 24 hour display. Unfortunately, waking up at 5:30 am caused me to go into panic mode.

Unlike the debacle of getting to the race last year, I decided to drive into the city and pay for all day parking. This definitely made race logistics a bit more manageable, and less stressful.

 
 

Race time

 
 

For this half marathon, I had a simple plan: cycle through running for 1 mile and walking for 0.25 miles. I'll admit that I did not run as hard as I wanted to run during the run cycles, but a finish is a finish...I guess. Looking back, I was in a bit of a crummy mode at the start because my back was giving me some issues. Ok, so I have been dealing with lower back issues for a bit. However, I think that I'm working through another back issue in that I may have pulled a muscle in the mid section of my back. AH! The joys of getting older.

For the most part, I enjoyed the course. Also, the weather was pretty nice because it was not too hot or too cold. However, it was VERY foggy - not sure if that was a good or bad thing. I guess it was a bad thing because Siri said it was supposed to be sunny. Then again, maybe it was a good thing because it kept the weather on the cool side.

 
 

Keeping true with the Rock n Roll brand, the race had plenty of entertainment throughout the course. The drummers were one of my favorite highlights during this half.

 
 

I was especially proud of myself during the Rock Creek Park section of the course.

 
 

While I did not have any real goals for this half, I wanted to run the big climb (around Mile 7) without walking.

 
 

I'm quite proud to say that I managed to run the entire incline. Now, I did walk as soon as I reached the summit because that climb is no joke.

I know this St. Jude's Children Hospital section of the race was supposed to be inspirational, but I was overcome with feelings of anger and sadness.

 
 

No, I was not angry or sad about children cancer survivors. I was angry and sad about how the new administration's crazy plans will end up hurting (or killing) cancer research, which will end up hurting and killing more folks.

Speaking of this new administration, this sign definitely put momentary smile on my face.

 
 

Last year, I remember having a great sense of pride when seeing this view during the last stretch of the half.

 
 

This year...not so much.

Tee hee. During one of my walk cycles, I had the opportunity to pass some knowledge to another runner.

 
 

Another runner joked and said that we should take 66 all the way to California. In a cheerful manner, I told him that this is I66 (which goes between somewhere in Virginia to DC), not the famous Route 66 that goes from Chicago, IL to Los Angles, CA.

Finish

 
 

While I did not run or finish the race that I wanted to run, I came to the conclusion that a finish is a finish (like I mentioned above). Many times, you do not run the race you want, you run the race that you train for. Since I did not train as hard as I would have liked, I definitely ran what I "trained" for.

I thought the post-race festivities were fine, but I did not stick around for too long. Ok, I stuck around to get my complimentary champagNE and beer.

 
 

Actually, I did stick around to hear a couple of songs from this 90s tribute band. I was really jamming out to the band's rendition of Natalie Imbruglia's Torn. Now that I think of it, wasn't Natalie's version a revamp of someone else's version? Or is it the other way around?

 
 

Post-race shenanigans

After finishing the half, I visited a Planet Fitness to stretch, use a massage bed, take a wh*re's bath, and change into some dry clothes. Since I was starving, I picked up a doughnut from Krispy Kreme before going to brunch. Man, two of these MINI doughnuts were like four bucks!!!

 
 

I get that St. Paddy's Day was the following Monday, but I though some of these green doughnuts (e.g., the ones on the second row from the bottom) looked disgusting.

 
 

I finally met up with the hubby and a friend for an AYCE/AYCD brunch at a Lebanese restaurant. I even let the medal celebrate with the finest champaNE known to man. ;)

My "performance"

Since i was taking it very easy, it gave me a chance to really "enjoy" this half marathon. Since I went into this half marathon just to finish, I was not too disappointed with my performance. However, I want to get out of this mindset of running just to finish because I do not think my times l will improve with a complacent mindset. Then I'll get to the point of thinking what's the use of paying $150+ just to run 13.1 or 26.2 miles.

 
 

Where do I go from here?

TBD. However, I do have the PNC Alexandria Half Marathon at the end of April.

 
 

Would I run RnR DC Half again?

 
 

I always complain about the Rock n Roll's "struggleness". However, I think at this point, I'm used to the struggle, so I'll more thank likely run this half again. Primarily because it's technically a local race for me, and there are not too many big long distance races in the area. I probably should purchase my race registration now since it's in the low $100 range.

Playlist:

Since I was extremely behind with Eurovision 2025, I decided to listen to all of the released songs for this year's contest WITHOUT skipping any while powering through 13.1 miles. It's kind of interesting because I tolerated quite a few songs that I originally hated. However, I think some of this sentiment is due to listening while running. Many of the songs from this year's contest have high beats per minute (bpm), which kept my legs moving. Hopefully, no one recording me trying to sing the Finnish- and Swedish-language songs. Laura Thorn's La Poupée Monte Le Son (The Doll turns up the Sound) was a huge shock for me. Until the half, I hated this song, but now, it's one of my favorites from Eurovision 2025. Originally, I thought it was a simple song about a doll looking for love or something, but it actually has themes of women empowerment, which isn't a bad thing. After finishing the entire playlist, which is about about 1.5 hrs, I pretty much put this song (and a few others) on repeat. Doing so gave me an opportunity for half ass understanding the gist of this French-language song.

 
 
 
 
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RnR Washington DC Half: T minus 6 days

 
Run Rock n Roll DC Half Marathon Banner

Image courtesy of Rock n Roll

 

Quick Thoughts:

-I'm well prepared to know that this is going to be my worst half marathon even. You know what? I'm perfectly fine with it...for now.

-This half marathon is going to be my Day 0 for getting back into my running groove. It has been a rough couple of months.

-Random purchase: Since I have been having issues waking up in the morning, I purchased this alarm clock, which has a bed shaker. Ok, I do not have a problem waking up, I have a problem actually getting out of bed. Normally, I try to wake up around 4/4:30 am to hit the gym. However, I do not want to wake up the hubby with a loud alarm. Although the alarm shakes the bed, if I position it in between my two pillows, it shakes my side of the bed just enough to wake me but not wake him.

 
 

-You know what's funny. The organizers of RnR DC Half give detailed instructions on how take the metro to the the expo, but the information is very limited (or rather, non existent) for using the metro.

This is kind of annoying, because taking the metro will work if you are in DC and not in the burbs. Having run this half last year, I was in a world of problems because I did not learn until the day of the half marathon (around 3am when I woke up) that the metro does start running until 7:00 am on weekends. I ended up taking a ride share, AND I still almost missed the half.

-The other lesson that I learned: I should aim to get to the start around 7am and just hang out for an hour. Last year, I was EXTREMELY stressed getting to the start. Even though I took an Uber (I think I left my place around 6:30 am), the DC traffic was so bad with the road closures that I ended up having to rent a city bike and bike three miles to the start. Oh, it gets even more annoying. Once I arrived to the start area, the closest bike docking station was full. Ugh, I ended up having to ride the bike another 1.5 miles from the starting area to find a place with a free spot to dock the bike. This meant that I had to run/jog 1.5 miles to the start. I was extremely lucky because I arrived to the bag drop 2-3 minutes before the trucks were about to head off to the finish area. Needless to say, I was over running this half marathon before I even arrived to the start. Funny/sad thing about the bag drop situation: While running the half, I saw several people running with their clear bags because they missed the cutoff for the bag drop.

-I wonder where I should have a post-race brunch. Maybe the all you can eat and drink Balkan Restaurant...or maybe the all you can eat and drink Lebanese place. The Lebanese place doesn't play bc they just leave the bottles of champagne on your table and let you handle business.

-Looks like the weather is going to be nice on Saturday.

 

Image adapted from Beachbody

 

-Since this half marathon is going to be a disaster, I just registered to run the Alexandria Half Marathon near the end of April.

 
 

-LOL. What any interesting piece of information that I "have" to fill out

 
 

-Y'all need to stop. Man, these race organizers will try to charge you for everything in addition to $95 for the half itself and $8.95 for the registration fee. 1. For an extra 20 bucks, you can get a no questions asked refund ticket. 2. For an extra 40 bucks, you can pick up your race packet on race day. I swear if it isn't one thing or another.