Wish you would have gotten that grant Mouse  Don't give up - if you do it again next month - will vote again and again for ya!

Hope your hamstring/IT/Knee issues are resolved.  I think that is a great time.  I normally run at that range.   Rooting for a faster and pain free time next weekend.     

Yep - gave up - I don't know what has happened to this site, but gave up - just put my made up name in the spot where my  name goes and movin on........lots of issues since the negative stuff started popping up regularly and the site was under renovation.....oh wellllll...

@futureeaglemom:  Sorry for the delay - had a bit of trouble logging in recently and I was out of touch while traveling - I recommend traveling unplugged its great....

VB 1/2 was very well run - weather was great til I hit the board walk - sun burned thru the early AM clouds and it got warm very quickly.   Fortunately this occurred for me for only the last 1/2 mile. 

Race logistics:  We stayed on the beach right at 9th street.  Race had free shuttles to start that were punctual and easy to find.  PreRace there were snacks and water.  Not sure how the parking was for folks traveling to race on sunday. 

This was a wave start - race gun was at 0700 my wave  (wave 17!) did not hit start line til almost 7:25....Course was well marked and well watered.  The side bands were fun and there were several spots were local's were up early to cheer everyone on.  its mostly an out a back course, so I was able to see race leaders on there way towards the finish while I was still outbound.  Once again I found the vast majority of runner to be polite, supportive and fun loving.

Cons:  Fairly large finish area and it took me away frm my hotel couple of blocks before I could get free of the restrictions...debating changing hotels to be closer to finish next year.  pretty evident that there are fair amount of folks who fudge their times - makes for more traffic than I am used to back in the pack.  to be fair - I plan on 13:30 pace and start accordingly I hate it when someone pulls up and starts walking without checking behind.  laws of Inertia says I will run into you if you give me less than one meter to slow....I had several cases were I was running/waddling up the back of someone who decided to slow without looking.  I'm not perfect either but I try to stay out of the way.

We made this a long weekend - traveled to VB on thursday before race and departed on tuesday after.  I wanted to miss monday traffic etc...

I believe that the 3:30 goal is very reachable. Just keep moving and keep to your pace.  don't get sucked into fast early pace and burn out.  I tried to keep my pace slower at the start and I felt much better at end than my last 1/2.  coincidence or not, I ran the same time to the second...

You might wanna consider compression for recovery and exercising through minor injuries.  (I say minor, because you don't want to do heavy running on injuries.)  sportscompression.com.  Check out compression socks there.  Helped me and my wife.

@ Ogr44--Thanks for the race advice.  I am a bit worried about starting out too fast.  I don't know if there will be a wave start at the Empire.  Either way, I estimated my race to take longer than I thought, and my long runs have been faster than I have been planning.  I have been doing my runs Galloway style (planned run/walk) but with more run/less walk than he suggests for my pace.  I have also been running longer at the start of my long run through the middle of it, essentially running through walk breaks, and strictly following the run/walk in the last half of the run.  It has been working well, so I think that if I follow the run/walk intervals from the start of the half, I will be OK.

I may plan my vacation around VA Beach next year.  My brother lives in VA Beach--he's a SeaBee --so I have somewhere to stay.  I have other family in MD who will come down, too, so I will have lots of support.  VA Beach RnR is on my bucket list (as is Philly).

@FutureEagleMom - your welcome...If you have inside knowledge of VB your starting out ahead of the crowd.  This was our first extended time at VB.  In my past life I had flown into Oceana once  (diverted by ice storm from landing at NAS WillowGrove and unable to get into Chambers either) 

As for the waddling - I am a firm run/walk and chi running disciple.  I have two rules in a race:   I never walk til I pass someone else walking  (I don't want to be first); and I never pass up water stops  (even on a  5K).  I have not read any of the Galloway so do not know how I overlap.  I found something that works for me.  when I start alternating, I try to keep 13:30 min/mile pace walking, I jog between 10:30 and 11 min/miles.  I also run all downhill's I can.  I try to limit my walk breaks to 1 or 2 mins alternating jogging anywhere 1-3 mins.  I have a solid 2 mile base - so my alternation starts after the 3K mark.  I had for the longest time a 1 mile block - I could run 1 mile then needed to walk - even if just a min - and could run another mile or so.  I pushed thru that earlier this year and now am pushing to break the 2.5 mile block...depending on weather tomorrow I am shooting to waddle 5k straight thru  (only walking at water stop - I cannot run and drink)

Have good race

Hi All! Kind of slow on the board lately. Anyway, I did the Race for the Cure yesterday and finished in 39:41 with a 12:46mm pace...about 30 secs faster than my normal training pace so I'm OK with that. Ended up running taped up with almost 1/3 of a box of KT Tape on both knees and hips for ITBS and runner's knee. Don't really know how well it worked since I'm still sore anyway, but I'll use it during training and more runs and see if I note any improvement. I've been off most of my training for the past 2+ weeks due to the knee and ITBS issues. Have missed 2-3 runs and holding off on most of my cross/wt training trying to rest my knees. I'm hoping that things settle down in the next few weeks as I've gone ahead and registered for the Big Sur River Race 10K in California on 10/22. Crossing my fingers and toes that everything improves at least a bit!

Speaking of toes, I bought some Vibram Five Finger Komodo Sports yesterday. I'm not planning on running with them anytime in the upcoming future, but I figure that by wearing them for everyday shoes I might be able to learn to correct my odd gait and pronation issues with time. I did wear them out for about 3 hours yesterday, dinner & shopping, and they were surprisingly comfy (I'm not a barefoot person...tender feet) so I'm hoping the adjustment is relatively easy. Maybe far out into the future I'll make the leap, but I'm giving it plenty of time to get used to the shoe. Anyone making the move to barefoot running?

Well, have a great week training, wonderful runs, train smart and be safe!

and again....this site never fails to motivate me.  i just finished w2d2.  of c25k.  you guys are awesome.