I opted in for the Whale Challenge at the Shamrock Marathon this year. So run the 8k on Saturday, and the Full on Sunday. I figured, since I would do a shakeout run anyway, might as well go in for the additional race, right?

Overall: I signed up for the race so that it would be a flat, early spring race, hopefully with good weather and cooler temps. As race day approached, it became more and more evident that the weather would not cooperate. I woke up to about 30 mph winds and rain. If it wasn't a race, I would have rolled over and went back to bed. In other words, if it was a training run, I wouldn't have gone out in that weather.

But it was race day, and I didn't fly out to Virginia to not run. Fortunately, it had mostly stopped the torrential rain by the start of the Full. We went out with the wind, so the first six miles or so were incredibly easy. Turning around heading into the wind was a different story. Especially right before the half-way point, we were on the boardwalk. Cool scenery, but no coverage from the wind. Worse, I wasn't close enough to a group to draft, and probably expended more energy than I should have there.

I though the second half of the race was harder than the first (other than for the obvious reasons of it being the second half of a marathon into the wind). Mentally, I knew the turnaround was "somewhere" but I wasn't sure where. Then I got into the bad state of counting how many blocks I had run, since all of the roads are numbers. Let's just say, the race didn't go well.

T-Shirts/Swag - Awesome. Probably the best of any race I've run. Loved the shirt from the marathon, and the finishers hat is probably my favorite hat to run in. The beach towel was also a nice plus!

Aid Stations - They seemed fine. I honestly don't remember much of the aid stations from this race.

Course Scenery - I think had it not been cold, rainy, and windy the scenery would have seemed a lot nicer. But I wasn't concentrating on the scenery at this race, I was just trying to survive the course.

Expo - Excellent expo. One of the better ones that I've been to. Huge space and easy packet pickup. To this day, it is the only expo where I actually bought something.

Elevation - Super duper flat. A couple inclines, but nothing that I would categorize as a "hill."

Parking/Access - I do have a reason for giving this only two stars. I stayed at an AirBnB that was basically right on the course. I figured it would be nice, and only two miles from the start finish. Seems like a great plan, right? Wrong. Since I was on the marathon (and half marathon) course, the road was closed. Uber drivers couldn't get to me, and I didn't have a car on hand. Fortunately, a very kind woman, also headed to the race, drove me down to the start! Still, way harder than I thought it would be.

All in all, this was a good race. I could see myself heading back to Virginia Beach, just to make amends for not having the best race or weather at the 2016 version. If you're looking for a good spring race, this one fits the bill.