For many, Shamrock is the “season opener” for race season and for good reasons – 1) It’s near the first day of spring 2) It’s at the beach!

I had been looking forward to this race for a while.  I was originally going to run this one in 2014 as my first marathon – before I became injured (and ultimately did Chicago Marathon instead).  This time around, I was running it as a half marathon.  So let’s get into the review!

I loved the setting at the beach.  My hotel was oceanfront and right off the boardwalk.  With 30,000+ runners in town for the weekend, there were people everywhere on the boardwalk.  It was just windy and cold on Saturday.   Shamrock offers the “Dolphin” and “Whale” challenge, where you run an 8K on Saturday and either the Half (dolphin) or Full (Whale) to wind up with a total of 3 medals for 2 races – not bad!  I, however, was just running the half on Sunday.

The Expo was my first stop to pick up my race bib, shirt, and check out the vendor’s things.  The packet of information comes in a nice Shamrock green bag.  I did not pay enough attention to the shirt they handed me, only to discover later that they had given me a women’s shirt!  So I had to return later to the Expo to exchange that shirt, and I just made it to the Expo by a couple minutes as they were packing things up.  Whew!

A couple things to know about Shamrock weekend – 1) Restaurants fill up quickly for Saturday night, especially if they serve pasta and 2) Roads may be closed – especially on Sunday morning.  My hotel was 2 miles away from the starting line, and I had a ride lined up. However, traffic was moving VERY slowly at 6AM (7AM starting time), so my friend and I got out of the car and started walking.  I was unprepared for that traffic, so if you are a couple miles out, just be more prepared and allow time to walk to the starting line.

The course itself was great – it is a flat fast course, perfect for a PR.  It is NOT all along the coast, as one might expect. But I think the marathon is more on the boardwalk.  But it was still a nice course, going through some wooded areas and Fort Story, an army base at Virginia Beach. Eventually the course leads to the boardwalk in the last mile, where the finish line is.   After finishing, you receive a finisher’s medal, beach towel, and hat.  Plenty of things with this race!  There is also a big tent with food and drinks afterwards.

This could become an annual event for me. I would rank it up with some of the best half marathons I have done. Although I did not PR this time (10 days of no running for foot injury), I feel that I could maybe next time. My time was 1:57, nearly the same as Philly.

My Rating: 4.7/5.0 stars