{"id":516,"date":"2016-11-24T17:53:08","date_gmt":"2016-11-24T22:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/?p=516"},"modified":"2017-01-05T16:40:55","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T21:40:55","slug":"2016-norfolk-half-marathon-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/?p=516","title":{"rendered":"2016 Norfolk Half Marathon Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was a last minute decision to run the Norfolk Half Marathon. \u00a0After the last race I did (Bird-In-Hand), which was a torturous race (see review), I thought I could use a better experience like I&#8217;m used to having at races. Plus a couple friends also seemed interested in running it, so I signed up. \u00a0Though my friends ultimately were unable to go, I had a great day at a well planned race.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_518\" style=\"width: 688px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/img_1257.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-518\" class=\"wp-image-518 size-mh-magazine-lite-content\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/img_1257-678x381.jpg\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-518\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ferry heading to the Norfolk side from Portsmouth.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This my first time in Norfolk\/Portsmouth, and I really liked the area. \u00a0It was a bit stressful traveling to the Expo the day before the race because packet pickup closed at 3PM with no packet pickups in the morning! My ETA was 2:40PM, so it only left 20 minutes to account for delays, etc. \u00a0Of course, I would have tried to still get my bib number and shirt, even I got there after 3PM. But I did make it in time and got everything I needed. \u00a0 It was easy to park in a nearby parking garage and walk over to packet pickup. \u00a0I did not see a lot of vendors there like some of the bigger races, but are only ~1600 runners in this race.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_521\" style=\"width: 688px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/img_1251.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-521\" class=\"wp-image-521 size-mh-magazine-lite-content\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/img_1251-678x381.jpg\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-521\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Post race area as seen from the packet pickup area.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Race morning was cold and somewhat windy. \u00a0The race started on time, with plenty of time between corralled runners to separate out the different paces well. \u00a0I mostly ran with runners my pace and did not have to run laterally to pass a lot of slower runners like at some races. \u00a0The course was really good, going through the city, Old Dominion University, and a little bit of trails. \u00a0The course is flat and fast with little elevation &#8211; this is definitely a course one could get a PR. \u00a0Towards the end of the race, the run is waterfront. \u00a0 I finished the race at 1:59:06, which was fine since I didn&#8217;t train for this race, and it was a last minute signup.<\/p>\n<p>The post race was great! Food and drinks, a hat, Blue Moon beer and soup. \u00a0I sat near the waterside and watched boats before catching a ferry back to Portsmouth. \u00a0This race is highly recommended.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rating: 4.8 out 5.0 stars<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_520\" style=\"width: 688px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/img_1264.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-520\" class=\"wp-image-520 size-mh-magazine-lite-content\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/img_1264-678x381.jpg\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-520\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The pacers I ran with &#8211; great guys.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a last minute decision to run the Norfolk Half Marathon. \u00a0After the last race I did (Bird-In-Hand), which was a torturous race (see review), I thought I could use a better experience like I&#8217;m used to having at races. Plus a couple friends also seemed interested in running it, so I signed up. \u00a0Though my friends ultimately were unable to go, I had a great day at a<\/p>\n<div class=\"belowpost\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/?p=516\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-running"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/img_1264.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4FxFG-8k","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=516"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":528,"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions\/528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ejameswhite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}