I signed up for the DIVAS half marathon in Myrtle Beach, 1,
because I had never been to Myrtle Beach, and
2, I had never run an all women’s race....oh, and 3, what goes better with a Pink Ribbon Tutu
than a boa and tiara, which the race
passes out right before the finish line?! =)
I convinced Barbara (she ran with me in Key West, and has also
walked the Tampa 3Day with me a few times) to sign up, and she in turn
convinced Janna to register as well. We also had a couple other girls come up
so we could have a girl’s beach weekend.
I was a little hesitant to be surrounded by so many females for
an entire weekend, I have to admit. Its one thing to spend a couple hours with
them in a race, but a whole weekend? I had no idea what was in store! But as
the weeks got closer to the race, I came across something that made me open my
eyes and live outside my comfort zone. I am usually an over planner, over doer,
take charge type of person. But I was giving in, surrendering my control, and
was going to teach myself to sit back and relax, and whatever happened would
happen, and I would still make the best of it!
It all started on our 7(should have been 6) hour road trip. I
planted myself in the backseat as Barbara drove and Janna co piloted! We were
all enjoying ourselves and conversation, when we quickly learned, no one was
looking at directions! …even with the 3 smart phones, a GPS, an IPAD, and
handwritten directions! Oh boy! But, you know what, we had a scenic route! No worries!
When we arrived we realized our beach weekend was in jeopardy of
being a cold, overcast, windy and possibly rainy weekend. =( We made the best of it and had a happy hour
on our ocean view condo porch, and then off to find dinner.
We soon learned that Tropical Storm Albert had developed and was
brewing right off Myrtle’s coast!! We had a minor panic attack and had to
refigure out our race attires. Luckily though, we woke to clear skies, and the
race day was just about perfect!
It happened to line up
right with some sort of Bikers week, but it honestly didn’t impact anything
that we did. Seems Myrtle/North Myrtle is quite HUGE. As soon as we arrived
Friday, we went to the ‘Boutique’/Expo to pick up our race packets. No parking
issues (however I have yet been to a race w/ expo issues, but this maybe because I always go to the first day of them).
They had shuttles/golf carts provided, predicting parking issues, so that was
cool. The Expo though was Extremely small! Maybe had about 5 or 6 vendors, and
did not have ANY GU or power bars/blocks/etc. That’s my bad for relying on it
and not buying some before the road trip! I decided I would try to run without
any this time. I had just completed the last two weeks of 14 mile training runs
without any energy substance and was fine. I later learned that ‘training’ and
‘racing’ are different, and I will still need a little bit of some sort of energy
pack to get me through those last 3 miles.
Everyone was decked out in the Divas gear…lots of tutus. I had
never seen so many tutus in a single race! All different kinds and colors. Some
women wearing full on makeup. Some wearing colorful wigs. Some even wearing big
necklaces and earrings! You could definitely tell it was a DIVAS race! I just
wish they could have come up with a womens charity to support. They had a ‘charity’
link on their site, but never announced an organization. A big disappointment.
Speaking of charities…I felt like I needed to be doing more with
the breast cancer community at these races. Especially since this race, I would
have a hard time standing out among all the other tutus. (even though I put on a
pink bra over my shirt). So I grabbed a couple handfuls of 26.2 With Donna
breast cancer awareness pink bracelets and handed them out to the runners. Im
excited to say they went like hotcakes! Makes me wonder how I can make
personalized ones? But advertising for the 26.2 with Donna really is the
direction I am headed at this point, so I was happy.
They only had speakers at the very start, so most of the runners
did not hear any sort of ‘opening ceremony’, national anthem (if they had one),
or any official ‘start’.
The first 3 miles were not fun. I got one of those cramps on the
side of the calf. A position that is almost impossible to stretch. I must have
stopped about 3 times to try to stretch it out, and did a lot of walking to see
if that would help, but of course, as I know, as always, nothing helps it but
time. This is maybe the 5th time this has happened to me during a
race in the past 5 years (I guess not that bad), but I had thought I had advanced
past this injury. I had lost my Stick so was not able to roll out my muscles,
and having a 14mile training run just this past Tues (Im training for the Kona
marathon), my muscles were definitely a little tight.
We ran along the first street, next to the ocean, but only got
small glimpses of the ocean between tall buildings. I guess there’s no sort of
boardwalk, so this race isn’t as ‘scenic’ as one would think a beach run would
be. Maybe they could look into running ‘on’ the beach like The Donna.
Cones were placed down the road, so cars could still pass, but
apparently all the runners did not understand this concept and took over the
entire street. So cars had to stop. I even noticed some ‘5k’ people trying to
walk/run to their start. They had bicycle cops out to try to direct us, but
most runners just ignored them, and went right back over. There were also
groups of 3 or more that would stop to walk all together and take up most of
the course. I was definitely doing a lot of weaving back and forth, in and out
and around people. It was pretty crowded, so I put myself on the sidewalk to
run.
The first water stop was already out of full cups of water. They
had to pour individual cups, so we had to stop and wait. Great, this is just my
luck I thought as I thought about the Rock n Sole where they ran out of water
completely!
We then made a few turns, and found ourselves on the same path
as the 5K. It was a little strange as we are running past all the walkers of
the 5k, but it did make for a bunch of supporters holding posters and cheering
us on. There was even a guy with pom poms and pink hair that kept following us
the entire race. There was also this group of really cute guys with cowbells
that would cheer for the girls and yell out ‘booo’ for the ‘dudes’.
The course was mainly residential. There was lots of shade,
until near the last couple miles, when the sun was out in full course. We were
lucky and had nice winds..about 15 mph gusts Thanks to TS Alberto which kept it
pretty cool. We later found out it had made a turn to the South and away from
Myrtle.
Half way through the race, I took a Gatorade, and I suddenly
felt nauseous. I thought to myself, they must be using a different generic
brand. Maybe I should just stick to water. The next water stop, I noticed a
hose from the fire hydrant to the water table. They were filling up coolers
from the hydrant! Is this potable?? I later learned that lots of runners got
sick or nauseous during this race. I really hope the race coordinators learn a
lesson, and go to the gallon jugs of water next time!
Half way through the race, they put us on an extremely busy road
with only a small space to run….not the best of planning, I thought…but I guess
it may have made some people run faster! Lol.
Right when I was starting to walk a lot, about mile 10, my IPOD
died. Great. Luckily there was a DJ that was right at that corner and his
speakers were so loud I heard him for at least a mile. Unluckily, he just kept
playing the same song over and over “we are the champions!” We were getting
ready to get back on Ocean Blvd for the straightaway home and the spectators
kept yelling, “it will be a breeze from here, the wind is at your back!” I was so wanting that, because we were in
direct sun at this point, and the temps were rising quickly. We turned the
corner though, and there was no breeze!
Grumpiness set in and I found myself yelling out “Im Hungry!”
(see, I really DO need GU or some energy for a race!) and the girl next to me
laughed. We chatted a bit and pushed each other to run the rest of the way.
There were a lot of coaches on the course. Some on bikes
following runners. Some getting in and out of their cars to meet with runners.
But especially the last 2 miles there was this one woman that was almost about
ready to give up. You could just tell in her body language. Her husband, or
coach, or whoever started running with her, loafers and all and pushed her
through, not allowing her to stop to walk again. She is a lucky woman. There
was also this guy on a bike pacing a runner, and he kept calling out “head up,
shoulders back, pick up the pace”, etc. I found it interesting because
everything he was saying, I was adjusting. It was like he was speaking to me,
but I knew he wasn’t.
Before I knew it, we were at the tiara and boa station. They had
plenty of volunteers, so there was no slow down. I grabbed mine, and even
though I was so hot I didn’t want to wear the boa, I dug out my inner DIVA and
put it on! Tons of spectators were out, and well, when theres people watching,
Melissa doesn’t walk, so I dug deep and ran the rest of the way in, smiled for
the camera, and was surprised to get my medal from a whole row of either half
naked men, men dressed in fairy tale prince attire, or in a fireman uniform.
Yea, I chose the Fireman. ;) I bypassed the
champagne…just wasn’t the same, since I was alone and no one to toast with but
then quickly saw Barbara. I found out Janna had injured her knee and had to be
escorted off the course. We met up with her to see how bad the injury was. Once
we agreed it wasn’t going to be an ACL or something of the sort, we convinced
her to get back on course with us and cross the finish line and get her medal!
She is one tough cookie! We got our champagne together and toasted each other
for surviving another race!
The rest of the day called for a lovely brunch on a lake with a
gator, then sitting our butts on the beach, followed by another lovely dinner
oceanfront. It was a gorgeous day from beginning to end. We were extremely
lucky the weather turned for the better!
I have to say I had a great time! I am lucky to have had the chance to be surrounded by such wonderful, strong women! It was a fun weekend! ...No matter what was thrown our
way! And I even learned that it is Ok to sit back and enjoy the ride, and to even allow your inner DIVA to sneak out every once in a while!
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