Shamrock Marathon

Spring is here in Atlanta and I am still updating for March!!

We took at trip to Virginia Beach March 15-18 to participate in the Shamrock Marathon. We met our good friend the Halpains - Sean, Brenda and Ryan. We enjoyed the area and completed our events without incident. Well, a few minor aches and pains are to be expected.

King Neptune welcomes us to Virginia Beach

The city was prepared everyone to run and celebrate St. Patricks Day

We all stayed together in a condo this year. It was much nicer and more relaxing than a hotel. We could hang out, cook meals and it allowed us to spend time with our friends.

 The weather was warm but each afternoon it got windy and cool along the ocean.

We took one day to see a few historic sites. First we drove to Norfolk toured around and saw the USS Wisconsin.

 It was very large and impressive.
We wondered around downtown and ate at a pub.

The next day we went to Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown - the "Historic Triangle". Williamsburg has a colonial town with lots of historically correct buildings. We couldn't find lunch there because many things were closed or there were school groups lined up to eat.
We did find a nice little restaurant right off the campus of William and Mary.

A bit of the campus of William and Mary. The second oldest University in the country.

Me with Thomas Jefferson

Looking for some place to have lunch

Jamestown - the site of the first settlement - was a bit of a tourist trap. You couldn't really see much unless you wanted to pay for the tours etc. so we moved on the Yorktown. Sean wanted to see some battlefields so this made a good stop.

Jim and I fight off the English ships.

They built lots of berms to lay behind and the cannons were firing toward the ocean.

 On St. Patricks Day we took a ride north of Virginia Beach. First we wanted to check out the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. It is part over the water and part under the water. It was pretty cool.

This is a picture I found of it online. We drove on the bridge and then went under the water in a tunnel.

We ended up the a small town of Cape Charles to start our St. Pats festivities.  It is a little beach town, population 1134....

touring the beach in Cape Charles

but of course it had Kelly's Irish Pub. Let the festivities begin! Good thing we didn't have to run until the next morning.

Down by the bar

Ryan tries a Black and Blue

A nice Irish Coffee plus Baileys

That evening we went to the boardwalk are in Virginia beach to finish our prerace carb loading!

We ate,

We drank,

We made new friends!

My new friend spilled on me!

green beer!!

A good time was had by all.
Oh yeah, the next day we had a race! Jim and Ryan each did their first full Marathon!

About half way through Jim'smarathon. We started first, I had gone back to the house, showered and saw him go by!

Sean. Brenda and I did the half marathon. They each did a personal best, me - not so good but I'm a completer not a competer!

We enjoyed the post race Yuengling and made more friends.

Nothing feels as great as the finish line!