Flying Pirate Inagural Half Marathon 4/18/10

Traveled down to the Outer Banks for a nice long weekend and to run the Inagural Flying Pirate Half. It is the first half of the OBX Marathon which has gotten great reviews and I did read about the course and viewed it online but the hills didn't look so bad but I should have known when it said "as you crest the dune to be one of the first to finish"-what running up a dune? And at the end... So here is my race report-took the shuttle to the start not knowing it was about .25 mile up the road and we could have walked-oh well next time. Got a lot of great pictures at the start. There were 3 corrals and a cannon was suppose to start each one a couple of minutes apart. After the first corral started everyone started running we stopped before crossing because we were suppose to wait but the director waved for us to keep going. So we are running down the road and I am basically last-there was one woman walking. It was peaceful until I heard my corral actually start with the cannon and was engulfed by a hoard of people. It was nice and scenic running along the sound/bay and on paths with the sun coming up. The weather was great the whole weekend by the way. I was thinking how much more scenic this was compared to the fall half and maybe I would add the full marathon to my list of to dos. Coming up to mile 8.5 around the Wright's Brother Memorial I was wondering if Tom had actually made it to that point to meet me. As I was coming around the corner I could see him and luckily he was getting my water ready because I was all out and it was getting warm out. My pace was about what I expected and wanted to get to 10 miles by 2 hrs. I filled my water bottles and ran on. I got to 10 miles about 2:02 and I was trying to beat 2:40 of course from the Shamrock. The last 3 miles were through the Outer Banks Nature Reserve-it was packed sand and rocks to begin with and going uphill. It was nice with the shade and trees but after awhile I was wondering when we would be done with tbe woods. At mile 12 I turned on Rocky and thought I was going to just run it out and was hit with another hill and than another hill... I couldn't believe it to be honest. About 12.6 I could hear the finish line and annoucer but we were running on mulch and facing a huge hill-at the end... Got to the top and it was straight down to the finish-I almost thought I was going to take a tumble it was not the easiest to run on but I finished not in the expected time but 2:45:22 so I am pretty consistent. It was the hardest last couple miles of any race than I have done-I have run harder but usually it is throughout. The end took me by surprise but I will run this one again! Love the theme and love the OBX.