Virginia - Day 5

Day of the race.
I set up my alarm to wake me up at 4 am. Normally, that's not too harsh, but with the time zone, it does make things more difficult- it is 1 am back in Seattle. There are nights I go to sleep at this time. I wake up before everyone and get ready for the 1/2 marathon. After a quick breakfast, we head to Virginia Beach. I get dropped off a few blocks from the start and I walk the rest to the starting area. I get around the convention center and I am immideately overwhelmed at the amount of people that are participating at this event. There is just a people with their bib numbers everywhere.
Before the start, I drop off my stuff at the clothing check, get some last minute water in me and get to my starting wave. Minutes before we start, the announcer mentions that there are Olympians among the masses. Wow, just 3 weeks after the Olympic marathon and they are here running this event. I'm just glad I am way in the back and have no chance of seeing them flying away at the start.
The race start and I run a nice decent speed for the first 3 miles. I don't know if it was the warmer weather or just poorer training, but things just went downhill around 5 miles. I had to stop at the bathroom, I had trouble running between water stops (in my past 1/2 marathons, I only walked at really hilly areas or at the water stops). I find some extra speed around mile 10, but it only lasts about a mile. I finally make it around the last turn for the stretch for the finish line. This finish line felt like it would never come. But eventually, I did finish and I saw that my time was just plain slow.
After getting some food and liquids, I grab my phone to look for my family. Before I could even make the call, my uncle was behind me. My family had already found me. Hooray! After some quick pictures, we decide to head out of the crowded area. We get to the van and I realized they parked inside the race route. Oh noes - we would have to wait until the streets open again before we could leave. That is exactly what we do. I'm not even sure how they got into this parking area, since most of the roads were already close or closing when I was dropped off for the race.
After about an hour long wait (maybe more), the roads were opened up and we get out of there. We head to a buffet and I proceed to go nomnomnom! I try to get liquids in first, but Asian buffet is just good. With everyone full, we head back home were everyone could catch up on their sleep or just rest for the rest of the day.