26.2 in Richmond

Last weekend I ran the Richmond Marathon. I realize I haven't talked about running on the ol' blog for a long while, but I've been doing it. I joined a training group and followed a training program, spending the last many Saturday mornings getting up early to go out to beautiful places around the county and run. My training went pretty well, too. Two weeks before the race I started to worry about some tightness in one of my calves, but other than that I didn't have any injury problems. And with a lot of deep tissue massage the knot in my calf seemed to be almost 100% gone in time for the race.

The morning of the race was freezing. Below freezing in the 20s, to be exact. Patrick went with me to the start, which meant I could keep wearing extra layers to stay warm until the very last minute. Then I shed the sweat pants and fleece vest and sweatshirt and ear warmers just in time to hand them off to him and hop into my wave group.

Trying to stay warm.

Ready to go after shedding a few layers.

The first mile of the race I kept it slow, just like I was supposed to. I heard my coach call out from the sidewalk somewhere in there, which was a nice surprise. The second mile I also kept it relatively slow, per the plan. Gotta start slow and warm up. I also made a quick pit stop at mile two. After that I was supposed to ease into my marathon pace, which was supposed to be 9:25. I wasn't terribly far off from that (i.e., faster than I was supposed to be), but my coach had warned me not to go even 9:23. And I didn't follow that as closely as I should have. I tried to slow down, but it's hard. And I was feeling good, and I think the cold helped me move faster. We ran down Broad and Monument Avenue and Westmoreland and Grove and River Road and across the Huguenot Bridge and along the river on the South Side. It was chilly but the sun was shining and it was a beautiful fall day. I remember enjoying the party stop at mile 13, and there was lots of crowd support as we headed across Lee Bridge and back downtown. Patrick was stationed at the turn onto Main Street at mile 16.5, which was something to look forward to and nice to check in with him briefly as I headed into the last 10 miles. I'd been worried that my calf might act up and I might not even get to finish the race, but this was a chance to let him know things seemed to be going okay. And since he was tracking me he knew I was coming in ahead of schedule. Which didn't last long after that.

At about mile 20 as we headed into the North Side, I started to slow down. My calf was feeling okay but my old IT band problem started to worry me a little. And my hip flexors started to hurt, probably from picking up my speed on all the downhills. I took another pit stop at mile 22. I started to slow down and use the water stops. I think I stopped twice for short walk breaks during the last three miles or so. Everything was feeling pretty painful. I definitely had to use my head more than my body to make myself keep running those last few miles. I was so ready to be done.

I forced myself to push it a little more during that last mile. The race ends with a big downhill toward Brown's Island, but by that point downhills hurt a lot, too. I fought back tears of pain as I made it through the last stretch lined with cheering spectators. I spotted Patrick on the other side of the barrier straight ahead at the end of the street, and looked forward to seeing him again at the end of the finishers' chute (where I was given my medal and a fleece blanket and a finisher's cup) so I could finally hide my face in his chest and cry. I was exhausted and in pain and so glad it was over, and crying felt good.

At the finish line! Finally!

Aunt Judy and Mary found us at that point, and it was really good to see them, too. Apparently they'd been cheering loudly for me at the finish line, but I didn't see them. They were fun spectators and came decked out.

With my silly race fans.

After a short bit I was ready for my finisher's beer. It was still pretty cold out and Aunt Judy pointed out that they had free beer back at the house, but that wasn't the point. Patrick and I each enjoyed a beer while we all listened to live music and I did a little stretching on the grass. Then I was ready to head home and get warm.

Happy finisher.

My goal for the race had been 4:10, and I ended up finishing in 4:16:07. Not too bad, and definitely still a PR after my two Blue Ridge Marathons. Yes, the end really hurt, but it was still a fun race overall and I left a happy marathoner.