Richmond Marathon - Run

Ran first 15 miles with Joe, we were on 4 hr pace, even though I wanted to go out a little slower, I let him make the pace since I was sure if I was going to make it the to the finish and how it would go. He started to slow some, so I decided to go ahead and keep the 4 hr pace, I didn't know if I would hit the wall and see him again or not. I started to get a little plantar faciatis and worried if I picked up the pace it would become a problem, but I kept pushing ahead. I made it a couple more miles and then decided to pick up the pace a little, I felt great at this point, but then another few miles and I felt I could hold the faster pace, I was now thinking, ok 4 hours seems reasonable if all goes well and the body holds up, what about a 9 min avg pace, but I decided 4 hrs was the real goal and just focused on getting to mile 20. All along the race, I got cheers "Go Buckeyes", I was wearing my favorite Ohio State race jersey, this jersey gets so many cheers it really helps having it on. The guy next to me said, "there sure are alot of Buckeye fans out here". He was keeping a good pace and I stayed with him for a mile, but decided to let him go and get back to my 4 hr game plan, which mile 20 came and I was still feeling good. I tried picking it up to take off some time, but it wasn't very easy to drop many seconds per mile and I thought how hard it got at NYC in those last 6 miles. I kept calculating how much time I needed to take off per mile. the next 3 miles I was pretty steady state avg. 9:05 per mile, but that wasn't enough, so I recalculated and decided to go for it at mile 23, my last 3 miles were 8:30, then 8:04 and then I really kicked it down and the course has a big downhill the last mile to the finish and I didn that mile 7:38. I wasn't sure how close I was to the 9 min mile, but I came close with a 9:02 average. I was really physched to have back to back sub 4 hour marathons both with negative splits, so no complaints and the body seemed to hold up pretty well. In fact my hip didn't hurt nearly as much as it did in NYC, must have been the bridges in NYC.

Pick up the pace more at mile 20.

Did a couple of stretches waiting on Joe at the finish, but he I didn't see him so I went to get post race food. when standing at the finish I saw a guy with a NYC Marathon shirt on and talked to him, he did NYC and tried Richmond, but said he cramped up at mile 14 and stopped.


Not much, maybe more confidence that I could do a second marathon in 2 weeks.


I like this hometown marathon and signed up for next year for half the price I paid at the expo.