SunTrust Richmond Marathon - RunMarathon

The course was much more hilly than anticipated. I don't mind hills too much, were I run is pretty hilly. I just wasn't trained for the type of hills Richmond had to offer--the long gradual uphill and downhills dominated pretty much most of the course. Despite this I was able to keep a pretty steady pace ( sub-8:30) for most of the race. I was well on my way to finishing well under my goal, but around mile 17 my right quad started to cramp and I battled that until the very end. Once I started to cramp, I pretty much forced myself on making it a goal to make it to the next aid station where I would walk about 10 to 15 yards and stop and stretched. I'm not exactly sure why this happened. I have narrowed it down to a few things. 1. I started out a little too fast. I was in zone 2 for most of the race, but I think that even though my heart rate was down, my muscles were not equipped to handle the long gradual climbing. 2. I drank too much water and flushed out all of my electrolytes. 3. I was accustomed to running in much hotter temps and my body used up a lot of energy trying to keep myself warm....I have “what if'd” myself to death....I really think it is a mixture of a lot of different things and I can chalk my problems in this one up to it being my first Marathon. Even though I didn't finish in my goal, I am really happy with my finish considering that I ran the last 10 miles of the race cramped up.

Three things that I would do differently:

1. Force myself to start out slower. Even though I stayed in zone 2 for most of the race, my body was not able to handle the constant uphill climbs as well as the long downhills that followed.
2. I drank too much water the few days before the race without backing it up with a sports drink. I think the water flushed out all of my electrolytes which might have contributed to the cramping.
3. Not trust a elevation profile. Even though I consider it to be bad luck, I should have taken a tour of the course. Had I done so, I would have had a better feel for the terrain and noticed the extremely long gradual climbing of the first 1/2. I would have also known to save most of my energy, since most of the difficult miles were in the 2nd half of the course.

After I crossed the chip mat, both of my legs cramped up pretty severely. One of the very nice ladies at the finish helped me over to the side where I stretched and drank a little water. After a while I felt well enough to go and pick up my bag and get a cup of coffee to warm me up. I then waited on Janelle to finish and after I found her we had a little bite to eat and we went back to the hotel to shower and change


Cramping


Richmond was a very well run and organized race. It was my first full marathon, so I don't really have any other marathon to compare it too, but other than it being more hilly than expected I had a very good experience. There weren't too many places that there wasn't spectators, so it seemed that you were always given a hand of encouragement. Running through the residential areas was good, there were many homes that offered junk food and oranges. The only other thing I would say to someone who was thinking about doing this race is, if someone tells you it is flat---They don't know what they are talking about.