Richmond SunTrust Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

I felt good about the run from the get-go. It was warmer and more humid than I was expecting, but no different than what I trained in. It was a little tricky with the footing - lots of manhole covers that I anticipated were pretty slick after the rain, but after the first couple miles, I never felt like I didn't have room to run my own race.

Took a Gu after the 4-mile mark and around the 9-mile mark...carried my own Nuun and water and drank at least at all the water stops and sometimes between. Carrying my own water was good, so I could buzz through the water stops. I finally ran out of water around the 11-mile mark so I walked through that aid station and took a cup of water. That was the only time I walked during the whole race. Once I got to the 10mile mark, I knew I could PR unless I blew it up. Once I got to the 11 mile mark, I knew I could almost run/walk if I had to. Once I got to the 12 mile mark, I zoomed it in - and since it was almost all downhill, it was all good.

Nothing. I'm as happy as I can be. I'm also sore as he!!. And I can sniff a 2:00 half.

Went through the finisher chute, listening to 2 women behind me - one encouraging the other not to puke right then. I agreed - puking on me would have pizzed me off. Called Sugar Daddy from the complimentary phones & left a message with my watch time. Went through the food tent and was highly unimpressed - banana, bagel, powerade. Is that all you got for me? I'm freaking starving. Got my dry bag. Walked through the festival and picked up some more juices and a cup of potato chips w/ spicy mayonnaise - quite honestly the tasty post-race food I could envision. About this time, I got some wicked calf-cramps, just like after my first half. Sucks. Gotta figure those out.

Ran into my "boss" who was also doing the half and chit-chatted some. Went to find my car, but I went into the parking garage in the wrong place and ended up wandering, in a daze, down 3 levels to my car.

On the way home, I ran into an accident that had me parked on the highway for 15-20 minutes. And it made me cry - I just wanted to get home, and I couldn't and I was all emotional. Yeah. Nice. Got home, pretended to help rake leaves but mostly stood around, and have been laying on the couch since. :)


Nothing. This was better than I hoped for - I was looking to go sub-2:10 (based on my March PR of 2:13:33)...done and done with style. :)


I've done the 8K race that goes along with this, and now the half. (Next year the full...shhhhh - don't tell Sugar Daddy yet...he thinks I'm just doing a full in April.) Sportsbackers puts on a good race weekend. The kids race last night was fantastic. Things were on time. Volunteers were awesome. Plenty of aid stations. Lots of portapotties (that I didn't need, but I was watching for them in case). Not as much music as they promised, but since they let idiots people use iPods, maybe noone noticed except me. My only other gripes were the lame post-race food and the fact that they had "technical difficulties" in getting the official results posted. Otherwise, HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY.