Suntrust Richmond Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

14,046 entrants That's a big race!

Like back in the day of piloting a half-crazed Thoroughbred over/through/around obstacles at about 25 or 30 mph on a course, I had to find a line that was the most direct and focus intently on it while remaining aware of those around me. There were lots of people, puddles, piles of slippery leaves, cones to pass by, etc - had to pay attention.

Ate a PBJ and two coffees in the car, sipped on a protein shake and some water. Took a Naprosin. Slept well - had taken two generic Tylenol PMs at 8:30 pm- they did not seem as hangover-inducing as the other brand. It POURED during the night. Weather was ridiculously warm and very humid. Which we are used to here in Central Virginia. But we were both dripping (was it the fog or was it sweat) by the time we got to the start.

WARM UP
Sprint from parking lot to start - got there w/2 minutes to spare. So that was a little unpleasant and an adrenaline rush and meant I did not do some things that needed to be done. Traffic was totally at a standstill on the freeway - had we not gone on to the next exit, we would have missed the start. So, no time for PortaPotty visit and we both rrrreally had to go. Tons and tons of people passed me - I was starting out slow as I'd been advised to do. Hit a PortaPotty (ewwww gross) around mile 3 and felt so much better after but lost about 3 minutes in doing so.

The miles went by quickly, they really did. I enjoyed it. Part of the course included running the track at the baseball stadium which was fun. I kept an eye on the electronics, both of which functioned perfectly, and had to keep telling myself to slow down by the iPod but the splits I had on my little wristband were all just about perfect when I passed the mile markers. Water stops at first were not keeping up with demand so I skipped them, but started to feel pretty thirsty. Did I mention how warm it was? I thought I would soon start dumping water over my head. Shortly, though, a breeze started up and the humidity began dropping as the cold front which brought all this rain and storms approached. Footing was sometimes slippery, especially the wet leaves.

Mile 7 drank a Boost. Walked a few steps at every water station but that was it. Started passing a lot of people at this point. Went through some nice leafy neighborhoods. Attempted to draft off big guys who would cast a big wind shadow but when they started looking over their shoulders I felt weird for creeping them out so gave up on that idea.

Mile 8 I was like pffft this is a breeze and picked it up. Big gusts of wind from every direction started up now, the sort of crazy stuff that happens when two fronts are colliding. Was literally crouching into the wind at times.

Mile 10 I was like Hey! It's a 5k so let's rock! With the result that mile 11 was a little hard at moments but that soon passed. HR was getting up to the mid 170s by now. Nibbled on a gel somewhere around here. I was SO excited to begin the turns that would take us to the finish and so pleased to be on pace to come in a little ahead of targeted time (2:05). Wish I had the 5k split - I think it would have been close to my 5k time from the tri last month which was a PR. Got a few weird foot/toe cramps like I do when swimming - I don't think that's happened before with running, maybe once, but in a minor way. The final +/-1 mile segment was downhill and I flew. I was whooping with happiness as I crossed those mats.

None of it was particularly hard. Of course, it is basically flat. It was very fun! I did think, though, that a full marathon would be so much harder; why not stick with this distance? It was perfect: challenging but very do-able. I did my best without killing myself and believe I will get away with this injury-free. If I hadn't had to stop to pee would have been closer to 2:00:00 which would have been awesome. Had I done the speedwork from the beginning of the training (which I started late due to late season triathlon in October), I might have been a little faster. So, there's the challenge for the next one.

Yay, a nice gradual uphill slope on the graph - meaning I overall negatively split the whole race. I had printed out a split sheet and made it into a wristband. The splits were graduated from 9:45 - 9:15, and I came in just ahead of the finish time.

Had some GI cramping and kinda the runs after, prob due to dehydration, sorry if that is TMI. Foot cramping continued for about a half hour afterwards. Icebath. Gonna be sore. Gwen did great, she finished at 1:55. Saw quite a few Cville people. Watched the marathon winners come in, Kenyans, quel surprise. It was fun, but Gwen and I both agreed triathlons and trail races were probably even more fun. Glad I did it all the same.

Cool down featured walking around trying to remember where we parked.

1 mi 9:37
2 mi 9:51
3 mi 12:15 (PortaPottie stop)
4 mi 9:55
5 mi 9:20
6 mi 9:07
7 mi 8:59
8 mi 9:32 walked a bit while I downed my crack - still spilled it all down my front
9 mi 8:57
10 mi 8:40
11 mi 8:51 WINDY
12 mi 8:30
13 mi 7:46 woo hoo!
13.2 8:19 inc walking around after


Get to the race early. Damn.

Walk around. Had a really great talk with Gwen about life and important stuff like that, etc. I heart that girl.


Port-a-Potty lines
Being formerly young and not fast
Do the speedwork
And it really was a little slippery and windy


*If I had gotten my PortaPottie stop in BEFORE the race, I would have finished in 2:01 or 2:00 flat. So, when i was actually running, as opposed to peeing, I averaged about 9:15