Ed. Note: I know this is late, but I've been out of town for business and traveled for Thanksgiving, and when I've been home haven't had much time to write.
Pre-Race: J and I drove down to Richmond Friday afternoon. It was nice that I had the day off for Veteran's Day and I didn't have to take any time off work for the race. Shortly after getting on I-95 we passed the new Marine Corps Museum, which is quite impressive. When we arrived in Richmond, we went to the expo first. It wasn't too big or too impressive, but we did find a couple shirts for the kids. One says "My Daddy Wears a Bib Too" and the other says "Mommy's Favorite Training Tag-Along." After the expo we ate at the Olive Garden, checked into our hotel, and went to sleep a little after 10 pm.
Race: The alarm woke me up at 5:15 on race morning. I was surprised at how well I had slept. I took a shower to help me wake up and made a little pot of coffee with the coffee pot in the room. I didn't check what hours breakfast was served, and I just assumed that it would start at six. It actually didn't start until seven, so I headed out to find a convenience store to get something to eat. I returned with a pack of two pop-tarts for me, and a muffin bar and some kind off coffee bar for J. The pop-tarts go back to reading Running With the Buffaloes and discovering that it was Adam Goucher's pre-race meal. I tried it at a 8k I ran a few years ago and PR'd, so I figured I'd try it again. J and I left a little after seven for the 5-mile trek to the starting line. It only took a few minutes to get to the starting area. I had time to hit the porta-potties and run maybe a half mile to warm up. I wanted to visit the porta-potties one more time before the start, but by that time the line was too long to wait. I wormed my way closer to the starting line, up to the three-hour pace leader.
The gun went off and the race started. I was telling myself be conservative; if you run 7:xx you're just saving energy for later. I hit mile 1 in 6:43, a little faster than planned, but not devastatingly so. Mile 2 also passed in 6:43, and then miles 3, 4, and 5 were 6:40, 6:48, and 6:51 respectively. During those three miles I ran with the three-hour pace group. I made it to mile 6 with the pace group, but then got a little ahead of them. During the race I thought they had slowed down, but looking at my split of 13:15 for miles 6 and 7 tells me I sped up. The seventh mile also had a downhill section and the first "Party Zone" was at mile 7. These factors may have contributed to my speed. After the "Party Zone," we went uphill and over a bridge, and then followed a road that went by an area I can only describe as swampy. I ran miles 8, 9, and 10 in 6:44, 6:46, and 6:52. After that we came out to a more residential area that was flat at first and then followed a slightly uphill grade to about 14 miles. My split for mile 11 was 6:55, mile 12 was 6:58, and mile 13 was 6:50. I reached halfway in 1:28:55, which seemed good to me. My split for mile 14 was 6:43.
After 14 miles, we were still in a residential section of Richmond, and we turned on to a street where some people had placed quite a few signs in support of some specific runners and the field overall. Reading the signs helped take my mind off the fact that I still had 11 miles to go, and I ran mile 15 in 6:41. Next we crossed another bridge into more downtown Richmond. At this point the sun and the pace started to take a toll. It was warm, but a lot of the course had been shaded until now. Coming over the bridge was the first time I felt warm. I ran the 16th mile in 7:06. My next two miles were buoyed by the fact that I would see J at about 19 miles, and that helped to keep me going, though I was still warm and getting more and more tired. My split for miles 17 and 18 was 14:06.
At 19 miles I passed J. She was cheering for me, and I guess some other people heard her because I heard some other voices yelling "Go Brian!" as well. This pick-me-up propelled me to a 6:53 19th mile. After that, though, I really started to hurt. Mile 20 went by in 7:20, and then miles 21 and 22 went by in 14:54. At the aid station at 22 miles I walked through, getting water and powerade. I still had the gel I picked up at the 20th mile, but my stomach did not feel like taking it, so I got rid of it. The next three miles were quite slow--8:40, 8:47, and 8:40. I think the little bit of walking I did caused my legs to lock up a little and I was reduced to shuffling. Midway through mile 24 I started walking again, until a guy with quite a few tattoos passed me, saying, "Come on! I'm as dead as you!" I started running with him and did run the rest of the way, actually beating him to the finish. The fact that I was so close to the finish must have given me a boost, because I ran the 26th mile in 7:43 and the last .2 miles in 1:26 to finish in 3:07:05. My last post did say 3:07:07, which is what the results said when I first looked them up, but they now say 3:07:05, which was the time on my watch when I finished. I finished 49th overall and second in my age group.
Post-Race: I was sore when I finished, though I was still easily able to walk around. For some reason, before the race I had visions of falling over as soon as I crossed the line. I'm sure it was at least in part due to the emails I got in the days preceding the race about why marathoners fall over at the finish. I met J at the end of the finish chute and had a little to eat, even though my stomach still didn't feel much like it. We sat around for a few minutes, and then walked to the car (which was about a mile or so away) and drove home to rescue J's mother from the kids.
For a few days after the race, I was sore, especially going down stairs. By about Wednesday I was feeling better. I didn't run at all until eight days after the race, though I might have run before that had I not had to go out of town for work.
I'm happy with my result, though I certainly want to do better. Next year is the 30th anniversary of the Richmond Marathon, and if you signed up by midnight the day after this year's race, the entry fee was only $30, versus the $75 I paid this year. I was so close to breaking three hours that I went ahead and signed up for next year.
If there's one thing that I think will help me break three hours, it's more miles, both a longer long run and a higher weekly total. I only ran up to 19 miles in training, and that definitely needs to go up. I also need to be more consistent with the long run as well as overall. A second thing that I want to work on is having a more structured training plan. There was definitely little structure this time around. That said, I'm not running a marathon until Richmond next November. Any one that I'd want to run in the spring I think is too early to get the training in I'd like to. I'm slowly getting back to running, and I'd like to concentrate on the shorter distances in the spring and run some 5k's and maybe a 10k as well.
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