Richmond Half Marathon

I ran the Richmond Half Marathon last weekend on the 16th. I signed up for (and booked my hotel room...they sell out the hotels before they sell out the race) back in March as something to work toward running-wise after the baby came. There's a fair amount of anecdata out there that says that the 30s are the peak years for distance runners, and that many women see post-baby speed increases .  I heartily embrace both of these ideas, even if science never proves them. My favorite sports quote (really, life quote) of all time is Yogi Berra's "half this game is 90% mental." If I believe I'm faster because I'm 30 and I've had a baby, there's a pretty good chance I'll actually be faster. Running with the jogging stroller doesn't hurt either.

Saturday morning at the race I almost didn't start. It was raining and cold-ish and I just wasn't sure if I needed to race in that weather. I did a marathon in the pouring rain (at mile 25 it hailed!) in 2011 and after that experience, I said, "Self, you never have to do that again. You have my permission to turn around and go home." But it wasn't that cold, the rain wasn't supposed to keep up and too much time and energy had already been expended bringing the baby down with us and sleeping in a hotel room with him. I needed to justify all that with something.  At the start line, my thoughts were, "I just want to get off this race course. Let's not make this last a second longer than it has too."  This is not a strategy I've tried before, but it seemed to work pretty well. I ended up finishing in 2:01:07 which is a 6 or 7 minute PR for me. 

My mom is faster than your mom!

I've never run a sub-2 hour half-marathon, but I know it's in there somewhere. I was hoping to do that in this race, and I got pretty close for having only done long runs the last few weeks and maxing out at about 10 miles a week as a result.  I also didn't look at my watch until mile 10, which is definitely something new and different for me. Typically, most races are spent performing mental math to calculate and recalculate splits.  Ignoring the clock seems to have some advantages as a strategy though, so I'll be trying that again in the future.

This is the face of someone trying really really hard. This was like mile 12 or something. Please note that despite the pained look, my feet are encouragingly both off the pavement at the same time, so you know I'm still moving fast.

Despite my "let's just get the F off the race course" thoughts, it was still a really fun race for me. I've run Richmond several times, so I know it well and like the course, and I love how enthusiastically the locals spectate. Even in the rain, Richmond is a really good time.

The only thing I did not care for was the new finish. The last mile was always dow nhill on Cary Street (I think) toward the river. This year, the race organizers added one more turn and the last half mile of the race was down hill to Brown's Island.  Down hill in the last mile of a half or full marathon is usually a gift, but the new section was a like a lovely fall foliage trimmed death trap. It was very steep and covered in slicks of wet leaves. I thought for sure I was going to eat in the final tenth of a mile. I was feverently hoping that when I fell, some of my fellow racers would take pity on me and carry me over the finish line (while "Chariots of Fire" played in the background of course). I think the change was made to accommodate a bigger finish festival and to allow beer trucks, but since I can't drink the beer anyway, I'm giving it a thumbs down.  I let the race organizers know my opinion in the post-race survey, so I'm sure they'll change it back for next year.

Finally, the most important part of the race! The post-race food! We had a post-race feast of Chik-fil-A, complete with a chocolate cookie Sunday and then I had a pint of Half-Baked later on that evening.