Richmond Marathon and More

Been another busy week as my Blog post's seem to become spaced further and further apart. Visited Orlando this week and had an enjoyable stay, even though I never left the airport. It would be a nice place to live with the opportunity to ride year round but again, I seem to find myself in the same dilemma as Eastern Texas though without any mountains or anything resembling a hill within a few hundred mile radius. I did find this sweet advertisement in the airport shopping mall and this sweet book that is a must read for all twitter-holics.



I wonder if this one made Oprah's Book Club?


This weekend I traveled to Richmond, VA for the Suntrust Marathon supposedly "America's Friendliest Marathon" and can't say I'd beg to differ after the weekend, not that I have much to compare it to however. I must say I was slightly nervous about the race since my longest run prior to the race was 14.3 miles. I traveled early Friday afternoon to Richmond and went through the packet pickup which is always a fun environment. After resisting the temptation to buy gear at discounted prices I made my way through the bib and shirt pickup and headed to my aunt Julie's.

It was cool that my whole family decided to do the race!


The next morning we headed downtown for the start of the race and lined up in the corals for the start of the 8k. After seeing the family off I headed to the Marriot to stay warm before my race and think about the huge feat I was about to undertake. Around 7:40 I checked my bag and headed to find my pace group in my coral, the pace leader was wearing a huge green mad hatter hat which would make him easy to keep an eye on during the race. At 8:00AM the race was off and I knew for the next 4 hours I would be running.

The course was nice and running with so many people made it easy to stay motivated. As the race progressed I felt great, drinking water for the first hour and switching between powerade and water every other water stop. Around 13 I felt fine but the reality that I was only half way began to set in and I believe this is where my decline began. After running along the river for several miles the temperature dropped and with the wind my temperature began to drop, nearing 16 and crossing the bridge I battled tough winds with no one around to block the wind. At mile 17 is where I fell apart having the first sign of cramping and thoughts of not making my goal time of 4 hours. I was excited that when I crossed the time check at 20 miles I was still on pace despite my stopping to stretch between miles 18-20, with a time of 3:06:19. At mile 22 it really fell apart as my hamstring cramped and I found myself lying on the side of the road in the grass in agonizing pain. After stretching for what seemed to be an eternity I continued to run, stopping about every 3/4 of a mile to stop and stretch. With the finish in mind I pushed through the pain and had an awesome last mile and a half, finishing with a time of 4:13:30.

 I felt terrible right after but managed to demolish 2 pieces of pizza, a bagel, a few drinks, and various other snacks in a few minutes following the race.



I've been recovering and wondering why I chose an apartment on the 4th floor, as stairs seem to be the main cause of pain these days.