I ran the Richmond Marathon three weeks after running the Marine Corps Marathon. It was not my best idea. The thing is, in 2012 when I ran my first marathon (also Richmond), I felt great the whole time. After I finished, I was dying to run another marathon- like right away! My body was prepared to handle 26 miles, and I thought I might never get to that level of running again.
So this time, when I decided to run a Fall marathon, I thought I'd feel the same way. I wanted to find two marathons about 3-4 weeks apart so that after the first, I could just immediately start tapering for the second. I've been wanting to run MCM for a few years, and I wanted to run Richmond again because I had so much fun the first time. It was perfect! Except that I didn't feel as great during MCM as I had during Richmond 2 years ago.
After MCM, I was sore and tired for a few days, so I gave my body plenty of rest. Things were also kind of busy at work, so I didn't run at all for 5 days following the marathon. On Saturday, I was going to do a 12 mile long run. I started out, and I couldn't run. My ankle was in pain with every step, and my hip was hurting again. I wasn't injured, but my muscles were really tight. I gently stretched out my calf and hip muscles, and then had to walk about half a mile to loosen up. When I could finally run, it was a really slow pathetic run. I ran about 4 miles, then called it quits. I figured I needed to rest my body more than I needed to run 12 miles.
The next week I was supposed to run 8 miles, and I may have managed 6. I skipped all the short runs in between the long runs, so in the three weeks leading up to the Richmond Marathon, I ran a total of two times. This is not the best recipe for success. I was hoping that all my training in the weeks leading up to MCM would make up for my failure towards the end. It sort of did. I ended up getting a marathon PR at Richmond- but at a price. It was the most miserable marathon of the three I've run so far- the last 6 miles battling hip pain were the worst 6 miles ever! But let me start at the beginning...
Tristan and I met in Richmond after work on Friday. I had asked for a half day so I had plenty of time to get there. We stayed with my friend Sarah in Midlothian, so the next morning, we had about a 25 minute drive to get to the race. For previous races, I'd approached downtown from the north side, and found street parking, but this time we came from the south side and ended up in the heart of downtown. It took us a couple loops around the blocks to find parking, but eventually we ended up in a parking garage not too far from the finish area. Normally I hate paying for parking, but for a marathon it's worth it!
It was really cold and windy in the morning. Tristan and I ran the entire race in long pants and long sleeve shirts (the past 2 years it's been warmer, and I've run in t-shirt and capris). The extra layers this year were a good idea and we did not regret our decision one bit! In fact, it took us about 5 miles just to warm up.
At mile 14, we stopped to refuel. This was our first marathon where no one was waiting for us at a certain point, so we carried our own gummies and refilled our water bottles with gatorade at the aid stations. I definitely prefer to have my family supporting us. It's a huge morale booster! It was kind of weird to just stop on our own. It was nice at MCM to run off to my mom who was waiting on the sidelines, with everything laid out for us.
After the first half, I started to feel a little tired. Nothing too bad, but I didn't feel as good as I had for my other two marathons. Mile 16 is the worst part of the course, because you have to cross the Belvidere Bridge, which seems to last forever! Tristan had to use the bathroom, so we made a port-a-potty stop after we crossed the bridge. I took the opportunity to eat some more gummies to get my energy level back up. I was hoping to get a second wind around mile 19-20, like I did the last time I ran Richmond. Unfortunately it never happened.
Miles 16-20 were a little slower. I was feeling tired and couldn't keep up the pace of the first half. At mile 20, we stopped again to refill our gatorade and refuel. After that, I really started to fall apart. Normally I like the last 6 miles of Richmond. It's a loop I used to run all the time when I lived there, so it's familiar territory. This year, my hip started hurting at mile 20 and continued to hurt for the last 6 miles, so I couldn't enjoy it. I tried my best to run through it for awhile, but on mile 22, I told Tristan I needed to walk for a little bit.
I was so frustrated because I knew we had been on pace to set a marathon PR (even though before the race we told ourselves it was "just for fun" and that we'd take it easy). On mile 23, I had to stop and stretch to see if it would help. It maybe helped the tiniest bit, but I continued to have pain throughout my hip for the rest of the race. At this point, I waved goodbye to all hopes of a PR, and decided to be content with just finishing the race. I knew I could still finish, even if I had to walk a lot. I told Tristan to go ahead without me. I told her I was definitely going to finish whether or not she stayed with me, but I was in pain and I knew I was holding her back.
Tristan, God bless her, would not leave me behind. She stayed with me every step of the way, even though she was feeling good and could definitely have gotten a faster time. She also wouldn't let me walk very much, damn it! She tried to be really encouraging and keep me going. I was still in a lot of pain, so I wasn't responding much. At one point, Tristan said, "I don't know if I'm helping you or making you mad!" I told her, "Nothing you say can make this worse; I'm listening, I just don't have the energy to talk right now."
Those last few miles were a struggle. I think I walked a little bit more, but Tristan was pushing me to keep going, and honestly I just wanted to get it over with! When I got to the last mile, I thought, okay I can do this now, I'm going to run the rest. It helps that the last quarter of a mile is down a huge hill. Now, I had given up on a PR, but I was still checking my watch, and at the very end I realized that it WAS still possible. As we started down the hill towards the finish, Tristan turned to me and said, "You know we're going to PR this, right?" I just started bawling, and all I could say was, "I know!" All of my emotions came to the surface in that moment: all the pain, the frustration, the relief of being almost done, and the disbelief that we were going to get a PR.
As I ran down the hill, I let my legs loose and just tried not to fall. It almost felt like I had no control over my body. I wanted to be done, and get over the finish line as fast as possible. I was still emotional after I crossed the finish line. I think I cried some more (while Tristan laughed at me). I am so grateful Tristan stayed with me and encouraged me to keep running. I never would have gotten a PR in this race without her! This was definitely the most challenging race I've run yet. I've never bonked like that in the last few miles, and never had to run through pain like that before. It was a mental and physical challenge unlike any other race. I still can't believe my worst marathon experience resulted in a marathon PR!
Official time: 4:16:01 - Marathon PR!
I should mention that I still love running Richmond. The course is great. There's a good number of people, but it's not super crowded. The start and finish areas are organized and easy to navigate. Finally, the post-race swag was awesome! We got finisher hats, finisher blankets (LOVE), awesome medals, and pizza! We hung out at Brown's Island for awhile to rest and rehydrate.
I should also mention, that after the race, a guy came up to us in the finish area. He said he had been right with us for the first 14-15 miles. He said we were keeping a really good pace! When we told him our final time, he said, "What happened? You most have bonked at the end!" Um, yeah. He said he had finished in 4:05! So we were on track to finish a lot faster than we did. I am so happy with our PR, but that made me think we could run even faster! I thought this was my last marathon... but now I'm not so sure!
Our Splits, because I love looking at data from races!
| 1 | 9:40 | … | ||||
| 2 | 9:36 | 15 | 10:05 | (1st stop for fuel) | ||
| 3 | 9:20 | 16 | 9:36 | |||
| 4 | 9:29 | 17 | 11:35 | (bathroom break) | ||
| 5 | 9:17 | 18 | 9:39 | |||
| 6 | 9:30 | 19 | 9:36 | |||
| 7 | 9:02 | *2nd fastest mile | 20 | 9:56 | ||
| 8 | 9:23 | 21 | 10:34 | (2nd stop for fuel) | ||
| 9 | 9:10 | 22 | 9:38 | |||
| 10 | 9:17 | 23 | 10:34 | |||
| 11 | 9:23 | 24 | 11:44 | |||
| 12 | 9:11 | 25 | 10:13 | |||
| 13 | 9:01 | *fastest mile | 26 | 9:48 | ||
| 14 | 9:09 | 27 | 7:19 |
Half: 2:02:56
20 mile: 3:11:43
Final time: 4:16:01
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