Quick report:
My coach wanted me to hit 1:45
I wanted to go sub-1:45.
My friend Sadie wanted me to go 1:40.
I split the difference- 1:42:57
And I honestly think I could have gone at least 2 minutes faster!
Longer Report:
I arrived in Richmond on Friday evening with my boyfriend and dog in tow after driving up from NC after work, in the pouring rain. I picked up my race bib at the expo and we met my parents at our dog friendly hotel and pretty much immediately got ready for bed. As I laid out my clothes for the race I reflected on how nice it is to run a race I know will be over in less than a couple of hours (I’m used to running the longer races on offer so it was weird that I wasn’t running the marathon!)
Unfortunately I didn’t sleep super well because our dog sometimes likes to cry at night when we’re not at home, but I don’t often sleep well before a race anyway. I got up and ate my oatmeal, drank some yerba mate tea, and moved around (to get some other things moving.) After getting dressed I made a plan of where to meet Mike and my parents to hand off my long-sleeved outer layer and see them right before the start.
About 40-45 minutes before the race start I left the hotel and went on a 2 mile warmup run from my hotel, around the capitol building, and to the race start area. I found a quiet side street to finish up my warmup and do some strides. I felt warm and springy- so far I was following Coach Michael’s pre-race plan to a T. The front of the pack was warming up nearby and it felt strange but kind of cool to be doing a similar warmup to the more elite runners. Mike, Tucker and my parents found me, we snapped a great little photo, I gave them my outer layer and I went to join my starting wave.
When I signed up, my race goal was 1:50, so I was put in the 3rd wave. Compared to something like the NYC marathon, these waves were small though so I was only going to start 4 minutes after the first wave. I shimmied my way to the front of my wave and after four minutes, I was off.
My race plan (according to Coach) was to stick with 8:05-8:10 minute per mile pace for the first 10 miles, then turn on some speed and incrementally get faster over the next 3 miles, especially taking advantage of the last half mile downhill to the finish at the river.
After a slightly fast first mile to get out in front of my wave of runners, I settled into a steady 8:05 pace. The weather was great, clear skies, some wind hitting us to the side, but otherwise I crisp 44 degrees or so. The race course took us out of the downtown area and into more of the suburbs. Some great cheering greeted us throughout the streets, I was happy to see people braving the chill. About mile 5 we got into a park with some hills and a narrower path. The trees here were beautiful autumnal colors but that also meant this part of the course had some slick sections from the rain the previous day plus fallen leaves. I passed quite a few people on the hills, feeling strong on them and not letting them slow me down – all that speed and hill work paid off!
Once I got through the last hills after mile 7, my legs felt great so I started to creep into sub 8 minute mile pace. We headed on a pretty straight road back towards downtown. When I hit mile 10, I just turned the rest of the race into a 3 mile progression run, something I’d done several times in workouts during training. I started with a 7:40 pace, which felt easy, so I tried to get a little faster each mile, the last mile ended up being my fastest mile ever recorded on Strava- a 6:28 minute mile. Actually the last .1-.2 was my fastest with that crazy downhill to the river, I ran that part at sub-six minute mile pace!
According to Strava I had my fastest Half-Marathon, 20k, 10 mile, and 15k! And I felt that I could have actually gone faster. Going conservatively definitely gave me the legs to finish fast, but there was so much left in the proverbial tank, that I think I could have gone a little faster over the first 7-8 miles and still been able to finish with progressive speed. This was only my second (and longest) race with my coach and I’ve only worked with him and done his programming for around 4 months, so I’m excited to see where we can go!
postgradjourney 