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| My Garmin Connect data of the race course. |
It's a flat and fast course that runs along Monument Avenue, which features statues of Civil War generals such as Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, as well as that of tennis great Arthur Ashe.
The wife ran in it in 2006 as her first road race and I always thought it would be a neat race to do. So when we discovered our preschooler's Spring Break schedule matched the timing of this race, we planned our vacation around it!
It also has a wave time standard that is even more stringent than the Peachtree Road Race, as I qualified for the final wave of Group A (with a 10K time of 45:59 or under or a 5K time under 22:05). My wave was Group AB, which started out 750 runners just two minutes after the official race start.
After attending a nice expo the day before at the Arthur Ashe Center that featured rainbow cookies from the race's title sponsor and some cool race shirts, we made our way from the suburbs where my in-laws live to downtown Richmond just after 7 a.m.
Before the race, organizers informed participants of street parking and parking decks. They also had shuttles that ran from the expo site (which I think we would use in the future). I thought about being able to park on the street in last month's Publix Georgia Half Marathon and decided to head out to find similar parking.
But this was a true disaster. There are a lot of residential townhomes and apartments in the area and most residents park on the street to begin with. Then add people's cars from the race and it was apparent no easy parking was to be had. We were about to get into a long line of cars for one of the parking decks of VCU but at the last moment ended up turning on a grassy triangle that people were parking alongside. It looked like it might not be totally legal, but everyone was parking there, so ...
Out we went, only about a half mile to the start. We walked over in the cold and breezy air and maybe I should have tried to run a little bit for my warmup. I did so after walking back to Wave D and reuniting the wife with one of her girlfriends who lives in the area. But I only did .14 miles before it was only 4 minutes before the official race start.
So I hopped a fence and got in Wave AB. It was full but there was plenty of space around me. It didn't seem like the waves were stringently being checked so in theory anyone could have joined any group. But when the race started, everyone was running at the pace that I planned to run this race at, 7:20/mile.
It worked pretty well, almost like a metronome, with runners running a similar pace all around me, until almost the end of Mile 1. I ended up with a 7:25 mile at that point, but didn't worry since it was close enough to the goal and I wasn't trying too hard.
But then the next two miles came and I really was not able to sustain that pace. The early (and later) parts of the race run on brick-lined roads and I could really feel it on the bottoms of my shoes, something that I felt wouldn't bother me if I was not struggling. I also found it hard to concentrate on the playlist from my iPod because of all the great bands along the route. If I run in this race in the future, I might opt to leave the headphones at home, since music clearly is provided!
The miles went 7:53 and 8:03 (at one point I was running at an 8:30/mile pace) and I was starting to calculate in my head whether I'd finish in 50 minutes or greater. That being said, I wasn't worried about it since this race was basically a fun race that had the potential for a fast time since it was so flat.
The route turns around right before the 5K mat (which is on the other side of the turnaround). Right at this point, I felt like my legs had returned. I was able to speed up and the mile times responded appropriately (I ran 7:31, 7:35 and 7:20 for Miles 4, 5 and 6).
The end was downhill and while I was running steadily, I wasn't really killing the course either. I did surprise myself at the end, though. My data says I ran the last .26 miles of the course at a 6:28 pace.
After crossing the finish, I waited with a bottle of water and my finisher's medal for the wife and her friend. My time of 47:29 wasn't my best outing this year but it was an honest effort and I liked that I didn't lose hope after my pace slowed down in the middle of the race. I probably haven't totally recovered from the half marathon and I also put in about 36 miles biking along the Virginia Capital Trail in two days this week.
It was neat though, after the race when our family met my wife's friend's family at a diner in suburban Glen Allen to see all the people in the eatery wearing bibs, or the race's medal or T-shirt. It's stuff like that that really energizes me about having participated in an event that so many people enjoy.
Time: 8:02 a.m.
Temp: 43 degrees
Gear: Technical T-shirt, short (Champion grey), shorts, cep compression socks, Brooks Pure Connect 3.
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| You get a pack of Ukrop's signature dinner rolls after the race! |
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