2009 Richmond Marathon Race Report

Friday night before the race, I tried to go to bed a little early to get a good night sleep. I woke up at midnight after my first dream. I dreamed that the marathon was in a house. Each lap around the house was a mile. I started strong and finished my 26 laps. When I looked up at the microwave, which was the mile marker, I had run 3.1 miles. A 5K! I felt so defeated, I quit and didn't finish. You can obviously tell that no matter how positive I was trying to be, subconsciously, I was not feeling too good.

I woke up around 6, thanks to the boys. I got dressed and ate a banana. I was contemplating if I should bring my fuel belt or not. I eventually figured that there were enough stops that I wouldn't need my own, so I stuffed one pocket full of Gu's and the other with my cell and a baggy of peanut butter crackers. I grabbed 2 cereal bars and headed out the a little before 7. I thought it would be good to be around the other runner and get my adrenaline going. I ate the cereal bars on the way to the starting area, which was only a couple of blocks from my hotel.

The 8K started right on time at 7, but I didn't see them off. The half marathon runners lined up. I was looking around for the pre-race water stop, but I couldn't find it. In hindsight, I don't think I had enough fluids to start the race. The half started right on time at 7:30. It took well over 6 minutes for the last of the runners in the back to cross the start. I knew I'd be starting pretty far back, so I'm not even going to consider my gun time. I'm just going to care about my watch and chip time. For the mile split times, I'll be going by watch time.

The marathon started right on time at 8am. I didn't actually cross the start until at least 3-4 minutes after, which I thought was pretty good. I was expecting more. The first few miles went by pretty quickly. The first 2 weren't that pretty, but there were lots of people cheering, so it made for a good time. At the beginning of mile 3 was the turn onto Monument Ave, which was a really pretty street with old houses and statues at some of the intersections. This part of the course was flat and very hard to keep slow. Miles 5-7 went through some residential areas. Lots of cheering people lined the course. I think mile 7 was where the first party zone was. It's hard to tell where the official party zones were, since there were only 3, but I saw at least 6 or 7 bands throughout the day, not to mention 4-5 dj stations along the way. Mile 8 was the first of the two bridges. This was the easier of the 2. I honestly can't remember hitting many hills to this point. There were a couple, but they were over so quickly, I really can't say any were difficult. That's the beauty of training on the hills of Umstead. Mile 9 and part of 10 ran on River Road along the James River. People were commenting on how high the river was. The news in the morning was reporting that there might a detour if the river rose too much. We made it fine, but the water was rough and dirty looking, and there were no cheering people here, so this mile+ was boring. There were a number of runners here using the woods on the side for bathroom breaks. I contemplated it myself, but I tried to hold it out. In hindsight, I should have stopped here. Miles 11-15 were on a major street and were pretty uneventful except for the people lining the streets. The one thing to note here is that my bladder finally got the best of me. I think it was just after the mile 14 marker. Looking at my mile 15 split shows I wasted more than a minute of my time here. It was probably more, but I ran faster to make some time up. I have to say up to this point, I was feeling great. Mile 16 was the infamous Lee Bridge, and the whole time going up it, I kept thinking to myself that it wasn't bad. It was not steep at all. I know there was an incline, but it was so gradual that I'd describe it as a false flat. I think the thing that made the bridge easy, was that there was only a light wind. The next two miles, 17 and 18 were a little harder than 16. They were each a steady incline, so this last stretch was pretty much a 3 mile hill. All in all, I'm still feeling good, though I am starting to feel tired. Night and day between this and last year's two marathons where my quads were cramping at mile 16. Miles 19 and 20 continue through different types of neighborhoods. I'm pretty sure we've gone through everything from low-income to upscale neighborhoods, and throughout each one the locals have been really supportive. Mile 21 is where I think I started to feel like I was wearing down. It was all starting to get blurry. I remember passing the old Richmond Braves baseball stadium, Virginia Commonwealth University and some other school, but I couldn't tell you where at this point. Just as I started mile 25, I felt my quads starting to cramp. I thought to myself that's a lot better than mile 16, and I kept pushing. The only thing that has stopped me so far was fuel stops, and I wasn't about to give up now. I was determined to finish this running the whole way, even though I was starting to realize that I might miss my 4:45 goal. It was going to be close, so I needed to push if I had any chance. Mile 25 and 26 had a couple of rolling parts, but I only noticed because it was mile 25 and 26. If it was mile 1 and 2, it wouldn't have felt like anything. There was a point toward the end of mile 25 that my quads were cramping so bad that I slowed to a walking pace with high steps to try and loosen them up a bit. I didn't walk for more than 30 seconds though and started to run again. At about the 25.5 mark, you make a few turns then the last turn leads you to the final .5 mile downhill finish. This was my favorite part of the race. I just let gravity take me and sprinted down the hill. One of the coolest things about this marathon is that they have your first name printed on your race bib, just below your number. Throughout the day, I got a lot of "way to go, Frank" type cheers, but the whole half mile, person after person yells, "Go Frank" the whole way down and adrenaline takes over. My sprint was great. I think one person passed me, but I passed a bunch more people. Right before the finish I caught the site of Jen and the boys on my left and hearing them yell out go daddy broke me down. I was fighting back tears as I came into through the finish. I stopped over to the side to pretend to stretch, because I didn't want anyone see me getting teared up. The emotion got me more this time because I actually felt really proud of myself this time that I didn't quit. I fought through all my physical and emotional crap and finished as strong as I could.

Here are my splits according to my watch.
Mile 1 - 10:45
Mile 2 - 10:40
Mile 3 - 10:44
Mile 4 - 10:32
Mile 5 - 10:39
Mile 6 - 11:00
Mile 7 - 10:29
Mile 8 - 10:45
Mile 9 - 10:44
Mile 10 - 10:55
Mile 11 - 11:08
Mile 12 - 10:40
Mile 13 - 10:48
Mile 14 - 10:34
Mile 15 - 12:09
Mile 16 - 10:51
Mile 17 - 11:18
Mile 18 - 10:38
Mile 19 - 10:30
Mile 20 - 10:45
Mile 21 - 10:58
Mile 22 - 10:55
Mile 23 - 11:06
Mile 24 - 11:02
Mile 25 - 11:18
Mile 26 - 11:12
Remaining .43 - 3:56 (9:13 pace)

Official times were:
Half split - 2:22:11
20 mile split - 3:38:07
Finish - 4:46:58
Gun time - 4:50:48