Richmond Marathon (11-15-2014) race report

 Richmond Marathon Race Report

Pre-Race:
The Running Duricks made their way down to Richmond, VA on Friday 11/14/2014 to hit the expo and run the races on Saturday. November, 15th, 2014.  Last year, I had some pretty good tendinitis in my heel and skipped running the marathon so the kids and I followed Heather around Richmond last year.  This year, I had been battling a bevy of small injuries that prevented my miles from reaching anything worth calling good.  Something different for this year was that Heather, Nic, and Zach were going to be running the 8k.  So we would all be running on Saturday which was really exciting.  To give you an idea of my last 6 weeks of training, this is what it looked like. 17, 40 (paced Heather during 100k), 20, 26, 29, 7.  Yea, not exactly getting the Hal Higdon approval however, lets just say I was "FRESH".  Last week, I tweaked my hammy playing basketball with Zach and Nic, and that threw a wrench in my plans for a nice 10-12 miler before this weeks marathon.  Enough bitching! So we headed down to Richmond early Friday, hit the expo at 11am when it opened. The expo is nothing to write home about with your typical vendors and packet pickup stations.  My left Achilles had been aching me the entire week due to a tight calf but no fear, I had my private PT specialist with me:

Nic taking care of Dad who had some issues with his Achilles  a few days before the Marathon.

After the expo, we hit Jersey Mike's like we did the year before.  You can never lose with lunch at Jersey Mikes.  After that we checked in to the Marriott Richmond and chilled for a few hours.    The carb load-up took place at Olive Garden down by University of Richmond...not being a big fan of the Garden, I was pleasantly surprised by how decent the food was.  The last few days I had been difficult to be around given my issues with my hammy and Achilles.  So lets just say, the Olive Garden was not enjoyed by all :) 

The Race(s):
Ok, the day finally arrived.  The 8k was at 7am and the marathon at 7:50am.  Weather a steamy 27F this morning which made my outfit difficult to pick from.  This is what I had planned to wear:

I chose to wear a tight undershirt and my Blue Ridge marathon shirt over top.

So I wish the kids and Mom goodbye and they head outside to the 8k.  I wanted to hangout until about 7:15am in the room, make sure I hit the dumper two more times before I felt cleaned out.  This is me chilling in the room:

No injuries, no injuries, no injuries, break!

I finally headed down to the start of the race but did something I have never done in any of my marathons.  I "assumed" that we would be running after the half marathoners which seemed logical at the time but what I didn't realize is that the marathoners and the back part of the 1/2 marathoners were leaving concurrently.  It was too late at this point and I got stuck starting with the 5:00 hour pace group.  I was unbelievably pissed and couldn't believe I did this because I wanted to go out with the 3:45 pace group.  The first 4 miles consisted of me weaving in and out of people, running on side walks and bumping people.  Some people had to be pissed but I wasn't going to get stuck in the back.  My first mile was a 8:19 and felt pretty good so I knew it was going to be a good first half anyway.  I had a 26:07 at the 5k mark / 8:24 pace and a 52:14 for the 10k split (8:25/m).  At the 20k mark, I was on pace for a 3:40 marathon pace with a 1:45:31 for 12.4 miles.  The first part of the marathon weaved you down broad street and around the city some.  About mile 7 was the "party zone" where I was supposed to meet heather and the gang.  I looked and looked and looked, no one.  Oh well, kept truckin over a small bridge that had a nice view of the james river.  At this point, we are now running along the river.  There were people whopping it up at this point and all I was thinking was "lets see how you feel at 20 brother".  I hit my hammer gel at mile 6 which tasted good.  At the half, I rolled in with a 1:50:52 that had me doing a 3:41 pace.  At this point, I saw heather and the kids for about .03 seconds as I passed them.  The one thing I thought tough was to be a spectator at this race.  Getting from place to place was not easy at all.  After the half point, I was still feeling strong.  However, I hit the wind and the bridge at 15/16 and encountered my first 9 minute mile with a 9:08 at mile 16.  I was actually a little shocked when I saw this and was not sure how I had slowed down so much.   At mile 17/18, I attempted to put in my headphones which sapped the life out of me.  Not only did it take what felt like forever to get them in, I was starting to get real tired.   Little did I know, I would only have about 4 decent miles left in me as I approached the 20 mile mark.  I now had run my fastest 20 miler ever in a 2:53:02.  I was done and I couldn't do anything about it.  From here on out, I was in survival mode, and the Hammer gels were getting more and more frozen as the miles went by.  The water was making me colder and the wind was mentally breaking me down.  It took me 1 hour to go 6 miles and finished the race with a time of 3:54:48.  At first, I was a little pissed that I had such a great first 16-20 miles and shitty last 6 but after thinking that I had done this on 20+ miles a week training, how mad could I really be.

After the race, Heather found me but apparently had lost Zach in the process.  Zach had wanted to run with me down to the end but got lost in the massive crowd.  Eventually she found him but it was scary not knowing where he was.  After the results came, we found out that Nic and Zach both came in 5th and 3rd respectively for the Richmond 8k which is incredible.  Here are some shots of them finishing the race:

Zach (3rd)

Nic (5th)

    

Of course, I couldn't of done so well without my little helpers:

And of course, here is a nice shot of Zach, Nic and after the race warming up back at the hotel:

Again, thanks to Heather for dragging the boys all around Richmond to find me when in fact, I only saw them one time which was at mile 13.1.   Finally, here is a shot of all of us:

Race Stats:

Distance: 26.2 miles
Time: 3:54:48
Pace: 8:57/mile
Overall place:1384/5113
Age Group:  161/405
10k split:  52:14
Half split:  1:50:52
20 mile split:   2:53:02 (PR 20 miler)

Splits Mile Pace GAP 1 8:18 8:17 3 2 8:22 8:12 25 3 8:29 8:26 6 4 8:26 8:22 9 5 8:26 8:22 10 6 8:37 8:30 11 7 8:09 8:53 -127  8 8:23 8:18 -0 9 8:36 8:41 -13 10 8:38 8:20 39 11 8:42 8:33 14 12 8:44 8:24 35 13 8:25 8:22 4 14 8:25 8:36 -32 15 8:28 8:46 -51  ---------------------- FELT SO STRONG UNTIL THE BRIDGE 16 9:08 8:25 41 17 8:59 8:42 39 18 9:07 8:57 23 19 9:08 9:18 -25 20 9:44 9:39 8 21 10:17 10:22 -11   ---------------------> WHAT???? 22 9:42 9:38 7 23 9:57 9:59 -5 24 10:04 10:08 -17---------------------> DYING A SLOW DEATH HERE! 25 10:13 10:15 -5 26 9:36 9:58 -61 0.2 7:53 9:32 -59
Reference:  http://www.strava.com/activities/220010670/overview

Right now, the left knee is pretty sore, the right knee is a tad sore but other than that, all is good.  I am contemplating running the Northern Central Trail Marathon to become a Marathon Maniac.  I signed up last night and will do it unless something drastic happens.