Half Marathon #10 for 2013: Richmond Half Marathon

Richmond Half Marathon
November 16, 2013
2:14:21

Once again, I went into a race undertrained.  I managed one 10 miler in the month in between Heritage and Richmond.  My plan was to run this easy to save something for the next day.  I’m quickly learning that I suck at planning.

The good:

• My splits were pretty darn even – my fastest mile was 9:56, my slowest was 10:27, but most fell around 10:15.
• I got to spend the night with G and meet a bunch of her friends, including one who brought us coffee.
• G handled all of the logistics.  I just had to show up.
• Seeing a sorority sister who was spectating and getting a cup of gummy bears from her.
• The cookies I got at mile 8ish.
• The pizza at the end.  I was so hungry I would have eaten cardboard, but the pizza was so good.
• The swag was frickin’ awesome: a blanket, a long sleeve women’s tech tee, and a gorgeous medal!

The bad:

• Hills. They weren’t awful, but they were slippery.

The ugly:

• The rain.  I’m so over running wet, chilly races.
• The downhill finish.  I can’t believe I’m saying that because I love a good downhill, but I was tired and things were slippery and my quads were completely shot.
• Forgetting to eat.  I ate a granola bar at 5 am.  I didn’t start racing until 7:35.  I thought I was going to pass out around mile 2.  (See note above about sorority sister and gummy bears – they saved my race.)

All in all, this was an awesome race.  I had no plan to race it, but I felt good and I went with it.  I left almost everything on the course (I might have been able to knock off another minute or two, but not much.)  But obviously, I didn’t run it like I was planning to run another half marathon the next day.  Oops.

Any guesses on how my race Sunday went?  (If you saw my posts on Facebook, you know the answer to that LOL)

Only 3 more halves until 13 in 2013 is done!