Richmond Marathon and back to it

I did it! I ran another marathon! With my dad!

Remember the Pittsburgh Marathon? I don't. That was probably one of the worst days of my life. It's tough when something you enjoy so much (running) let's you down (...literally).

So I had to get back to it.

And I did.  And on Saturday I crossed the finish line to the Richmond Marathon. There was no PR. Far from it, in fact.  But for this marathon, that is not what mattered.

I came into this race feeling very confident.  I had a phenomenal last 20 mile training run where I felt strong.  The issues from the PGH marathon were far in the past.  The night before the run we had great conversations with other runners during the pasta dinner.  The weather was going to be perfect.  Everything seemed OK. And for the most part, it was.

The first half of the race was great. I kept a comfortable pace, the course was beautiful, and the crowd support was electric.  (Also, there was an english bulldog on the course. Great, right?)  But at around the halfway point I started feeling extremely nauseous.  See that "Jessie" shirt I'm wearing? It's a heavy cotton shirt.  I'm fairly certain the tag even said "heavyweight".  And I'm fairly certain it was heavyweighting me down when the weather and I started warming up.  So midway through the race I unpinned my bib, threw off my shirt (I had a tech-shirt underneath), and started to feel better.  

I still struggled with the nausea.  Miles 16-18 were tough as we crossed over a slightly uphill bridge and I seriously contemplated calling it quits over and over because I do not deal with nausea well. My legs felt fine but I felt drained and, oh, did I mention nauseous? But I could not NOT finish another race.  I kept imagining the silent and disappointed car ride back.  Another race with a shirt I can't shouldn't wear and a medal I wouldn't have.  SO, with the encouragement of my dad I pushed through.  

We kept our plan adopted after mile 13 of walking through the water stops or at every mile marker or, ya know, whenever I said so, and then running a comfortable pace to the next walking stop.  Whether this sounds crazy or not to you, walking through the water stops, especially if done from the beginning, can lead to a faster marathon time.  I read somewhere that marathoners average 13 minute faster times when walking through water stops. And there's this article from the NY Times. And my dad qualified for Boston after walking through water stops after mile 18. But I digress... Eventually we made it to mile 25 and we knew that one final turn through downtown Richmond would lead us downhill for about a half mile to the finish line so I dug deep, or whatever, and sprinted to the finish.  So what if it was over 4 hours, I did it. And I have the medal to prove it.

There were enjoyable parts of the marathon: the bull dog, the (sometimes rowdy!) crowd support, hearing "Dancing in the Dark" during a part of the course when I was really struggling, the cheers for Bob and Jessie during the first half, and of course- the finish.

But I'd also like to take a moment to remember those we have lost: whatever problem kept me from running the pittsburgh marathon & my Jessie shirt. Good riddance.