Month: November 2023

Sub-90 minute half marathon, attempt no. 2: A recap of The 2023 Richmond Half Marathon

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I thought I’d have a different story to tell about the Richmond Half Marathon. 

I was SO SURE this was going to be my day to break 90 minutes in the half. I’d heard nothing but amazing things about the race. The weather forecast was this runner’s dream – 40s and almost no wind. I’d run a super strong half in Ocean City two weeks prior when it was literally 40 degrees warmer. I felt so ready! 

Instead, I finished in 1:31:57, which was a 6-second PR. Still a great time and a race I am proud of. But it certainly wasn’t the time I was shooting for. 

So what happened? I think I screwed myself by getting ahead of the pace group wayyyyy too early in the race – I should have known better. More on that in a minute! 

The week after Ocean City, I didn’t run much because I was in Orlando for work (with a little fun tacked on.) I managed to squeeze in 4 miles before I left, then two 5-mile runs around the hotel I was staying at, then a 10-mile run when I got back home. I wasn’t too worried about it and don’t think it affected my race in Richmond. The week of the race, I followed the same schedule I did during the week leading up to OC. All good. 

I had the day before the race off of work, so Micah and I drove down to Richmond, hit the expo, and checked into the Virginia Crossings Hotel. We decided to eat at one of the restaurants at the hotel and I had salmon, quinoa, and veggies for dinner (plus two beers, duh!) I don’t normally eat salmon the night before a race, but I thought this seemed like a good mix of protein and carbs. 

Getting to downtown Richmond the next morning was pretty easy and I had plenty of time to pee, get into my start corral, and find the 1:30 pace group. I was really excited to have pacers this time since Ocean City didn’t have pacers. (So– why did I get ahead of the damn pacers then??! I have no explanation for my stupidity!) There was a huge pack of us who clustered around the two pacers, and I was excited about that. Teamwork! 

One of the pacers told another runner they’d be running even 6:52 splits, but now that I am looking back over the splits I ran during the race, the pacers actually went out faster than expected – we ran the first mile in 6:43 and the second mile in 6:46. So maybe it wasn’t all my fault that I went out too fast! That said, somewhere after mile 2 I got ahead of them as I think they dialed it back and I went on running full steam ahead. Miles 3 and 4 were closer to my goal half marathon pace; I finished those miles in 6:52 and 6:50, respectively. 

The next few miles of the race had some rolling hills, but I live in an area with lots of rolling hills and run on them every day, so I felt well-trained for it. This was also one of the prettiest parts of the course, with lots of beautiful fall foliage. I clocked a 7:07 for mile 5 and a 6:46 for mile 6. Mile 6 was, sadly, the last time I’d see a pace that began with a 6 that day. 

I had taken a Maurten gel just before the race started, and my plan was to take a second one halfway through the race, which I did in Ocean City. But my stomach was feeling a little funky, and I wondered if it was the previous night’s salmon that came back to bite me in the ass. Or, it could have been that I was just pushing really hard. Who knows. Either way, I never took my second gel. 

I ran mile 7 in 7:02, and the pace group passed me right about then, which is never encouraging. I told myself I could catch up with them. Spoiler alert, that never happened! The race was starting to feel hard around mile 8 (7:04) and then when I saw a 7:14 on my watch for mile 9, and lost sight of the pace group all together, I felt super defeated. But I told myself I only had four miles left, and that meant less than a half hour of running, so it was time to suck it up! 

I do have to point out that this course really was nice – definitely more interesting than Ocean City, even if there were more hills. And the crowds were awesome! The race, which also features a marathon and an 8K, bills itself as America’s Friendliest Marathon, and I can see why. They definitely pepped me up during the later miles! 

Mile 10: 7:04

Mile 11: 7:06

Mile 12: 7:15 

This race is known for its extremely steep downhill finish, so once I finished mile 12, I knew that was coming. However, I wasn’t counting on being able to run a stupid fast mile down it, because to be honest, I am not a strong downhill runner. I’m too tentative and afraid of falling and hurting myself. (For good reason! Do I need to remind anyone of my epic fall in Boston 2022?) I will say the downhill finish lives up to the hype, and if you are a great downhill runner, you’d love this. Runners were literally flying past me. The best I could do was a 7:08 mile, ha! 

I wasn’t looking at the elapsed time on my watch, but I knew I was over 1:30. As I approached the finish line, I saw the clock read 1:31:5x and I gave it everything I had to get under 1:32 and officially run a PR, if only by a tiny amount. 

I’m not one to get really upset by missing my goals in races, but this one hurt. I called Micah right after finishing and told him I’d never been so disappointed in a PR. I collected my medal, then my finisher’s hat and blanket (this race had really good swag!) and went to meet up with him. 

I wasn’t hungry at all after finishing, and in fact struggled to have much of an appetite for hours, but I did enjoy a delicious gingerbread stout beer at the after party! I also got to meet up with my Instagram friend Rachel for the first time in person. She had a fantastic race and ran a big PR! 

Of course, since a PR is a PR, no matter how small, I wanted to ring the PR bell! Too bad I was just a tiny bit overzealous and I broke it!! Luckily, Micah was there to put it back together. Yay for husbands who drive you to races and fix the PR bells you break. Ha! 

Given that Richmond is a much, much larger race than OC, I had no expectations of placing. But I finished 4th in my age group and Richmond gives awards to the top 5 finishers in each age group. According to the website, I’ll receive instructions on how to claim my personalized award in December. So that’s something to look forward to! 

So, what’s next? I’m not ready to give up the sub-90 dream yet. I am running the Rehoboth Seashore Half in two weekends and yes, I am going to go for it again. There will be a 1:30 pace group again and my plan is to stick with them no matter how good I think I’m feeling in the beginning. Since there are three weeks between Richmond and Rehoboth, I decided to just follow the last three weeks of my half marathon training plan. I know my training was optimized for Ocean City, but we’ll see what I can do one last time before my fall racing season officially ends. 

Either way, there will be a hell of an after party, so it’ll be a good day!

I won the Ocean City Half Marathon in Ocean City, Maryland!

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I won the Ocean City Half Marathon at the inaugural Ocean City Running Festival last month! 

No, I did not break 90 minutes, but I did break that finish line tape. It was an amazing moment and easily the highlight of 2023 for me. 

My official time was 1:32:03, which was a PR by 1 minute and 16 seconds. I thought I could run faster that day, but then again, I also thought it would be a lot cooler. 

It was 84 degrees by the time I finished the half marathon. On October 28 in Maryland! 

I’ve been living here long enough to know that you really never know what fall is going to be like. It’s not uncommon to have summer-like days into November, especially these days. That said, 80+ degrees at the end of October is certainly not the norm. When I checked the forecast a few days before the race and saw meteorologists were calling for possibly record-breaking temperatures, I just rolled my eyes. Of course. I knew sub-90 was going to be a challenge on the best of days, and really freaking hard on an unseasonably hot day. The half wasn’t starting until 9:15 am, either! 

But what can you do? I was still planning to run the best race I could. And that’s what I did. 

My friend Shannon and I left work early on Friday and made the 2.5 hour drive from Anne Arundel County to Ocean City. Packet pickup was at the convention center, and we were staying at a hotel on the boardwalk, within walking distance of where we needed to board the buses to get to the start line on Assateague Island. We had dinner at Shenanigans and I got my standard veggie burger and fries, plus two beers. I joked afterwards that the extra beer was the reason I won.

The Ocean City Running Festival included a marathon, a half marathon, an 8K and a 5K, and the half was a point-to-point race that began on Assateague and ended at the inlet on the Ocean City boardwalk. I was wearing a sports bra and shorts to walk to the buses, and I wasn’t remotely cold at 7:30 in the morning, so I knew I was in for a steamy one. Once we got to Assateague – my first time there, which is kind of crazy! I didn’t see any wild horses, though – we used the bathroom, hung out with other runners, and then lined up at the start around 9. There were no pace groups, but there were signs that directed runners to line up by their expected pace per mile. The fastest was 7:00/mile, so I lined up there. They played the Whitney Houston recording of the National Anthem, which is always a good sign – I’ve run a PR literally every time I have heard that at the start of the race! Before I knew it, it was go time. 

I ran the first mile in 7:05, then 6:50 and 6:54 for miles 2 and 3. Then I got into a really good rhythm, clicking off a 6:47, 6:50, and 6:53 for miles 4 through 6. I’m not going to sugarcoat it – the race course wasn’t the most interesting. It’s almost entirely flat except for the Verrazano Bridge that connects Assateague to the mainland, and you spend the first 8 miles, I think, on Route 611. It’s a long straightaway and there isn’t much shade, which was especially brutal on such a hot day. It was mentally tough– and did I mention it was hot? I was grabbing water from every aid station, not just to drink but to dump on my head! 

I ran mile 7 in 6:58 and passed a guy who was taking a walk break. “Come on, stay with me,” I urged him. “You know you’re the first female,” he said. I told him that couldn’t be right. I was positive there were some women up ahead of me. He insisted I was in the lead. By the way, I wish I had been able to hang with him – I saw him after the race and he finished in just under 90 minutes! 

I clocked a 6:47 mile for mile 8, and then I think that’s when we finally made a right turn off 611 and toward Ocean City. The race was definitely starting to get tougher then. We ran through some random park and ride and then over another bridge. There was a lot of traffic stopped on the bridge and people inside the cars were cheering the runners on. I ran mile 9 in 7:01. At this point, I think someone told me I was in second place. 

When we got into Ocean City, I heard someone calling out “Shortstack!” (This is my nickname in kickboxing class – long story!) It was my friend Jessica and I was so excited to see her. If she hadn’t been on the other side of the road, I would have given her a big hug. Seeing her was a huge pick me up! I was surprised to see that I ran a 6:51 mile for mile 10, because I was definitely feeling like I was on the struggle bus.   

The last few miles were on the boardwalk, and quite frankly, they were brutal. Because it was so warm out, a ton of people were at the beach for the weekend, and the boardwalk of course was open, so there was a lot of dodging people/yelling out “on your left!” That said, a lot of people were enthusiastically cheering the runners on, so that was nice! And again, zero shade on the boardwalk. It was also a looooong out and back. We entered the boardwalk at the inlet and basically ran past where the finish line was (mean), then ran way down the boardwalk, then turned around and headed back to the finish.

My pace definitely tanked here, but not too bad: Mile 11, 7:11; Mile 12: 7:18. What’s that saying? Positive splits for positive people! Someone around this point called out to me that I was the fourth female, so I really had no idea how I was doing. I just knew I was ready to be done with the race! 

I hit mile 13 in 7:10. As I was coming down the last stretch, I heard the announcers say, “here comes our female champion in the half marathon!” 

And then I turned the corner and they were holding up the finish line tape for me! 

It was WILD. I just kept saying, “What? Oh my God. I can’t believe it!” With around 800 total participants, 500 of whom were women, this is the biggest race I’ve won.

After I collected myself, I went to find water– I was so dehydrated! And then I came back to the finish line area to see Shannon finish her first half marathon in 12 years! She crushed it, but said the heat was really tough (and she loves warm weather!) She also completed the Chessie Challenge, meaning she ran in the Annapolis Running Festival, the Baltimore Running Festival, and the Ocean City Running Festival.

My award is made out of wood from the boardwalk – pretty cool! 

So my sub-90 dream lives to see another day. But tomorrow I am running the Richmond Half Marathon and I am going to see what I can do there. I will have a 1:30 pacer, which always helps a lot, and it’s going to be around 38 degrees at the start, warming up to 46 by the end. SO much better running weather than what we got in OC. I can’t wait to see how it goes!