[652] Richmond Marathon

I had a good experience at America’s Friendliest Marathon, in Richmond Virginia.

This is my home state and I have wanted to run it since I started running marathons 7-8 years ago.  

Richmond Marathon being in the fall, means the race date usually conflicts with my other races.  

I aim to do all 50 states and Virginia was the first state I completed (Charlottesville Marathon in 2017).  So, it was never a do-or-die for me.  I just was bidding me time to find the right opportunity to do it.

Richmond would have been my first marathon, but I was not ready in 2016.  By Spring 2017, I did the Charlottesville one because I could not wait till November.  Then I did the Marine Corps, so Richmond was put off.  2018, 2019, not sure why I did not sign up, but each year was busier than the year before.

In 2020, I signed up, but it was canceled due to Ro’na and deferred for next three years since for various reasons.  In the end, I ran it as a virtual marathon in 2022, because it could not be deferred for another year. 

I did not get to run on the actual course until now.

2023, I did not sign up since it was conflict with Stone Mill 50, a race I have been doing for four years in a row since 2020. 

2024, this year was my 5th time at Stone Mill.  I thought I would not be able to run in the Richmond Marathon again.  But the way calendar works, Stone Mill was a week ahead or the Richmond Marathon was a week later, so when I checked my schedule, I found I could run it. 

It was just a week after Stone Mill 50. It was fine.  I ran plenty of back to back week of long runs. This is no different.  My pace at Stone Mill was not too fast, so I saved my legs.  My body and legs were ready.

We had a lovely weekend.  By now I know plenty of people, so every I go, I would run into people I know.

We went down the night before to save the early morning trip.  I still woke up at 4.  The race was set to start at 7.  It was not my first time in Richmond, so I know, how to battle against 30,000+ cars seeking a parking spot, by going in two hours before everyone.  By the way, if one is willing to afford staying at a hotel near the start, then theres no need to worry about parking. We stayed at Ashland, which was about 20-30 minutes away, so we did not pay a lot for our hotel.

We arrived at 5:30.  My friend needed to pick up her bib.  They already closed some of the roads.  Lucky for us, we found a street parking on 7th and Cary.  This was near the finish. It was very convenience for us.  Note, the start and finish is not the same, but is maybe a mile apart. I think most parking places, were closer to the start.  They do have shuttles at the end of the race to bus people back to the start.

So after we got our bibs, we went back to the car to wait.  I had to use the potty.  They had plenty at the start.  But I headed to the finish line, thinking there wouldn’t be a line there for the potty. Lucky for me, I found one from a construction place, but that probably not a good idea, because most potty were locked.

Traffic filled Richmond roads as last minute runners arriving trying to find a parking garage.

The sun rose. It was magnificent. Temperature warmed up.  I wore a long sleeve, plus a T-shirt inside. The temperature high was 65F (15C). Many people wore extra jackets, and you could ditch your outer layers at the start on the side of the road. They would donate them afterward.  I love all my shirts, so that never would be my way.  I just tied my shirt around my waist when it got warmer.

A runner, spotted my friend, we took a picture together. By 6:45, we sang the anthem.

Wheel chair division started first.  Soon they let the first wave out.  We stood in the middle on the sidewalk watching runners ran by.  Soon, we saw the 3:30 pacer, then 4:00 hr pacer.  We joined in somewhere before the 4:30 pacer passed. Note, we did not bib mule!  We just did not get into the coral until it was time to set off.  They did not block the sidewalk with fences.

We set off at a brisk pace.  I normally could run a 4:30 marathon, but I knew early on this one was not it. 

Many people passed us by. This marathon, they had a special design on the bib (a bib 1st, sticker)  to indicate a runner is a first time running a marathon. So, I and the crowd started cheering for all the 1st time runner passing us.

The course boasted about being the friendliest marathon.  Indeed there were people cheering us, almost every where.  It was very lively. They had live bands. Even first mile, the adult beverages were laid out, and were labeled as “H20”. This was from private citizens.  However, virginia still has some older laws that prohibit serving alcohol in public. There was one stand that labeled as “Roullete”.  I think every drink is alcoholic. Maybe one is water to make it interesting.

We had aid stations almost every couple miles.  Near the finish, it was an aid station at every mile.  I never felt crowded.  They spaced them on either side of the road.  Each station table was spaced out.  The sport drinks tables were placed farther down.  So, as least for me, the mid-to back of the pack, it was never where we would run into a wall of runners.  And most importantly, they were never out of water.

Some aid stations, had towels, and some stations had gels for us.

For me, I carried a hydration pack.  As an ultra runner, I feel naked without my water pack while out running.  I know I could probably run with just the aid station water.  I carried about 1 L on me.  I still stopped at the aid tables for gels and Nuun, their sport drinks of choice for the day.

I got candies at many places from the crowd.  I had a shot of fireball.  Most of the good stuffs were on the left side of the road or in the median.  I ran usually toward the right side, so I missed out a lot of stops offerred by private citizens. Also, I did not run to the tangent in this race as I have done in many marathons. It might be half a mile different!

It might be I made too many stops, my time was slower than my average. 

By halfway, my pace degraded significantly.  I left my friend to fight for herself.  One had to manage his own race.

Course.  Richmond is not a flat course.  I don’t think it was as hilly as Baltimore, but we had constant ups and downs.  All hills were runnable.  I rarely saw anyone walk on the hills.

The course was scenic.  We ran along side the river somewhere.  We ran through Richmond, then to suburb then back to downtown.  My friend likes the older buildings and platation shutters.  It is a historic place.  We ran through VCU, Virginia Commowealth University. 

Traffic was not an issue for us as it was at Baltimore.  They had police at every intersection and we had whole road to run on most of the time. There was milage sign for every mile.

Marathon started before the half.  I did not have to merge back with the half, since they were (mostly) finished before I got to back to the merge point. I don’t know if the front runners would be running into a wall of half marathon runners.  I saw they do have direction signs to let the half marathon runners know to stay to left side of the road and I guess marathoners run on the right side.  I did  not get to see this in action since everyone around me were marathoners with maybe one or two half marathoners. Half marathon started a bit later but not too late, so it was almost instantaneous.  They also have an 8k event.

The rest of the miles were not interesting.  Maybe at mile 14-15 I met a lady, Kelly.  I was trying to pick up a discarded gel pack, thinking someone had dropped it, then found it was opened.  So I threw it away.  Kelly saw me, and offered hers to me showing she has three or four she just picked up at the aid station.  I thanked her but did not take any since I did just use a gel at the aid station.  We talked.  She was a much faster runner than me so she was off.  Few miles later, I saw a sign held up by some family member, with the name Kellie, I shouted, go Kelly. Kelly replied back, go Antin. Wow, it was the same Kelly, because, who would know my name? I was laughing because by then I had forgotten her and then found her again.

Mile 20 onward was hard.  We crossed a bridge to be back to the city.  The city does not seem to be near.  We directed to run north on Arthur Ashe.  I was wondering when will we every turned back south.  Then aid station came at every mile.  A lady who was pacing her friends (note pacing is not allowed), but here two women were pacing her friend on each side.  She turned to me, giving me some encouraging words, so I had the kick again. I knew them, from since mile 13.  I passed them earlier and now they were passing me back.

I ran on to the finish.  It was downhill.  I turned to my left. It was another woman. She looked older than me but very happy.  She smiled back. We said something, none of us remember, but the crowd was cheering.  I said, lets race to the finish. All out.  We all ran full stides down hill and finished, side by side. 

I was very happy to got in before 5 hour was up. 

We had a lot of swags.  We were offerred our medals and water. My friends from the Happy Trails were serving at the towel and hat stations.  I love my towel. 

Then my friend Caroline finished.  There were others too but we did not get to see them.  We went for the pizza tent and then the beer tent. It was a good day.  So good, I could not remember where I left my phone.  So we spent the next couple hours retracing our steps and stopping by the info and merchandise booths.  In the end, using where-my-phone website, we found it to be in the car.  Haha! It was there the whole time. The day ended well. It was then a long drive home (kind of, we went camping, but that’s another story).