It all began when we checked into the hotel Friday night and they told me they no longer had the room I booked, so they put us in the executive suite. This room was great and had a spectacular view of the James river, bridges, trains, etc... all things my 2-year son thoroughly enjoyed!
I had no idea what to expect with this race as the website was not very descriptive. I brought both my trail and road shoes to the start and started asking people what is was like who did it in prior years and in no time, I immediately strapped on the trail shoes. Also, I heard last year they cut 4 miles out of the race because of the heat. Really??? If you are running in Richmond in June shouldn't you expect it to be hot??
Well HOT is was, and HUMID and HILLY. This course was tough and it was a blast! I started off a little too quick and backed off after the first couple of miles because I could just feel this was going to be a tough one. About two miles in we climbed "Mayan steps" which were these steep steps about 2' high each and were made of railroad ties. My quads just burned after that. Moving along, we hit this park that was up and down the entire way, it was loop 1 of 2 and that first loop felt it took forever. I was downing fluids like crazy. I was pretty much walking up the hills to save any energy I had left. Thank goodness the 2nd loop wasn't as bad. I just kept telling myself to stick to my nutrition and I'll get through it.
As we got through the 2nd loop, we were running along on some flats and than had to run across this huge river bed of rocks. It was gorgeous and once we got to the other side, we had to climb a small ladder that still zapped more energy out of me. Back into more trails for a while than for some more fun, had to take the ramps up to a high bridge to cross over the rest of the river, down the ramps and than to the finish.
So for 12.5 miles (almost a 21k) it took 2:27 (11:47 pace). Although I was 27 out of 31 in my age group, this race was more survival than anything. I drank over 1/2 gallon of fluids, had 3 gu's and 5 endurlytes. No cramping, just a steady effort.
After the race, we lined Thomas up for his first kids race. That was fun. Although he didn't run as much as the bigger kids, he did cross the finish line on his own.
The rest of the weekend was spend exploring Richmond and enjoying it with the family. This one goes on the calendar for next year!
No comments:
Post a Comment