Posts Tagged ‘Blue Ridge Marathon’

I first want to say that I am a stickler for giveaway rules, so for my Blue Ridge Marathon giveaway I put the number 6 into the Random.org widget — it could have been 10 had a couple of the entries followed my requirements correctly.

It’s not a big deal though — I’m glad to see interest in this growing marathon that’s practically in my backyard. If you didn’t win, there are several other blogs out there right now with similar contests for this race. Go find them and enter now!

Random.org picked No. 5 — congrats to “settomusic” who won!

I want to give a special thanks to Pete Eshleman with Roanoke Outside for the opportunity to do a giveaway for this race for the second straight year, and for bringing such a great event to the Roanoke Valley.

The Blue Ridge Marathon is truly a special event — an “instant classic” as I called it — and I can’t wait to rejoin the fun in April after sitting it out this year.

The time to start training for the third annual National College Blue Ridge Marathon on the Parkway in Roanoke, Va., is quickly approaching. I’m here to give you a chance to run it for FREE. Yes, free.

Before you get too excited, be sure you know what you’re entering. The Blue Ridge Marathon has been appropriately given the tagline of “America’s Toughest Road Marathon” with total elevation gain/loss of more than 7,200 feet. That’s running mountains, not hills.

This is by no means a “normal” marathon. Just check out their promo video and you’ll get excited about this.

Before you enter, make sure you’re available to travel to Roanoke, Va., that weekend. The race is Saturday, April 21, 2012, and begins and ends in downtown Roanoke. Visit blueridgemarathon.com for full details about the race and visitroanokeva.com for more details about the city.

You can enter up to two times in the following ways:

• “Like” the Blue Ridge Marathon on Facebook AND leave a comment on their Wall saying: “Running Because I Can sent me, and I’d like to run the Blue Ridge Marathon because ________.” Return to this blog stating that you have left a comment.
• Follow the Blue Ridge Marathon on Twitter AND Tweet: “I want to win the @RunningBecause giveaway for @brm26pt2 because _____.” Return to this blog stating you have tweeted that.

Each option must be a separate comment. If they’re left in the same comment, I will count that as one entry when I do the drawing. I will pick a winner using the random number generator on Random.org at 8 p.m. ET on Dec. 2.

Please leave an accurate email address below so I can contact you. If you are picked as the winner and do not respond within a week, comments related to that email address will be deleted and a new winner will be chosen.

If you have any questions about the giveaway or race, please send me a message on my Contact page.

Good luck!

One of my favorite Dave Matthews Band songs is “Rhyme & Reason,” which has the lyrics “My head won’t leave my head alone.” That’s the way I have felt about choosing a race for next spring. I’ve hinted at a few things in a previous post, but that was only the beginning of some thoughts.

Here are things that have actually crossed my mind — in no real order — and why I have legitimately thought these things:

• Upgrading to the Shamrock Marathon
  At one time this was my most realistic next marathon. Then I went back and re-read a post from March when I missed the race due to my injury: “I’m going back to Virginia Beach next year for the Shamrock Half as a stronger runner, but perhaps more importantly a smarter runner. (Although is saying publicly that I want to break 1:40 being smart?)” The only thing that’s certain right now is that in 4 months I will toe the line of the Shamrock Half. That sub 1:40 goal? We’ll see.
• Charlottesville Marathon
  I’ve had this race in the back of my mind for a while. The timing of it actually would work well too. If I did this, the Shamrock Half would be the ceremonious ending to training as I tapered for this race, which is April 7. It definitely makes sense to choose this marathon, but the $90 price tag for a smaller marathon makes me hesitate a bit. However, it’s proximity to me offsets any travel costs.
• Marine Corps Marathon
  After I signed up for Baltimore and then had time to think about what I had done, I wished I had made the snap decision a month earlier and signed up for MCM. Hindsight is 20/20, though, so now I’m setting my sites on March 7 — the signup day for the 2012 Marine Corps Marathon. That, of course, is subject to change.
• Cleveland Marathon
  I had a realization on my recent Ohio trip — I use a lot of my vacation time visiting my in-laws. So why not turn a trip to Ohio into something more? How about a spring marathon (May 20) in Ohio? Right now this scenario has an edge over Charlottesville.
• Glass City Marathon
  It’s funny how things I’ve never heard of seem to make their appearance several times over a few days on my Twitter feed. Toledo is known as the Glass City? Never heard that. A marathon in Toledo? It turns out this is a pretty popular marathon in Ohio earlier in the spring (April 22). It also has a respectable price tag, but I’d have to say right now from a timing standpoint this is the least likely of the races I’d chose in the spring.
• Ragnar Relay
  I can’t even begin to explain my thoughts about this. I would love to participate in a Ragnar Relay. At this point, there are a lot of logistics I need to work out for any of them to become realistic. And if the stars aligned, most of these other things besides Shamrock won’t happen. Simply put, a Ragnar Relay would be THE highlight of 2012.
• Blue Ridge Marathon
  I’ve thought about this marathon, yes, but it’s nowhere near realistic thoughts. I’d really like to do the half again after missing it this year and seeing if I can beat my time from a couple of years ago when I didn’t really race it. This race is April 21, which would be a nice follow-up to the Shamrock Half, similar to what I did 2 years ago.
• Richmond Marathon
  As usual, Richmond has the temptation of a lower entry fee for next year through this Thursday. It’s my home away from home race course, and I would love to go back there for a third time and break 4 hours. My biggest hold up from taking advantage of the price is my desire to do the Marine Corps Marathon.

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Back in April, I wrote a post titled “The final disappointment” about missing the Blue Ridge Half Marathon in Roanoke — it was sort of the final thing that I couldn’t do because of my ITB injury.

Today on my lunch run with a few co-workers, we did a point-to-point run from the top of the mountain back to our office. I didn’t talk about today, but doing this run felt more important to me than any of my PRs have this year. I really enjoyed running in the mountains the first half of last year — there’s a huge sense of accomplishment of going both up and down a mountain.

I mean, really … it’s a mountain. It’s not a hill. It’s a mountain. Say what you want about this being the downhill part of the mountain, but 2 miles downhill is brutal. My quads were on fire at the bottom.

The great thing about this was keeping a steady pace in the second half of the run that looks flat, but certainly wasn’t.

I’ll be climbing a mountain again eventually, but I believe that the importance of going downhill is bigger than uphill. Downhill is when the pain started in October, plus it’s really hard on the legs on longer downhills. Plus the Baltimore Marathon has a downhill finish — running down mountains certainly will help prepare for that.

Just like yesterday with two great runs and passing 100 miles for this month, today is yet another milestone in my training journey this summer. Now I need all the pieces to come together to avoid a repeat of this past weekend’s long run.

I’ve stayed quiet about this, but I should be running a half marathon this weekend. Last year’s “Instant Classic” of the Blue Ridge Half Marathon is taking place this weekend in Roanoke. The marathon portion of the race promises to be even tougher than last year and, quite honestly, I was hoping to run the full marathon.

Well, the history has been written and I’m not running either race this weekend. I hate it. I really do. But instead of sitting a pool of disappointment, I have to look at how far I’ve come. Being obsessed with numbers, my weekly mileage on Daily Mile really popped out to me this week.

In the several weeks following the Richmond Marathon, here’s how my mileage looked:

After getting things going again in January and slowly building my mileage, and then having a brief illness in February, the last several weeks have been pretty awesome with getting consistent again.

Over the next few weeks, I’d like to get closer to 20 miles, hit 20 miles, get a little over 20 miles and then just keep going during training for the Baltimore Marathon. That marathon, by the way, is six months from tomorrow. Then six months after that … well … I sure hope it’s not another blog post like this.

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest to win an entry to the Blue Ridge Marathon in Roanoke, Va., in April. The winner, thanks to Random.org, was the fifth comment out of 14. It came from Anita F.

It’s very fitting that Anita won — she’s lived in Roanoke for about seven years, has done about 40 marathons and more than 100 ultramarathons.

In an email earlier this week Anita wrote this to me: “I love Roanoke and am thrilled that we have a marathon here now, especially one so beautiful and challenging.”

Dare I say she makes this marathon look easy come April? Best of luck to you Anita.

As for me and that race, I would love to make it my next marathon, but I cannot commit to it yet with the knee issues.

Last spring I called the Blue Ridge Half Marathon an “instant classic” and it appears many others had twice as much fun doing the full marathon that day. Well, the second National College Blue Ridge Marathon on the Parkway is coming around in April and I’m here to give you a chance to run it for FREE. Yes, free.

Before you get too excited, be sure you know what you’re entering. Next year’s race is being dubbed as “America’s Toughest Road Marathon.” The 2011 course includes 3,620 feet of total elevation gain and 7,234 feet of total elevation change. That’s 600 additional feet of elevation gain compared to the inaugural race. This is by no means a “normal” marathon. And before you enter, make sure you’re available to travel to Roanoke, Va., that weekend. The race is Saturday, April 16, 2011. Visit blueridgemarathon.com for full details.

You can enter up to three times in the comments section below. The first way is to leave a comment. Any comment. Say “hi.” Say “I want to run this race.” Say anything. It will count as one entry. The second way to enter is to become a “fan” of the Blue Ridge Marathon on Facebook and then leave a comment below telling me you’re a fan. (If you’re already a fan, that’s fine; just let me know below.) The third way is to follow @brm26pt2 on Twitter and then leave a comment below telling me you’re following that account. (If you’re already following, that’s fine too; just let me know below.)

I will pick a winner using the random number generator on Random.org at 8 p.m. ET on Nov. 30. Good luck!

Note: Please leave an accurate email address below so I can contact you. Comments without an email address will be deleted immediately. If you are picked as the winner and do not respond within a week, comments related to that email address will be deleted and a new winner will be chosen.

Just after I got to mile 13 today, I saw my wife and son cheering me on. I saw a big smile on his face … I looked behind me to see no one near me … and scooped him up. Finishing the last little bit of today’s Lynchburg Half Marathon with him was special — something I won’t soon forget. I can’t wait until he can do his first kids race.

As for the rest of the race, I did what I wanted to do — a sub 4-hour marathon pace. I haven’t widely broadcast what I want to do for the Richmond Marathon, but less than 4 hours is my goal right now. So I went into today’s event with the mindset of this being a solid long training run. While I would have liked to have been around 1:50, my finishing time was 1:55:38. There’s really no need for a mile-by-mile recap because everything was pretty steady. Except for one thing.

The biggest issue with getting slowed down was a HUGE hill about three-quarters of a mile long — and it wasn’t really the uphill that caused the issue. Coming back down the hill kind of just killed the whole run. After the bottom of the hill, there were a little more than 3 miles to go. I just couldn’t go. I just settled into a pace a little more than 9 minutes a mile and eased to the end.

To put this hill into perspective, I have mapped this big hill and the middle miles of the race on Daily Mile. This rest of the Lynchburg Half is mostly flat, with some gradual hills along a bike path next to the James River. (For anyone new to my blog, this course has changed drastically from three years ago when it was a mostly flat race. I had NO IDEA that this hill was this big, despite what people told me.)

From a racing standpoint, this just wasn’t that great of an experience. From a training standpoint, it was actually a really good run. I’m not going to complain about it; I’m just going to move on from it. I learned some lessons today about hills — I may run on them every day, but I need to learn to work them better and not let them work me. I think I’ve become too used to them. I smell a hill repeat workout soon.

On a side note, today was the 10th half marathon I have completed since the summer of 2006, and my third this year. The past two experiences — this one with the hill and the Blue Ridge Half in April — have really taught me to respect this distance more than I already did. My other eight half marathon experiences have been mostly flat, including six half marathons at Virginia Beach. Experiences like today and in April are eye opening and why I want to keep going. It makes training for my second marathon all the more worthwhile.

I’ve probably had this headline before, or something very similar. As with any given race — whether good or bad — the question of “What’s next?” always comes up quickly, whether or not I want it to.

After Saturday’s race, I feel great. My calves were a bit sore yesterday, and overall I can feel that I’m a bit tired, but all in all I can’t complain. It’s amazing to come away from that mountain adventure feeling like this. There’s a big part of me that wants to reflect on the Blue Ridge Half and think about what I could have done differently, but I won’t. It was a first-time event, I enjoyed myself, I did all I really knew how to do being unfamiliar with the course and that’s it. It will remain an “instant classic” and a race I will do again next year if all the pieces are in the right place.

For now, I have to focus on the next five days — completing my streak of running every day in the month of April. I think I’m going to fall just shy of 100 miles for the month, but I’ll certainly put some effort into hitting that mark. I’m not going to log miles for the sake of logging miles, but I’ll do as I’ve done all month — I’ll do what feels right. If it feels right to have a long run this week, I’ll do it; if not, I’m not going to risk injury. I’ve learned a lot about myself in these 26 consecutive days of running and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next four days have to offer.

Every so often in the running journey, there are particular runs or races that come along that are life-changers. They’re the type of runs you look back on years from now as events that helped define who you are as a runner. For me, I have a few moments that stand out before I started blogging — my first race comes to mind, as does my first long-distance race in the Virginia 10 Miler in 2006. Since I started writing three years ago, I haven’t had too many of those moments. Besides the marathon in 2007, nothing is worth talking about. That is, until January of this year.

In late January, I had my first-ever mountain run. That run set the tone for the rest of the winter. If it wasn’t for that run, other things with my running wouldn’t have fallen into place. I most likely wouldn’t have gotten out in the snow as much as I did; my streak of 10-mile runs wouldn’t have been nearly as long; and all that would have translated into another disappointing Shamrock Half Marathon. I credit that run to leading to my PR in the half and to last week’s 5K PR … and to tackling what I did today: the first-ever Blue Ridge Half Marathon in Roanoke.

The experience of this half is just unbelievable. After a relatively flat mile, the next two-plus miles were uphill. As in straight uphill. As in, you have to live near the mountains to appreciate a hill like this. Timing wise, I kind of messed up — at mile one, I hit stop instead of lap, so I missed exactly what the second mile was. Two of the first three miles were in 19:40; my friend Travis called out about a 9-minute mile when we got to the second mile. We intentionally started slow, knowing what was about to come. We even did some power walking at some point to keep things fresh. It was funny to watch people pass us the few times we walked only to pass them again a minute later.

I've worn this hat for my last two half marathons. Maybe it's bringing me some good luck.

Somehow, though, going uphill, we pushed along pretty well. Fortunately mile 4 had a nice downhill … only to have to make a turn right back up the hill we glided down. Mile 4: 8:33. The next mile was by far the toughest of the race. Straight uphill toward the Roanoke Star. This mile included some walking as well, helping me feel completely in control. Had I forced myself to run, I honestly wouldn’t have made it to the end. This was not a race against the clock, but rather a true test of endurance to finish in one piece. That mile was in 11:05. Early in the race, I said it would be awesome if we could do the first five miles in a less than 10-minute pace. Do that and we can nail this race in less than 2 hours, a quiet goal that I had.

After just a little more incline, we made the turn for the best view of the race at the Star, took my time drinking some water and even grabbed a couple of pretzels for the journey down the mountain. I also touched a small alligator that someone was holding from the nearby Mill Mountain Zoo. YES, I touched an alligator during a half marathon. How awesome is that?

And then it was on.

Mile 6 was in 8:06; mile 7 was in 7:24; and mile 8 was in 8:09. Those three miles were a bit slower than I expected, but I was quite shocked at how much I actually had to hold myself back on the decline to stay in control. By the time we made it to the bottom of the mountain, I could feel some cramps in my lower legs and even in my lower back just a bit — the mountain had certainly taken it’s toll, but we kept going.

While the course elevation map looked flat, the last five miles were not — considering the literal mountain we had to climb and descend, of course it would seem like the streets of Roanoke would be flat. It was more of the rolling hills variety, but after the first 8 miles, the little up and down hills were hurting by this point. Mile 9 was in 8:39 and mile 10 was in 9:02, which included a small walk up a hill.

With 5K to go, when I would normally have a push in a half marathon, I had nothing left to give. I just kept it steady, finishing the race with miles of 8:58, 9:03, 8:52 and a final tenth in 52 seconds. My chip time was 1:57:39, finishing 117th out of 450 runners and 93rd out of 216 males. (Travis had some fuel left at the end and finished in 1:56:01.)

When I crossed the finish line, I immediately had this new feeling of respect for the sport of running. Besides my one and only marathon, the difficulty level of this easily surpassed any road race I have ever done. This doesn’t touch the heat I experienced in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in August 2008. There were times today in which I really second-guessed what I was doing. I was never vocal about it and I knew that the uphill climb wouldn’t last forever. There were other times after going up and down the mountain that I just wanted to slow down. I wanted to revert back to the way running was just six months ago — I just wanted to slip down to a lower gear and log the miles and just finish.

Oddly enough, I never felt like I had to dig too deep to get those thoughts out of my head. When I had a negative thought, I could void it out quickly. I thought about how two years ago today was the worst day ever in my career and that I wouldn’t let this April 24 be a story about a bad race experience. I thought about all these people out there who called us runners crazy for doing this today. Tell me, please, what’s so crazy about reaching a mountain top?

This race is an instant classic in my running journey. How it changes me will take a while to figure out, but I just know that after today I am a new runner.